Utah Tough Mudder 2012

As you know, since I've been talking about it for a long time now, yesterday I was able to take part in the Tough Mudder Event.
* Warning - this post is long and full of pictures AND videos! You have been warned! *

* Seriously - this could quite possibly be the LONGEST blog post EVER! * (at least for me)

It was tough. It was Muddy. I don't think it could count as the hardest thing I've ever done... Actually as I'm thinking about it I really can't think of what really IS the hardest thing I've ever done. Physically or Mentally... Maybe moving to Russia when I was 16 for mentally hard, but it wasn't really physically hard. I guess physically Tough Mudder might be up there in difficulty, but it didn't really push me to my limits. I'll have to think about that because I am not sure what "THE HARDEST THING" for me has been...

On Friday I said "My main goal is to conquer most of the obstacles without assistance" and if that word 'most' is taken into account - then I definitely did it! I only fell on ONE obstacle!

We met up and left at 7:30 to get out to the Event Site an hour before our 9:20 start time. Checked in and they wrote our number on our forehead. I wasn't too excited about that, for some reason I don't like having things written on my forehead!

It was COLD! As the sun was coming up it was getting better though. Jumped over the 6 or 7 ft wall to get into the start area and listened to the intro rules and everything by the course MC. Cool guy.

Then we counted down and started the course!

Here's a map so you can follow along!

Since there was so many people it really took a bit to get moving and then we made it to the first obstacle - "Kiss of Mud"

Next was one of the most dreaded Obstacles - "Arctic Enema" I know - it's a horrible name. It used to be called "Chernobyl Jacuzzi" -  but I think somebody must have complained, so now it has the even worse Enema appellation.  Anyway - I held my camera and videoed the experience so you could see it too!!

About to jump in!

Next were "Berlin Walls" (part one) which were about 8-10 ft tall walls you had to get up and over. Twice. Easy Peasy - seriously, if I had to choose a workout to best prepare, muscle-ups have been the best preparation for most of this stuff. These walls were EASY.

We ran for a while past Mile 2 (Only 10 more to go!)

and hit the next obstacle - "Bale Bonds" - big rolls of hay to climb over.

The 5th obstacle was "Hold Your Wood" which was probably my least favorite event. We took a GIANT and heavy log, and I have bruises from where it dug into my shoulders, along with wrist problems from holding the log with our team mates and coordinating the effort. Yikes!

Next was another Kiss of Mud, then we ran to King of the Mountain... which was just a pile of large hay bales.

Next up - "Trench Warfare" some pretty tight tunnels with a turn in the middle that made it pitch black in the middle. They dug out the trenches, then covered them with boards, dirt, and a TON of dead animal carcasses and bones! It was pretty cool - but could be really difficult for people if it went on much longer. As it was I saw a few that couldn't do it.

Trench Warfare was followed by the "Dirty Ballerina" which was a lot of fun. You could probably get a good enough start to jump over the muddy water pits/trenches, but it worked best if you jumped far into the water and immediately slapped your hands onto the other side and vaulted out. Often we'd jump in and out and turn around to help out our fellow Mudders. Great sense of camaraderie!

After twinkle-toeing our way across the muddy trenches, "Lumber Jacked" where you just jump over some big logs that are set at varying heights. The tallest was about 5 feet... so not too difficult. But lots of opportunity for scrapes on the rough bark (similar issues back in Carry Your Wood!)

Then there was the first of my 2 least favorite obstacles. The "Electric Eel."  Eels are something I very much dislike (But love to eat! Yum!) and apparently my body does not like excess electricity. In this obstacle you crawl under barbed wire like "Kiss of Mud" but in this there is more water, and dangling electrical wires. I made it halfway through before I got my first jolt, and I about cracked my jaw in the clench that resulted. Got shocked 2 more times on the way out - feels like somebody hit me in the brain with a hammer. Yeah I didn't like it. Especially since I started to exit the obstacle with my hand in a puddle and got shocked about five more times. Blech. Still - I could handle this as an obstacle again - it wasn't THAT bad. I still didn't like it much.

"Balls to the Wall" was next - Fun but not too difficult LARGE Plywood wall with ropes up and down.

Waiting in Line to climb up the ropes!

Up next we had the chance to do a "Mud Mile" Which wasn't really a mile - but it was a lot of fun! This is one of the obstacles that really required team work and help - and it was fantastic!

Nice and muddy and fantastic!

"Boa Constrictor" was next - they did a good job with some tight tunnels! You slide down into a pit of water with barbed wire over your head, then back up another tight tube. This may or may not be my hand from the official FB pictures :)

"Berlin Walls" (part two) came next - THIS one was awesome. There was a similar wall at Cahoots, but it was busy and I didn't have time to mess around with it - but THIS time I wanted to do it on my own. 12' walls with a little lip down at the bottom - I made it no problem when I really tried. Just had to step quickly off the lip and not try to step ON the lip.

"Cliffhanger" was next - they had music at this, and it was a lot of fun. Big 4 ft deep water pit at the bottom of a steep muddy wall with a cargo net. Not too hard. There were more steep hills right after a few other obstacles - these without the nets took a bit more teamwork - and this was where our guys excelled. They may not have been the fastest or the flashiest at finishing obstacles (well... Justin and I were pretty awesome at the obstacles!) but they were good at helping others get up the tough parts!

Next up - one I was particularly excited about - "Funky Monkey!" I wanted to conquer this one - because I'm pretty good at pullups now, and I didn't want this to beat me. It didn't. It was actually too easy. Still - I want one in my back yard!

Yeah! Easy as pie! Fun too!

Team INCONCEIVABLE!

Finally we came to the one obstacle that humbled me a little. I didn't make it across. "Just The Tip" is a big sheet of plywood with two boards at foot and chest level on it, 5 feet deep water pit below. The first 3rd of the wall had normal boards about an inch thick, then the next 3rd was skinner, about half an inch,then it was back to the normal size. I made it about halfway and I couldn't do it anymore. If you look up Just the Tip on YouTube - a lot of them don't have the water pit - and in most of the videos people do it by grabbing on the top, or just climbing up to the top and getting across that way. Huh. I could have done that - but I want to be able to do it the right way!! So yeah, failed on that one - but I did say MOST so I'm not too unhappy.

Being the Piratey type of guy that I am - I have no problems with anything called "Walk the Plank" although really I'm more used to bein the one MAKING others walk the plank, not walking it meself! Hopefully one of the team members who had a spectator recording had video or pictures of this - if so I'll either add it in here or post it separately. This was a lot of fun. I didn't do anything too fancy - just a spread eagle type jump followed by a straight-legged plunge to the very bottom of the 15 foot pit. One thing I do have to learn - is how to keep my nose from filling with water without plugging it! (I fell in the Great Salt Lake when I was 3 that messed up my sinuses for swimming - had to wear one of those nose plugs until I was a teenager!) After resurfacing I was fine, but my body was panicking for about 30 seconds trying to re-regulate breathing and sinus clarity... so weird to be fully aware and fine mentally but your body is in a panic...

Second to last was one of the other obstacles I was both looking forward to and slightly dreading. "Everest" - I really wanted to be able to do this one on my own without help. Having watched videos and seen pictures and seen how many people CAN'T do this without help - I know that once people finally get up they are very willing and eager (often tooooo willing and eager!) to help people conquer Everest. I figured if I did have a problem doing it on my own it would be because people were trying so hard to help. At the same time - I did want to have help if I needed it, and having never done something like this before... I had no idea. From watching American Ninja Warrior and various other Freerunning and Parkour Training vids (like this one from DemonDrills) I thought I would be able to handle it. So I started running, and had no problems at all getting up and adequately grabbing the top to pull myself up (AGAIN - hooray for muscle-up training! Seriously helpful!) BUT like I feared, immediately a couple of well-meaning Mudders started trying to grab and pull me up. I told 'em I was fine, and pulled myself up, then went to be ready to help my team - telling the same people who tried to help me that it was fine to be ready, but the next guy (Justin who I trained with a lot for this, and who (like me honestly) was more ready for this than the others on our team) probably wouldn't need (or want!!) help - so he did it fine too. Booyah! Such a good feeling to be capable of that stuff. I REALLY hope somebody got a picture of that!

Here's a picture of one of our teammates - a great, but short member of our team finally making it up Everest. This was difficult for a lot of people! I'm in blue reaching down grabbing him to pull him up!

Finally was my least favorite obstacle. "Electroshock Therapy" - I really didn't like this one that much. As of right now if I were to have the option of doing a Mudder again I wouldn't because of this one obstacle. In a couple of months- maybe I'd answer differently - but looking at pictures of that makes me hurt. Hammers on Brains. Ouchies.  Here's a video of kind-of what it was like. In all these videos the sound isn't great because there was too much mud in the mic! I think it's permanently damaged now actually... HA.

Why am I doing this again?

12 Miles, 21 Obstacles (plus a few minor ones thrown in there), lots of fun. Plenty of Pain. Overall I really enjoyed the Tough Mudder. I wish it hadn't ended on an obstacle I really didn't like - but that's just how it goes. Like they said at the beginning of the race and on a few signs throughout "Don't Whine! Kids Whine!" So I guess I should stop whining about it! :)

At least I stayed true to the "NO QUIT IN HERE!" mantra! And I got my Orange Headband:

And they got lots of muddy shoes! Not mine though! I kept mine. They've been through too much with me this year! They also got lots of money. This race was expensive!!

Next year I might try the Spartan Race instead. It's the same weekend, and there is a deal on it right now. We'll see!! Either way - I'm excited for more challenges!

This one was ultimately FANTASTIC!

Fall Dirty Dash!

Friday morning I made it to the early morning Yoga class. Afterwards I had a nice meditative climb on the climbing wall using the auto belay.

I REALLY like Friday mornings because of those 2 opportunities.

Throwing in Crossfit Friday afternoon is normally a nice cherry on top, (although really a strawberry would be better, yum!) but because the instructor wasn't in and I had a busy work load, I didn't do anything in the afternoon. Plus I didn't want to be too dead for Saturday!!

In June we ran the Dirty Dash and had some awesome pictures taken by my younger brother. We entered those pics into a Facebook contest and both of us won entries to the Fall Dirty Dash.

Saturday was the fall Dirty Dash!

We made it up with enough time to try to win a free stay at a really posh hotel in a Wheelbarrow race, came in close second. We might have been able to win but our camera was banging around all over the place and we broke the strap. Whoops!

We took off at a good pace and got ahead of the crowd (our 10:20 wave was the largest wave with LOTS of people!) and finished the entire 5.5ish mile course in just over an hour and a half! Not too shabby! Now normally you don't do this for speed, but since we were a small team of two, we still had fun and pushed ourselves.
PICTURES!!

Yes... it was a blast! Next time we do one though, we will FORCE some people to do it with us. We definitely have a lot of fun with just the two of us - but we would love to share it with a bigger group and go crazy!

Oh... and I didn't wear socks with my shoes... bad idea:

OUCH! Ugly feet too! Double OUCH!

I'm hoping to be mostly healed for the Zions trip the day after tomorrow!! Today it still hurts to walk with  my feet covered...

The Dirty Dash was the second to last planned race of the year! All that's left is the TOUGH MUDDER in two and a half weeks!

Rest Days?!

Wednesday's Yoga class at work is always harder than normal because my work team goes out to eat for lunch every Wednesday. As part of our Primal lifestyle... if I eat out, I basically get steak or ribs or something like that (YUM what a horrible diet ha!) so that heaviness really makes Yoga more difficult!
That night I decided I needed to go on a run since it has been a while since I've hit the trails and I felt like I needed it - so I went up to the Davis Creek trail. Some idiot took a dirt-bike up there and it really tore up the trail. Annoying how people can ruin things for others. That area is Private property has been closed up and cracked down because of dirt bikes going where they aren't supposed to go. I would hate to lose such a hard trail. I ran up to Little/Pretty Valley and back in 30 minutes. About 20 minutes up and 10 minutes back. That is a hard trail! Luckily I DO know the family that owns that land, so I could probably work something out with them if I needed. Still... be considerate of others people!!

Thursday was the first event in our work Olympics that I was taking part in. PLANK!

I made it almost 9 minutes before my hips and lower back started hurting - if it weren't for that pain I probably could have gone a bit longer. My hips have been an issue lately - I need to strengthen them or figure out what is wrong with them. Anyway, I ended up in 5th place with that time, the winners went 18 minutes! Crazy. 

Thursday I went to BJJ class again, 2 times in one week! I think I'll definitely retain more if I can continue to go 2 times and have the video as a refresher
Here's the video:

There were some really fun moves to learn!

Friday is normally a pretty busy day for me in my fitness schedule. Early morning Yoga that is just awesome followed by a half hour of playing around on a climbing wall? What could be better?  Oh yeah, throw in some crazy Crossfit to finish off the day and WOW I feel great and tired.
Unfortunately THIS Friday I worked at home so my amazing wife could attend an Essential Oil convention, so I missed those workouts, and considering all the craziness and large amounts of working out, I thought a rest day or two would help. My Yoga teacher especially has been trying to get me to rest a bit more...

Yikes... that didn't work. I felt HORRIBLE on Friday, and then Saturday too! I finally made myself try some pull ups and muscle ups that I could barely do. Resting can be good, but I don't think my body was ready for it this time. Weird.

Anyway I got some good sleep today after feeling crappy this morning, and I'm feeling a bit better.

Hopefully that will continue this week and into the weekend - Dirty Dash weekend again!!

Swimming, Cahoots, and Starting Convention!

Friday was the last day I had off for my little Anniversary vacation - and my in-laws had invited us to go swimming. I met my amazing wife at a pool... so we've always loved pools. But it's amazing to me how often we HAVEN'T gone to the pool.

Another thing that is amazing, especially after watching the amazing swimmers at the olympics, is that I really don't know how to swim well. I can swim. I can't swim well!

 

I apparently can't make a good towel turban either. Too bad really...

Good workout swimming - I should do more of it, and actually learn how to do it properly!

Saturday was Cahoots Duo Challenge!
The idea behind this race is that you cannot complete the challenges without a partner.

We decided to dress up, and we had to make a flag, so we both decided to have capes and leave one at the end. Introducing Team Wild Wild Williams!

Not sure why we didn't just stick with Mud Pirates... because we are still Mud Pirates... I mean look at our logos and everything. We look awesome!

A friend of mine said on Facebook, "How is it that you actually look cool dressing like a dork?" 

Practice, my friend... lots of practice!

So anyways, GREAT concept for a race. Unfortunately things didn't start out so well. We got to the base of Parley's Canyon to hit (luckily) the tail end of a parking lot. They were blasting in the quarry at the base of the canyon so they stopped traffic in both directions. When things got moving again, all the slow trucks were clogging the left two lanes, and ALL the other cars were trying to pass them on the left, so it took a while to get moving.

Finally made it up to Soldier Hollow about 35 minutes before our start time, they asked that you be there 45-60 minutes early for waiver signing and packet pickup, but due to the parking lot in the canyon (which is the major route up to the event) even people in the heat before ours were still in the waiver line. Yikes. So chaos ensued, people didn't manage the lines very well, and lots of grumbling was heard. We finally made it through and walked to the starting line. "Ten-thirty wave?" "Yep!" "Alright GO!" and that was it. Without the milling and excitement and tons of people ready to start, instead just the two of us arriving at the line and told to start running, it really put a damper on the 'fun' feeling of the race.

We still had fun - we are pretty good at having fun all the time. But it just changed the feeling a bit. Then some of the obstacles had some lines (over 50 minutes for the zipline... hopefully there are some pics of us from the official photogs cuz we couldn't really get any while we did that one!)

The obstacles were fun. I would like to have a good 13-14 foot wall to practice on :)

Allrighty on to the pics!

We had a lot of fun. I think this event will improve over time. this was just their 2nd time ever event, and the first time in this location. Looking forward to the fun at the Dirty Dash next month and the (hopefully) CHALLENGE of the Tough Mudder in October!

Tonight I ran up the canyon again with my brother. Just over 5 miles, keeping a fairly similar pace up and down (13 up and 7 down again) as the last time I ran up there!

For the rest of the week it is my company's International Convention! BUSY time, lots of standing and craziness. THIS year however, I get to be in the Stretching Area of the store. THAT means I get to help people relax and stretch out and even get a little workout in. There are some curl barbells and some aerobic weight-sticks, so I'm going to be pumping out a whole bunch of random arm and upper body workouts while waiting - we'll see what kind of results (and what kind of Fitocracy points!) I'll get at the end of the week!

See doesn't that look FUN! And FIT!