Another great race weekend!! Yesterday I completed by 2nd
Tough Mudder near Jacksonville, FL.
Tough Mudder is an 11+ mile obstacle course that is “probably the
toughest event on the planet”.
Yesterday’s race lived up to that claim for me for sure. The course was full of running through
thick sand and mud, plus all the obstacles. I’m not the greatest runner (I’m working on it though!) so
this was pretty rough for me.
I felt really strong in the
beginning and then we got to the Wounded Warrior Carry. In this challenge, you pair up and
carry your partner roughly 1-200 feet.
I paired up with a guy on my team and he carried me first. At the halfway point we switched. We were in that damn sand again but I carried
him on my back for close to 200 feet.
My team was cheering me on the whole way. That’s when I think a lot of
my walking started.
The next tough obstacle was called
Mud Mile. You have to run or walk
through mud that is like quicksand.
Not gonna lie, the Mud Mile felt like the Mud 25 Miles. My legs and hips were on fire by the
end!
Other obstacles, like the Berlin
Walls may need to be done with the help of your team. I struggled with these because I had a really tight shoulder
and it made me feel weaker in term of upper body strength. I've also noticed I have a kind of selective fear of heights. When I am up high I don't get scared until I have to rely on my own strength to keep me from falling. But I can jump off of super high platforms into dark, muddy water
Since I conquered Colossus at the
Savage Race a few weeks ago, my next goal is to get all the way across the
monkey bars. I’ve been practicing
at a park and can make from one end to the other. OCR monkey bars are quite a bit different. The ones at Tough Mudder go up at an
angle and then come back down. I
made it to the 2nd or 3rd bar before I fell in the water
below. Not what I wanted, but
definite improvement.
The next obstacle was Everest. It is a ½ pipe that is very similar to
Colossus without the ropes to help you climb up. I made it up the last time so I was pretty sure I could do
it this time. My legs were toast
so I couldn’t run as hard as I needed to.
I tried 3 times and each time almost got to my teammates holding out
their hands. After the 3rd
attempt I looked at my coach and said I couldn’t do it. He looked me in the eye and said
something like “you are going to do this”. So I tried one last time. I got to the top and grabbed the hands
of my teammates. I tried to use my
feet to climb up, but I was beat.
The guys pulled me up and I made it. I was so tired, I almost fell off the ladder coming down one
the other side, but I caught myself.
If a blooper video ever gets done, I’m sure that move could have made
the cut! Thanks to my coach and
teammates for not letting me quit.
The last obstacle at any Tough
Mudder is called Electroshock Therapy.
Take a look at this picture.
See all those strings hanging down? Yeah, some of those are electric. If you listen closely while people run through you can hear
the zaps as 10,000 volts of electricity goes through the bodies of those
unlucky ones who got the right (or should I say wrong?) string. Last December I got shocked, but I was
able to keep going. This time, I
was shocked so hard that it threw me to the ground…3 times. It was crazy! After we crossed the finish line I got my hard earned orange headband, T-shirt and a cold beer. After 5 hours, it was a very good moment!!
I’m feeling pretty sore and have some bruises, cuts and scrapes, but I wouldn’t take back a single moment of
this challenge. I had to remind
myself many times that my mind was going to give up before my body did. I'm going to be doing a couple of new BB challenges over the next few months, so I think that is going to help a lot. I'm sure I'll write a blog about those so stay tuned!
I am SO GLAD I was introduced to the
sport of OCR. My first year will end in September 2013. I’m planning on running my first
competitive race in August. I’m
not focused so much on time (only for a baseline), but rather being able to do
all the obstacles on my own. I
plan to ROCK year 2 of OCR!!
If you are interested in running
your first OCR, feel free to respond to this blog or connect with me on
Facebook at www.fb.com/erinkterry
or www.fb.com/coacherinsmotivationstation. You can also check out www.ocrchallenge.com
As always, thanks for reading
and….HOORAH!!
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