Tough Mudder is Right! Part 2:

Now that you've read about the Warrior Dash length of the Tough Mudder, let's conquer the next 25%. During miles 3-6, I remember thinking:

"Seriously, it's only been 4 miles?" 

"I wonder how many more obstacles are left?" 

"I sure wish the sun would stay out." 

"I hope Mike and I can do stuff like this for a long time." 

"SQUIRREL!"

"I wonder what we'll have for dinner tonight." 

"What kind of beer do they serve? Wait, who cares. It's free."

"What on Earth is that person wearing?" 

"I don't think I want to know how gross my feet must be. I'm scheduling a mani/pedi immediately after we get home."

"I'm sure glad I'm not the person that has to clean out those porta potties."

"SQUIRREL!"

Now, don't worry. Mike and I did talk to each other. I always love where our conversations go. I won't bore you with the smushy stuff, but we did discuss pain for a while. Knee pain, foot pain, rock in shoe pain, hands going numb pain, wrist pain, what we would do if we could switch pain with each other. We had a lot of time on our hands. We ran some. We jogged some. We hiked the most. 

My shoes went from clean to muddy to clean several times that afternoon.

Dinosaurs fighting. Why not?

 Some of the most interesting people we met along the way were those in costumes. Below, you will find some ghostbusters. Although, they said they couldn't call themselves that. They were "Mudders". They had patches made and everything. We saw a guy in a three piece suit. Another one in just boxer briefs. Several people without shirts on. They finished before those giant clouds got even more giant. Lucky bastards.

We're headed up to the water station.

We discovered lots of clothing and debris left along the way. The weekend before this, Mike and I went on a Ruck with a group preparing for the GoRuck challenge. For every item we saw that morning, we did 10 squats. Granted, we were carrying our packs with bricks then. We felt like we were cheating a little bit when we did our squats without them. Oh wait, we're on a 12 mile obstacle course. Hmmm, maybe we skip the squats, and work on finishing before dark. After all, there were 37, 576 articles of clothing along the way.

10 squats for clothing item on the ground.

As we approach the Funky Monkey, Mike was more concerned with the trusses than the giant pool of freezing water underneath. Well, he IS a truss salesman. While I was busy trying to decide if I should just run and jump out as far as possible or attempt at least three rungs of the monkey bars, he was checking the structural integrity of the obstacle. Oh Michael. I made it two rungs then swam the rest of the way.

I'm sure those sheets of plywood held it together just fine. 

Roar. 

We still felt a little silly around miles 5 and 6. We did our best T-Rex impersonations before heading off to several mud hills. Remember that girl I told you about before? The one that skipped the 12 foot wall. She attempted to skip the mud hills, too. We didn't let her. I caught her attention as she was walking away and told her that we would team up to help her. That shyness coming out in me again, I guess. Her boyfriend was all for it. Mike and I each grabbed a butt cheek, and pushed her on up that slippery hill. Then we ran past her to the next one. 

No problem. 

He fell in the water when taking my picture. Seriously, ran over the hill then fell taking a picture.
That's my boy.

On my way down. Then I slipped and that's when I lodged several peddles in my hand.
He was still struggling to stand up straight.

Not quite Surfin' USA

We're past chilly now. More time in the mud pits. Cold air, cold water, no sun. My hands were purple after the mud sliding. We stopped to rinse our shoes out at a lake then took off down a beach. Oh crap. There were giant pipes floating in the water. Looked like it was time to get my hair wet. So glad we stopped 20 yards earlier to rinse our shoes off when we could've just done this.

It's cold Baby!

 Mike took off and quickly dove under all of them. Do you see the guy on the right? He wouldn't move. I finally yelled at him to hurry up so I didn't hit him as I came up the other side. We couldn't see under water. Just close your eyes and go for it. My shoes were definitely clean after this. It was COLD. Like an overweight elephant on your chest, take your breath away, too cold to cuss, cold. Way more effective at shocking the body than the Arctic Enema. After we got out, the volunteer thought it would be a good time to tell us we still had 16 obstacles to go. THANKS MAN! Helpful. Then we saw this sign.

One of the most well placed signs of the course. 

Dry your eyes, indeed. Six miles and 16 obstacles to go...

"Tough Mudder is Right! Part 3:" soon to come

Follow me on Twitter: @LauraHeddenPT

Mountains are fun :-)