Tough Mudder Memoire 2014

So because we had all done previous  Tough Mudders, we got to become Legionnaires. This is the first year they’ve implemented it and I LOVED IT. Basically if you’ve done a Mudder before, you’re considered a leader and are expected to not only help your first Time Mudders, but to endure a little more during certain sections than the First timers.

In this case, the kiss of mud. For the first time Mudders, it’s a field of mud you crawl through, while barb wire is over you, ready to catch at clothes, hair or even skin if you’re unlucky. For us Legionnaires, we got all that, plus an extra 20 feet of it, and the thickest, stickiest mud I have ever encountered in my life. And I’ve dealt with clay mud before.

My husband starts crawling next to me and at first it’s not so bad, there’s enough water in the first part thanks to the rain that I’m almost floating, pulling myself along on my forearms. I couldn’t go hands and knees because I didn’t want my back to get caught on something. But about a third of the way in, there’s a bolder in the way and I have to shimmy over to the other crawl path, my husband letting me slid in front of him. (insert obligatory nice butt comments here, he certainly said a fair share of them). At half way the water is gone and I’m crawling through mud while my leg cramps but I can manage it. But that last third… unholy. It’s not water, and it’s not slickly packed mud. It’s like TAR. And deep enough that I can’t actually reach the bottom to get a grip, or the sides even, and too thick to swim through. I suddenly know how the mosquito in amber feels. But I perservered, grabbing the boards and dodging the barb wire to pull myself along on my side, getting out so my brother could help my husband (who it turns out was having an easier time than me because he’s so tall he could reach the bottom). When I say this was thick mud, I mean it. I had trouble STANDING UP afterwards because I was so laden down with it. And I can carry another human being! But I loved it. I loved the sense that I had the energy to do it, all while I was cracking jokes and helping people, and that I figured out a way to help myself even when I had to improvise. It is definitely up there in my favourites list.