Hows my little Tough Mudder?

The Tough Mudder, where to begin? How to describe it? What were we thinking?

Team Jolly Roger: Eric, Diana, Me Jon, Brian, Chaz, Jason, Laura, Andrew, Dad, Aaron, Ryan, Missing Brian

The weekend started off great with a rental car and a road trip up to Minnesota with our new friends Eric and Diana. We kicked it off with a tour of Summit and a few cold ones afterwards. I'm still convinced that beer fresh from the brewery is its best. We bought some of the Dunkelweizen down here when we got back and it wasn't the same.

After some good homebrews at Brian's house we had a nearly sleepless night due to nerves.

After we got our big team of 13 Jolly Rogers together we headed to the starting line for one of my favorite parts of the race, we had to scale a 6 foot wall just to get to the starting gate. In the corral we got the most fantastic pump up/pep talk and were then released into the 11.5 mile challenging course.

When I was trying to recruit teammates for the race most people were terrified of the last obstacle "Electroshock Therapy", well that wasn't the worst one, the first was. The Arctic Enema was up there with the most unpleasant. It was a giant dumpster filled with ice and water, not just a little ice either, they used a huge box attached to a forklift full of ice to fill it up. But to make it memorable there was a wall in the middle with barbed wire on top that you had to swim under, and for whatever reason, people weren't in a hurry to get out on the other side. Standing up to my chest in frigid water was a pretty shocking way to get the morning started.

The Electric Eel, Sliding through the mud to avoid the shocking wires dangling.

The next worst part of the race was the hills. For some reason, I didn't really consider the running portion of the Tough Mudder, just the obstacles. So for the race to be on a ridiculously hilly course was extremely unexpected and we all ended up with some sore thighs as a result.

Speaking of challenges, I forgot to mention the weather. We kicked of the day with a nice misty 65 degree morning chill in the air. The wind bit through everyone's wet clothes and skin.

This is me using my body as a ladder for strangers...sure warmed me up!

Jon was the only one who made it up without climbing people.

So it sounds like a great time doesn't it? Absolutely! One of the big mantras of Tough Mudder is teamwork and camaraderie, I had a great time with a fun group of people running all over the hills and helping everyone up, over, and through all of the obstacles.

Strangers were very willing to help Laura down

Although we had a less than desirable finish due to a really long wait at Everest (a 20 foot slippery and muddy quarter pipe) and a frigid temp drop we all made it through. It sounds like most people on our team thought one Tough Mudder is enough, I on the other hand, with a few others will continue on with more. They are way more fun than a half marathon (and marathon obviously),  the length easily trumps the shortness of the warrior dash, and who doesn't like getting down and dirty with a few thousand other muddy and fit individuals.

See you at Tough Mudder Chicago 2013! (if the world doesn't end)