This year for the Tough Mudder I felt completely prepared. I have been training since January, and as this was my third Mudder, I felt I knew what to expect. Oh hubris, we became good friends this weekend….
The motel I had booked for the three of us to stay at was not a swanky, four star place; but neither was it a complete dive. It was just a little hotel, two beds, a bathroom and hey it even had a mini fridge! But the best part was that it was only a measly 23 minute drive from the motel to the Mudder, and I had bought us premium parking tickets which meant we could park on sight.
We went to bed early, woke up early, got food into us and gear prepared and were on our way. After a little confusion, we got on the right path and headed off (note to anyone who is ever going to be driving in the Orillia, Midlands area of Ontario, they do NOT use a lot of road signs for some reason. And they like to say 12 North when the signs are actually 12 East.) We arrived on site with plenty of time to get parked, registered and to the gate for our 9:15 am start time.
But there were technical difficulties. Apparently the ticket readers were malfunctioning and there was a MASSIVE line up of people. It was at least an hour long wait for most of them, and it started to rain almost immediately. It made for a very cold morning, as I don’t think it was even 11 degress, and there was wind. Thankfully we got to skip a lot of the line because we were supposed to start at 9:15 am, and thanks to me compulsively printing EVERYTHING in relation to the Mudder, we already had our waiver forms filled out and helped speed up the process. But in our hurry to get in, get registered, get registered for the Legionnaires loop (more on that later), and then find a bathroom, we never really got a chance to warm up before we headed to the start line. And that would come back to bite us all in the butts later let me tell you!
Now to get to the start line, you first have to go over a wall. Yep, not even on the course yet and the obstacles have started, I love it. I got myself up and onto the wall before my husband tried to give me a boostie and sent me flying over onto the other side. Yehaw, thankfully there’s wood chips there to help soften the landing. I went back around the other side to help then boost my husband up and we headed to the start.
All Tough Mudder heats start with a rather rousing speech from the MC. This year the guy was good, and we were all jazzed to go. The national anthem was sung and we all screamed and cheered for it, and then we said the Tough Mudder pledge. Now this pledge is rather awesome and I’m not sure if I’ve shared it before but this is what it says:
As a Tough Mudder I pledge that:
I understand that Tough Mudder is not a race but a CHALLENGE
I put teamwork and camaraderie BEFORE my course time
I do NOT WHINE – kids whine
I HELP my fellow Mudders complete the course
I OVERCOME ALL FEARS.
I love that pledge, and have seriously considered getting it tattooed. The irony is that if I do get it tattooed on my back, I get free entry for life into any Tough Mudder of my choosing, I just have to fork out the $10 insurance each time. Sooo tempting! I might not go for the pledge but I am planning on having the emblem of the Tough Mudder tattooed somewhere, haven’t entirely decided where yet though.
It was now 10 am, the speechifying and razzamatazzle was finished and we got to start. An immediate uphill climb. Mount St Louie and Moonstone (where the Mudder was taking place), has a vertical climb of 550 feet and we were thrown right at that immediately. And not twenty steps in, we get an unofficial obstacle to tackle: we got to climb over black PVC tubes. Not hard at all and we went up and over them without a glitch, continuing the uphill climb. And let me tell you, this is where we all felt that lack of warm up. Legs were still tight, bodies not quite ready to be going and yet, away we were!
