After 3 days in Atlanta, I am headed back to Sacramento for the last time before my trip to New Zealand, having accomplished the last of my "time off" goals: with the help of a great team, I competed in and completed Georgia's Tough Mudder race on Saturday!!! Over thirteen miles of mud running, obstacles, and straight forward HELL! I can't even sugar coat this--I am so happy that all of the people I tried to talk into this refused my offer, otherwise I would feel great guilt for their pain...The race started off normally, about 100 racers in our heat taking off after the national anthem, trotting through the woods, smiling, joking, anticipating. Then we hit our first obstacle, a cold river we had to wade across twice--no biggy, invigorating. Next, crawling hands and knees through pipes partially submerged in water that the twisted course designers ADDED ICE CUBES TO! Did I mention it was only 55 degrees at that time? But the adrenaline was pumping and we were doing this thing. The next two miles were intermittent hills and obstacles, obstacles including crawling under barbed wire, a water filled smoke house, through mud under nets, climbing steep mud hills, and others I can't remember. Then started the endless miles (seven, i think) through the woods up and down steep trail hills with tight switchbacks, so steep that the 4x4 aid vehicles couldn't have traversed them. I passed many, including two twenty something guys in tutus (the doublemint twins were my favorites) and was passed by many, including a woman twenty years my senior. Somewhere in there was a log carry. My left knee started to protest at mile 7, And when I arrived at the log carry, none of my teammates was around to share the weight with. Not much I could do, I picked one up and shuffled the quarter mile mandated, then dropped it and hit the hills again. I'm not going to lie, I really wanted to quit. After the woods was still four more miles of obstacles, including climbing over walls, greased monkey bars, smoke filled fire lined run, balance beam, a death march over more hills, and then a repeat of the first two mile loop, holy shit. After mile 10, I couldn't run anymore, my knee and hips hurt so badly. When we finally got to the last two challenges, I was so giddy to see the finish line, I didn't care anymore and certainly had no fear, which was good considering what these challenges were. First, run up a thirty foot platform (God, I hate heights), then jump in the freezing lake below and swim to the far shore. The key? Don't stop to think, something I seem to do well these days. ;). So I do this and come up for air after jumping in the lake. Problem. Water in my nose, and then in my mouth as the displaced lake water went in with my first breath. I kept trying to cough and clear my airway while paddling to stay above water, unsuccessfully. :(. Remember, this is the end of the race--I'm exhausted and this is not good. Finally, one of the lifeguards tosses me a rope and pulls me to shore. At that point, there was no macho part of me that would refuse that rope! I get to shore, and the finish line is right there...I just have to run through twenty feet of hanging electrical wire first! I am now shivering cold, starving, dehydrated, hit my wall three or four miles ago, so I just start to run, no thinking. After the first few shocks though I just froze in the midst of the wires, I couldn't take it anymore. "Go, go!" people shouted, and my last push got me across the finish. It was so demanding I just wanted to cry... It took me thirty minutes to stop shivering violently. Our entire team finished, including a team member who twisted his knee after mile one, our time just over four hours. We were later told that this was the toughest Tough Mudder yet. Part of me actually felt a sense of failure at the time because I did want to quit at the end and by then it was no longer fun for me. Today, I realize exactly what I accomplished, what fears I overcame, what pain I pushed through and I am proud to be a 37 year old Tough Mudder chic! And I was so glad to do it with such a great team--the people of "Kick A$$, Take Names" are the best! I am looking forward to sharing this experience with them again for the Tampa TM in December! That is if I can ever walk again--still a little gimpy today.;). For more details, "Like" Tough Mudder on Facebook and see the photos from the event. And call me if you are crazy enough to join us for the next one!!
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