PREFONTAINE

596D098 TOUGH MUDDER

It was TOUGH.  No doubt!  3,521 feet of Elevation Gain per Garmin.  30 Obstacles.  I could run a ten miler any day of the week - not this one though.  Saw a couple of serious mishaps.    Five on our team (Stephen, Andrew, Pat, William and myself.).  We all survived and sustained minor injuries (from what I can tell right now). 

Brian, thanks again!  

Sat, Jul 14, 2012 9:04 AM

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/199246904

Distance: 10.34 mi Time: 5:17:39 Avg Pace: 30:43 min/mi Elevation Gain: 3,492 ft

Elevation Gain: 3,492 ft Elevation Loss: 3,521 ft Min Elevation: 1,958 ft Max Elevation: 3,024 ft

Forgot to turn the watch off after the event.  

TOUGH MUDDER at Mount Snow VT on Saturday 7/14/12

There were 23-30 obstacles.  I don’t remember them all. 

The Ten most difficult obstacles: (Not in order of difficulty)

1.) Kiss of Mud (Crawl under barbed wire): I thought there was electrified wires above if I remember correctly and I got zapped a couple times.

2.) Trench Warfare (Belly down crawl through earthen tunnels): Was narrow and dark.  You didn’t know how long you would be crawling for and it was quite a while.  Midway I was wondering if the tunnel would collapse if people walked over the earth above me.  Not my favorite obstacle. 

3.) Berlin Walls #1 (Wooden 8’ walls): Had to climb over these.  Very difficult I thought. 

4.) Electric Eel (Crawl under electrified wire): Maybe this was the one where we had to crawl in the water and mud along with rocks while trying to avoid the electrical wires overhead.  It was a decent enough distance to crawl. 

5.) Cliffhanger (Steep climb up a ski hill): A lot of steep climbs up hills and down!  You might think going down hill is easy – Not.  You had to focus on trying to stop or running slowly as without trying you could pick up speed and lose control along the way.  The hills up and down were a challenge. 

6.) Dark Lightning (Crawl under barbed wire into a blacked-out box of dangling electric wires & rain): There was a sign that said stay low.  I couldn’t understand why because it seemed like I had more room to utilize.  It was totally dark.  I think there were turns – don’t remember if that was this tunnel.  Found out after I got shocked why I needed to stay low…Okay then!  I’ll stay low.  Every once in a while there was “Lightning” and you could see the electric wires hanging.  Couple more shocks.  Okay, guess getting used to it a little bit. 

7.) Funky Monkey (Monkey bar crossing): About 15 bars going up and 15 bars going down I think.  I did not get anywhere near the midpoint before falling into the water.  This was difficult for me.  I definitely would need to work on upper body to get that done. 

8.) Berlin Walls #2 (Wooden 9’ walls): Well the 8’ walls were tough enough…9’ walls more so.  Same concept – get over the walls.  I made it over these (not gracefully or without incident). 

9.) Everest (Greased up ¼ pipe): The most difficult obstacle!  The concept: Get over the top.  Good chance you will need help from the people on top of Everest (1/4 pipe) making it over.

10.) Electroshock Therapy (Run through electrified wires): Hmmm.  Well, my least favorite. 

Aftermath: Cuts and scrapes on knees and elbows.  Blister left hand. Nose scraped and swollen (Berlin walls).  Well I said I didn’t handle those very well.  Getting up was easier – ah, but getting down.  Now that was the dilemma. 

Pain Upper Body post Tough Mudder: in the deltoids, pecs, biceps, abs, obliques and under the armpits due to all the crawling through and pulling with the arms while upper body doing most to all of the work at times depending on the obstacle.  Regarding lower body – just quads.