My Tough Mudder Memoire

There was a hill decent at this point, many around us jogging and running down the hill in exuberance and quite a few falling and rolling a little in the process. But I had spied the climb we still had to do once we reached the bottom so my enthusiasm was short lived. That and there were these random trenches throughout the hills to try and dodge while climbing and descending, making me weary of turning my ankle or finding the one gopher hole they hadn’t covered… We made it to the bottom of the hill without me actually breaking anything and found Obstacle #14 Log Jammin : Jump over and crawl under large logs strewn across the course. I actually had a lot of fun with this one, once again because I love to climb and play. I scaled over, rolled under and climbed through the logs and barbed wire quickly and easily and made it to the other side grinning.

Only to lose my smile the MOMENT I saw the hill we had to climb up. Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!?! Like before I would climb to a point, stop and catch my breath, climb to the next point, pause for 10 seconds and then keep going. I ate that hill with every step and at the top waited for Juli, using the time as a shameless opportunity to stretch out tired muscles. This was where those TUMS Mike kept popping up out of nowhere to give me really paid off. They helped my body not cramp because they neutralized the acid in my gut, and seemed to help the lactic acid in my muscles too. Many others around me were having massive calf cramps, fully muscle seizures and generally starting to drop like flies. Perfect time for another downhill, now no one was happy to see it because we all knew this meant more uphill later!

By the time we made it to the downhill, I knew to expect another obstacle and they did not disappoint. Obstacle #15 Berlin Walls 2 : Scale two 9’ wooden walls with the help of your teammates. Oh yeah, they made this second set of wall climbs EVEN TALLER than the first set. Thank you for that one! Juli and I got me over that first wall but the second one was looking impossible. So I pointed at a group of muscled guys and asked if I could steal one, hearing my boyfriend laugh his ass off as he cheered from the sides. Not many men are comfortable with their girlfriend asking a half naked, muddy, muscled and gorgeous man to manhandle her over a wall, but Mike knew I just needed a boostie. Surprisingly getting up the wall was only half the battle, as getting off of it was as daunting. There was no comfy landing pad to aim for, just grass and dirt. I had made it over the other one without killing myself and for some reason had a moment of cockiness that pushed me to land with panache this time around. So when I jumped off, I landed and did a shoulder roll like I was taught in parkour. Too bad there was a rock I rolled right over, that didn’t feel like kisses from kittens!