Tough Mudder NorCal 2011

I should probably tell you about Tough Mudder while it's still pretty fresh in my memory. We woke up Saturday morning around 8am and finished all our last minute packing. We made extra sure we had all our energy bars and gu's, our gloves for good grip, our sneakers and our brand new outfits and white headbands. We decided that morning that it would be quicker for Becca to meet us here and keep her car in our driveway since our house is closer to the Bay Bridge than hers. We both woke up with lots of energy and were practically bouncing off the walls. It was finally here! I absolutely insisted that we bring the video camera. We have one and have barely used it this whole adventure! So dumb. Finally, Becca arrived and the first thing I did was grab the camera to capture our departure. We stopped for some breakfast before really getting on the road and I got to enjoy a pumpkin latte, which is one of my favorite things. And a pumpkin muffin. And a sandwich. A great thing about knowing you're about to do an event is that you don't feel guilty about what you eat beforehand. Rachel was driving, I rode shotgun with my latte in hand and Becca was sprawled in the back and we set off for our 4 hour roadtrip to Squaw Valley. The ride was beautiful and as we got closer we noticed a car on the highway packed with a bunch of dudes around our age. I had a strange feeling they were headed for the race too. A grabbed a piece of paper and wrote in big letters "Tough Mudder?". We got in the lane next to them and pushed the paper against the window. They smiled and gave us a thumbs up. About five minutes later our cars lined up again and there was a piece of paper against they're window this time. We got closer. We squinted. What does that say? "SEX?" Boys. Rachel laughed and Becca and I rolled our eyes. We gave them a thumbs up and drove on. We finally got to Squaw and realized it was almost at 7,000 feet elevation. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It looked like the movies. I kept wondering what it would be like to go snowboarding on these mountains and felt a touch of sadness that we were leaving before I could find out. We checked into our room, which we realized was a suite (sweet!) and we headed into the village (steps from our lodge) for some food. The small village was totally taken over by Tough Mudder. Most of the people had done in that day and were sporting the orange headband you're handed when you cross the finish line. People were also sporting limps. Lots of limping. Some people had scrapped legs, a few were on crutches. We would ask some people in passing how the race was. The response wasn't motivating. Everyone took a deep breath before answering and they would all respond the same..."it was long. Much longer than you think it's going to be". "oh....ok" we'd say. Lots of people told us to tape our ankles since its so rocky. Lots of people also told us to make sure we ate something with potassium along the way because cramping was a huge problem since our bodies were getting cold and wet so often. Not once did someone say "oh man it was awesome! I wish I could do it again tomorrow!" We were slightly weary of this "super long race" and we headed back to the lodge to sit in the hot tub. There were some tough mudders in the hot tub so we asked them how it was. Luckily, these people were super friendly and said it was lots of fun. They also told us how long it was, to tape our ankles and to watch for cramping. But at least they said it was fun! We headed to the room to relax a bit and went to get some dinner. The whole village was in party mode because so many people had already done the race and we felt a little left out. We headed home to make sure we got to bed nice and early. The next morning we woke up around 6:30. We got dressed and went outside to discover something that we hadn't anticipated. It was absolutely....freezing. You could see our breath in the air. We were told it was going to be 90 degrees. We were also told that the first obstacle of the race was in cold water. We laughed nervously about our discovery and headed to breakfast hoping that the sun would heat the world for us within the next three hours. Our start time was 10:20 so hopefully, the elevation meant the sun had super powers. We ate as much as could at breakfast and headed over to register. It was already warming up and we felt much more confident in the temperature. We got our numbers drawn on our heads with a sharpie, had number flags on our backs and returned to our room to stretch and gear up. We were all definitely nervous, but really excited too. Our biggest fear was that we didn't want to be cold for six hours, which is how long we expected the race to be. After about forty minutes and calls to parents we realized it was time to go. We walked over to the starting point where we stood with our group of maybe a few hundred people and an MC got us all jumping and excited. Before we went, the National Anthem was sung and it was the most I've ever enjoyed it. Most of the group I stood with were standing there because they had raised money for troops. I never feel too patriotic but I really did at that moment. After that was done, the music was cranked up again and the jumping continued. Everyone put up their right hand and repeated a pledge prompted by the MC. It went something like "Tough Mudder is not a race. It is a challenge. I will help my fellow Mudders finish the course. Comraderie comes before my finishing time. Tough Mudders do not cry. Babies cry." We jumped a few times more and it was time. Last high fives and nervous smiles. Here we go....its about to start....holy shit.....GO! And we were off. It was such a large crowd that the only people who had the option to run were the people right in front. It was kind of a slow shuffle out onto the course which was pretty anti-climactic. Good thing though because the course was immediately up hill. After about a half hour of fast paced hiking (most people fact paced hiked the whole thing- running was for super hero's only) we came to our first obstacle. It was a pit of mud blanketed with barbed wire. We had to army crawl through the freezing mud under the wire. It was really, really cold. But it was also really, really fun. We got out and continued. The obstacles were all really fun and also either very cold, or very difficult, or both. We had to submerge ourselves in an ice bath which is scary because your body almost stops working and you have a marine screaming at you to go faster. About half way through I saw one of the most touching things I've ever witnessed. A lot of people who do Tough Mudder are people from the army who have lost friends, have hurt friends and were hurt. I saw one guy with no hand fling himself over a wall like a one armed ninja. So anyway, we were hiking, hiking, hiking for what seems like forever and we noticed that we were coming up on some sort of a bottleneck. A team of about 8 people. One of them, was in a homemade wheelchair constructed of heavy duty wheels, a seat, a pair of crutches and handles on the side. Me, Becca and Rachel all had to stop for a moment and watch what was happening. There was a girl in the wheelchair with no legs below her knees. They were fake. Her team was carrying the wheel chair up and down the mountain. When they would come to an obstacle they would ALL complete it. They would carry her and she would use her arms and thighs to help. To make this clear...there were sections of the mountain, a lot of them, that you almost had to sit on your butt and slide down or scramble up because it was so steep. It was slippery, and rocky and absolutely no joke. If this girls wheelchair tipped over, which I saw almost happen a few times, there was going to be a serious problem with probably serious injuries. We watched them for a second and told them they were rockstars when we passed them. We stopped after completing the next obstacle to watch them do it. They all did. They all scrambled over and under logs in a maze of more barbed wire. Tears glassed over all of our eyes and we promised each other that we wouldn't once complain during the rest of the challenge that we were tired or cold or in any pain. I didn't see them at all after that. I would love to know how long it took them to complete the whole course which turned out to be around 13 miles and went up to almost 9,000 feet of elevation. Hands down the most inspiring thing I've ever seen. After almost 6 hours and about 25 obstacles, we finished the race all three of us holding hands and sprinting through the finish line. We jumped up and down and hugged and grabbed our free beer. All I could think was "Oh man, that was awesome. I wish I could do it again tomorrow." -lj