I got up in the morning feeling much better than I expected to and we went to get some breakfast before making our way an hour north to Pocono Raceway where we had to park the car and then catch a shuttle to the actual location for the Tough Mudder race. It was cold in the morning too so we wore our sweatshirts until right before the race and then checked our bags.
A bunch of us lined up before our start time and listening to a motivational (?) speaker try to get us pumped up. Didn't work for me, but I think the other people were into it. We were just ready to start. They sounded the horn and we started running. The beginning was a bit aggravating because it was packed with people and it quickly became a narrow path where we couldn't pass anyone and we were running over small tree stumps so I kept almost turning my ankle.
Our first obstacle also may have been one of the most painful. We had to crawl under barbed wire in the mud, but the mud was filled with rocks so it was tearing into my knees and elbows the whole time. I will say it was much shorter than the Spartan Race version of this one. Shortly after this we had to jump into a pool filled with ice water. On second thought, that might have been the most painful part. It sucked.
We quickly warmed up and dried off as we did the death march up a hill that was not a fun ascent. We walked. It's okay. We had a few small walls to climb and a tunnel to crawl through in total darkness after this.
Another trudge up a hill slowly turned into a murky pit of mud that gurgled with each stepped and threatened to suck a shoe down if we weren't careful. At least this one is properly muddy.
The log carry was one of the most trying parts where I was holding it on one shoulder after another trying to get comfortable. I made it to the end even though I didn't think I'd make it.
After another much-needed water station there was a cargo net climb where we had to pull down on the bottom to help others over without it swinging. There was a lot of running in between all of these events, it's just not as exciting to photograph. There was a long series of pits filled with mud and water that we had to wade through and then monkey bars that ascended and then descended that were surprisingly easy.
The big jump was a lot of fun. The water was freezing though so I was swimming for the shore as soon as I hit the water. Another unpleasant obstacle was this pool with a little bit of water in the bottom that we had to belly crawl under hanging electrified wires that gave a really strong shock whenever you came into contact. Not cool. There were two big walls that were a challenge to get over, we had to give each other a boost to help out and then lower down the other side.
After a cluster of things at the end including a long wait in line at a balance beam walk across water that we both fell in at and a run through more electrified wires, we had made it to the end! Just over twelve miles and twenty-something obstacles! It was a challenge for sure, but it was easier than I thought it would be. I had a lot of fun though!
We got some ribs at a restaurant on the way home that were just what we wanted. The drive home went by pretty quickly and it was nice to come home and relax after a really fun weekend.
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