Tough Mudder 5/29
Let’s just say no matter how hard you train for an event you cannot control Mother Nature. I learned that first hand. As I knew Tough Mudder was going to challenge me beyond means. I was going to test everything about myself…my physical strength and mental abilities. I knew that it was going to be TOUGH, they don’t call it TOUGH MUDDER for nothing. However, I wasn’t expecting it to be 55 degree when I arrived that morning nor was I expecting it to drop down as low as 23 degrees. Several friends completed the run on Saturday where the high was 75-78 degrees and low was 55. They all struggled but managed to complete it within 5 hours. I was ok with that; I was mentally ready and psyched beyond means.
So here it came…Sunday morning my team loads up in the Tahoe and takes off to Snow Valley. The first clue should have been the text message we received from race officials to drive with caution because the roads were covered by FOG! 2nd clue should have been that we nearly missed our turn off because of the FOG. Anyways, we ate properly; we were ready with our knee pads, gloves and all. Start time was 10:20AM – we checked in around 830AM, headed back to the truck to stay warm until it was time. THEN IT WAS TIME! The 4 of us headed out to the start line and the RUN started. Through hills, barrel crawls, mud pit crawls under barbed wire we thought we had it. Then came the ICE BOX jump. I was the first to jump in…SHIT IT WAS COLD. I did my best to jump out as quickly as I could and grabbed a foil to keep my body temperature down. Then came the UP HILL battle…fighting your body’s temperature, while running over logs, going across the monkey bars and crawling through a bbq pit was NO JOKE. At one time I couldn’t feel my fingers but I kept on going. Then came the team log carry up and down a hill - I gathered my team and orchestrated us up that hill carrying the bulk of the weight on my shoulder because I could not feel my hands. Somehow and someway we made it down the hill and dropped the log off and continued on our way. Then came the HOT SPRINGS swim under barrels…I was shivering and numb already but the water was a lot warmer than being out in the cold. I jumped into the water and went for a dip! However, when I got out of the water IT WAS SOO COLD!
At that time, one of my teammates was DONE. He was purple and shaking uncontrollably. We got him to a semi-first aid area where they escorted him down the hill. Then there were 3 left…all females. We continued on to the next obstacle and just to think it was only mile 4. We had about 6 miles left to go with just about 12 more obstacles still ahead of us. NO JOKE I tell you =). Upon our arrival at the next obstacle, the Marines on the course advised that we no longer do water obstacles because everyone was getting sick. So one of my teammates and I decided to walk along the ridge instead while the 3rd female wanted to go in. While she did that, we waited at the first aid area where they had a heat lamp, foils and lots of body temperature. What I didn’t notice early on, people had been getting escorted down the hill this whole time in car loads because they couldn’t continue. While in the heat tent, my teammate turned to me and was like I’M DOWN. I said ok…walked out of the tent and saw a first-aid official. The rest is a pure blur…he turned to me and was like your critical. We need to get you out of here. Next thing I know I’m in the back of a closed JEEP with my teammate. We’re heading down the hill and back to the starting area. Once we reached the actual First Aid/Hospital area, the EMT greeted us and talked to the driver. The driver had no idea I was in critical condition because I was behind him and told the EMT that they we were all fine. We were dropped off at the Lodge instead. My teammate and I were able to get in touch with her daughter and proceeded to the Tahoe. When we got to the Tahoe to gather our belongings, I couldn’t grab my bag. I went to grab it but I had no movement in my fingers. The bag just fell to the ground – my teammate looked at me and was like ANTO get to the first aid, you look BAD. So there I went and sure enough when I arrived – I was in the early stages of hypothermia. My fingers and forearms were numb and I was already losing sense of where I was. I was cold beyond being cold…I can’t explain it. It was scary…
At first I felt like a failure for being pulled off the course but at the end of the day, I’m posting! So therefore I’m ALIVE. I guess I can be grateful for that and that I can continue to run, jump fences and walls, play ball and all that jazz. I can’t complain but seriously…I can’t wait to sign up for NEXT YEAR!!!!!
My last two runs haven’t ended the way I wanted them too but it’s ok…I have plenty more coming up this year!
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