Well, this past Saturday I did the Tough Mudder in Whistler Olympic Park. My friends and I all went up on Friday night to relax, hot tub, have a good healthy dinner and get to bed early to prepare for the next day. What really happened was we got there early, had some dinner, hot tubbed, started playing cards, then started drinking, then got a noise complaint and went to be about midnight or 1am!
Friday night the rain came down in buckets, it poured from 10pm until 3 or 4am. I slept until maybe 5 or 530, probably had at least one hour of solid sleep! Every time I woke up I jumped out of bed to look outside. No idea why probably nerves.
The old people (myself and my friend Selina) were up early so went over to Starbucks. I was too nervous to sit still for long in one place! We ended up cooking breakfast in my room (6 of us rented a 3 bedroom condo at Creekside! Pretty sweet set up), everyone was nervous, excited, myself terrified.
Tough Mudder wanted all participants at the site 2 hours ahead of time. We jumped on the organized school bus at 10am for our ride up, everyone was excited and there was an electric/excited feeling in the air! We get dropped off and start a 1 or 1.5 km trek to the registration/start line. After you pick up your package (number, drink ticket, etc) you got your bib number written on your forehead and leg/arm, check in your bag and watch people start/come across the finish line until your heat starts.
We decided at noon to just go line up and started with the 1215pm heat instead of 1230pm heat. To get to the start line you had to climb over an 8 foot wall, where I got my first (of very many) bruise. You get seriously charged up at the start line! The have an MC at the start line (same guy at all of the Tough Mudders) that gets everyone chanting HOO-YAH, WHEN I SAY TOUGH, YOU SAY MUDDER, TOUGH MUDDER! etc. We were LOUD! Then, the anthem us sung and off we go! We did a 1 mile or so run up switch backs until our first three obstacles. I'm sure I'll be getting the order wrong, it all seemed to just happen and I'm still processing the event in my brain (and trying to clean all of the mud off me!)
The first obstacle was Kiss of Mud, you had to crawl under barb wires in mud, and this isn't some wimpy mud, its about5 or 6 inches deep (maybe more) and gets into everywhere! Anyone on our team that came out clean got hugs from those of us covered in mud. The next obstacle (I think) was the Arctic Enema. You go from getting super muddy to colder then you've possibly been in your life! As soon as I got in my throat closed, then you had to duck your head the water (my head hit a few giant blocks of ice). As soon as my head came up I started yelling I needed help out, the first aid guy there was over in a second, told me where to put my feet and had one of my teammates help pull me out. That one screwed me up for at least 15 minutes!
The next obstacle was the Devil's Beard, a cargo net on top of a huge pile of snow! you can either walk behind someone (which I did) or crawl along the snow. After that, you run again, to the first set of Berlin Walls (I might be missing an obstacle!). Our group was fantastic! There were two walls and everyone helped everyone over the walls. Teamwork was key for this obstacle (as well as most). I also received a number of odd shaped bruises at this one (I think it was this one). Lets just say that Berlin Walls aren't the most comfortable thing to sit on for any length of time!
After that, water! I was never so excited to see a water station in any of my other races!
After the water station we were running again. Here's where everything gets foggy for me! I know there was more elevation gains, more freezing water, snow, climbs but I need to process more to remember! We were on the course for many hours and the middle is a blur!
More to come.
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