It's easy for me to say I enjoyed it so much because I didn't actually do it. Oh, don't get me wrong. I did climb up and down those mountains 6 times. But that's about it. You see, someone had to be the photographer, so I kindly signed up for that. I thought that was quite generous of me. Especially because I didn't just take pictures, I could cheer on our team through every obstacle. I know, I know. Such a team player am I.
Our team, Horse Marine (? ask Jay about that one), consisted of 9 friends and family members It was a great group and the team did very well together!
We had to be there 2 hours before our start time, which was 8:40 in the morning. I never knew how many crazy people were out there until I saw the number of buses lined up to take the masses of insane people to the mountain. We counted about 75 buses altogether:
After a 20 minute delay, off the team went. One of the first things they had to do was climb the mountain. I thankfully could take the chairlift. What?? Don't scoff at me!!I needed to get to the top first in order to take pictures for my team, you see! What good is it to say I'll take pictures and then not be at the top waiting for the team??
That was the first obstacle. Doesn't look too hard, but what the picture doesn't quite capture is that those walls are leaning back. From the amount of grunts and groans I heard as I was perched high above in the chairlift definitely indicated that it was somewhat difficult. But the team did it with ease!
After running back down the mountain, the next obstacle was definitely mind over matter: jumping into a tank full of ice water. Did I mention the high for the day was going to be 13 degrees? It was only about 8 degrees when we got there. I would think jumping into ice water on a hot day would be harder on your body than at 8 degrees. I mean, really, not much temperature difference, would it be? You'd have to ask one of the team members......
Once completed, up the mountain everyone went again to complete the monkey bars, crawl under barbed wire as well as crawl through water with electric wires hanging down:
Off to jump from a platform into muddy water and then climb over muddy hills:
And then back down the mountain. The part that was still covered in snow!!
And then back up! 6 times by the time it was all said and done! This was quite the challenge.
Most of the obstacles required a lot of teamwork. Hoisting each other up, lifting, dragging, pulling, whatever it took to get all your members up and over:
This one was "fun", a vertical slide that at the last moment went horizantal, which left you landing in a pool of muddy water:
This following one was, I think, the hardest one for mind over matter. You had to lay on your back and swim backwards under this grate, with most of your head submerged, for about 100 feet. I had a hard time watching this one:
More mud!! More tunnels!!
The second last obstacle: the halfpipe, where you had to run and leap for the edge to pull yourself up. It's where you really hope your team members are strong to get you over!
After just over 4 hours, 18 kilometers and 22 grueling, mud-filled, water-drenched, mind battling obstacles, the team was done! And it couldn't have come at a better time....I was getting pretty hoarse from cheering and my finger was cramping from clicking.
In all seriousness though, what a feat for all those who competed. It definitely is quite rewarding to be able to say you've conquered Tough Mudder.
Wow, that looks crazy! They definitely needed a good photographer...what would they have done without you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your support, Lois. I am glad you could understand my sincerity. :o)
DeleteHey, I thought you were going to be participating too...or did I just imagine you saying that to me?!?
ReplyDeleteWhat? Me participate?? Noooooo. Actually, you are right. I did train for 5 months, only for my back to give me troubles. I know, here come the excuses, but when I finally went in to the doctor's about my back (some days I couldn't take deep breaths for the pain in my lower back), common sense kicked in and I knew that it would be just plain stupid to do this at this stage in my life. I do hope to try again once my kiddies are somewhat older so I don't have to lift them etc. My training stopped and my focus has been to rehabilitate my back, which is much more important than checking off Tough Mudder from my Bucket List.
Delete