GoRuck Challenge Tulsa (Class 121)

"What are you guys doing?" asks an overweight woman at a riverside park on a sunny Saturday afternoon around 1:15 p.m. "A GoRuck Challenge" someone responds between gasps of air while bear crawling with a 50 lb pack strapped to his back. "What is that?" No answer.

If you are watching a group of 19 zombie looking men from all walks of life perform ridiculous exercises after more than 12 hours and 20+ miles of suck and you have to ask with a cheeseburger in your hand, then you wouldn't understand. If you click on this link and you are at least slightly intrigued, then the GoRuck Challenge might be for you. If it gives you chills, then you NEED to do it.  My first GoRuck is complete and it was quite the experience.

So what is a GoRuck Challenge? From the website:

"Inspired by the most elite training offered to Special Forces soldiers and led by Green Berets, the GORUCK Challenge is a team event and never a race. Challenge cadre build each class into a team through collective conditions of mental and physical exhaustion. Classes are small, camaraderie is high, smiles are plentiful, and teamwork is paramount."

I first heard of the Goruck Challenge last Fall after reading someone else's Tough Mudder blog. I checked it out and I was definitely interested. It was just a matter of location and timing.  Eventually, they had one scheduled for Tulsa which is only two hours away.  

The Goruck Challenge is advertised as 8-10 hours over 15-20 miles with the tagline of "Under promise, over deliver". Oh yes they did.  The challenge always starts at night. Ours started at 0100. We were basically told to bring 6 bricks (4 for anyone under 150 lbs), a headlamp, some water, and something to eat. That was basically it. Each Goruck event has a different Facebook event page which we were encouraged to use and we used the page to organize a class weight (also required), a ruckoff (pre-challenge meeting), etc. We started with a team of 19 men and one woman. Roughly half of us were at a local bar/restaurant a couple of hours before things kicked off. We chatted a while and some of us went back to our cars to try to relax a little before things got started. Around midnight a Chevy pickup pulls up right next to my friend's car. It was our cadre for the challenge. He started to unload a bunch of Goruck bags, ropes, a guidon, etc. So much for relaxing. The guy looked kind of serious.  It is almost show time.

At exactly 1:00 a.m. we all assembled. We signed the standard death waiver that all of the cool events require (I didn't read a single word of it) and had our bricks inspected. Our female team member had some real pretty pink and other colored ones. Pretty funny. People like myself that bought a Goruck branded pack received their bags, and we proceeded to pack up and ship out. We also received a "Hurt Feelings Report" to fill out in case we got our feelings hurt during the challenge.

I am not going to give the blow by blow details of the challenge. If you are my Facebook friend, you can go to my wall and review my recollection of what we ended up doing (I have already been reminded I missed a bunch of stuff). A long list doesn't really do the experience justice anyway.  Essentially, this is a team building exercise that tests you physically and mentally...to an extreme. It hurts. Bad. It sucks. Bad. The short story is this:

We started with a lot of painful exercises with our packs on our shoulders (our bags never left our shoulders except for rest periods which never intentionally went over 10 minutes or when the exercises required the packs be somewhere else...like elevated over our heads). Then we got into the river to do a few more (it was just above freezing at that point with the temperature still dropping). Once we were fully "warmed up" we began our challenge.  We had a few tasks to complete such as carrying "medical equipment" (heavy military boxes labelled "live grenades"). I assume that isn't what was in there but I find it hilarious that we found them next to a dumpster and dropped them off next to an oil refinery for the next class. We even had police drive right past our group without a single question.  Team leaders, etc. were chosen and rotated, and for the most part, we were allowed to make our own decisions with guidance from the cadre (while constantly being reminded that we needed to move faster).  

Around 0400, one of our team members started shivering a little more than the rest of us. We gave her some extra clothes to try to warm her up. She kept going. By the time our first mission was complete, she was showing some stage of hypothermia and dry heaving. Cold is one of those things that once it gets you, you are done. She had completed a Goruck before but this time she had to quit.

We are all told to have our ID and $20 along with us in case we need to call a cab to get home. Unfortunately, the cab companies weren't answering their phone. Time to improvise. Two team members ran the four miles or so back to where we started to get a vehicle. The rest of us waited around and shivered like crazy while discussing how nice it would be to run 4 miles to warm up and then jump in a nice warm vehicle while taking the long route back.  Frost was forming on our packs. It was now below freezing. There was another incident during this time that I won't divulge but as Scott said, we killed some bears afterward so it is all good. Eventually, our team member's ride arrived and we continued on. I think standing in the cold was probably the worst part of it as we knew we had so much more distance to travel and had nothing to do but think about it.

We continued on for a total of 12.5 hours and what I believe was 20.2 miles (based on our photographer's phone GPS). Our team was blessed in that one of our team member's wives volunteered to take photographs for "as long as she can stand the weather". She did the entire challenge with us, carrying her own backpack with her own supplies, etc. When we ran, she ran ahead of us so she could stop and take photos of us running by. She was amazing! I don't know if she was the smart one because she basically got the same experience as us for free or if she is crazy for doing all that and not getting her own Goruck patch! Regardless, we were all very thankful (most of us gave her our $20 bill after the challenge as a thank you afterwards) and lucky to have the entire event fully documented! Thanks again Kayla!

So what did I learn?

1. Extreme pain in my shoulders. While I certainly did a few long marches with a pack in the Marines. I have to admit I have never gone that distance with that much weight. My shoulders were plenty uncomfortable after only a couple of hours. The pain during the last four hours was well into the "this hurts so much it is funny" stage.  Somehow we actually were able to continue to laugh pretty much the whole way.
2. The pack isn't the worst of it. It is carrying all of the other junk that really wears you down. We carried a 25 lb team weight, a couple of PVC pipes half filled with water, a stupid bucket half filled with concrete for our guidon (which we never really sat down anyway), a bunch of rope, a bullet proof vest, a bunch of other useless stuff in some of our packs, and for several miles, a creosote filled telephone pole. Fifty pounds isn't so bad, but throwing odd shaped objects on top of your shoulders, which already are on fire, just doesn't feel good. Not in the beginning. Not after 20 miles. Not ever.
3. People don't show up for these things unless they are in good physical condition. At least not to our challenge they didn't.  I have read some blogs where team members had to hand their packs to others because they couldn't carry theirs anymore. We never had that issue. Our team was strong.
4. I felt pretty good about my endurance level. My legs never felt weak, my joints felt strong the whole way. I did use some KT tape on my calves for the challenge as I was a little worried about calf cramps (yes I make another stupid training decision the week before the challenge) but my calves held up and feel fine today.  Yes my shoulders hurt during the challenge like never before in my life and I could barely reach forward to lift my cell phone off the dash on the way home but I felt I was able to carry my fair share of the team weights the entire time. I wrote this roughly 27 hours after finishing the challenge and I have slight stiffness in my shoulders (although they feel very weak and exhausted right now..I iced them immediately after the challenge) and stiffness in my lower back and butt similar to what I would have after a good deadlift workout.  This stiffness was really just caused by the telephone pole as I was taller than the majority of people on the team and found myself having to hunch over for most of the pole carry. All in all, I feel good. And I feel good about the fact that I went through all that and still feel pretty good the next day. If our crossfit wod the day after didn't include a bunch of push presses, I would have gone just so I could say I did...too bad I didn't so I can't.
5. I am still a big fan of crossfit and loving it more and more all the time.  Personally, I wouldn't recommend attempting one of these things with crossfit as the only training (my opinion anyway) but it definitely provides an excellent base of fitness.  When I used to run only, my joints would be so stiff after 10 miles of running that I could hardly walk right after a run. Now I am up to 16 miles on my long runs (getting ready for a marathon) and my joints feel nothing. Yesterday was 20+ miles under heavy loads the entire time and my joints and leg muscles feel nothing.  Joint strength doesn't come from running only. Joint injuries come from running only. Crossfit likes to talk about how it prepares you for almost anything. I am not aware of a better "anything" to test that theory out than a Goruck Challenge.
6. If you are the least bit intrigued by a 20 mile, 12+ hour challenge that will make you hurt like never before, you should train for it and do it. If not, stay home. This isn't a Tough Mudder where you can be overweight and out of shape and just take your sweet time to finish. Do your team mates a favor and don't show up unless you have taken your training seriously. This is a TEAM event.  My attitude on this is kind of like welfare, I am happy to help out anyone truly in need but if you are sitting on your fat butt smoking crack all day I would rather see you starve then show up asking for a handout. You made that choice not me. We had a couple of team members that were exceptional, but I saw everybody pulling their own weight. I should mention how extremely difficult it is to volunteer to carry team weights for the last four hours or so!
7. If you are intrigued by the challenge but what I just mentioned in #6 above has you questioning if you are ready, sign up anyway and get training!  The challenge is intimidating but that is the point! Find an event, sign up, and train!  You will probably be amazed at what your body is capable of. Just stop thinking about it and sign up. We had guys from their low 20's to just under 60 (amazing!). Anyone that wants to do a Goruck can do one if they really want to.
8. The Goruck Challenge is NOT a boot camp experience. No worries about getting yelled at, etc. The cadre is very much focused on helping you acheive and I never felt unsafe or at risk. He constantly reminded us to keep the pace up but in all honesty, we controlled the pace and it seemed like as long as we pushed ourselves, we were left alone.  Other than some muscle pain and a few lost toe nails, there wasn't a single injury that I know of.
9. From talking to our cadre David after the challenge, I learned that our original course was over 24 miles.  We had to reroute slightly due to our lost team member. I think it would have been easier to do the extra miles and keep moving rather than to wait it out though.

So what is next? Good question. I know there are a lot of people at my crossfit box that are into Tough Mudders, Spartan Races, etc. This is very different but it caters to a subset of the exact same audience (I think most of the people I talked to had experience in obstacle racing) so I will be trying to talk some of them into it. I would love to get enough people interested to do a custom Goruck right here in NW Arkansas.  The hills of Fayetteville, the College Campus, Lake Fayetteville, etc. would make for a great experience.

The Goruck people also offer a number of alumni-only multi-day events that are even more extreme. Things like 4 day mountain climbing expeditions, 4 day beach missions in the Florida Keys, Spy type stuff in Washington D.C., etc. I suppose one of them would be the logical next step although World's Toughest Mudder is my training focus for the remainder of the year. As far as just doing another Goruck, I am probably not interested unless it is either with a friend or friends or in a cool city. We saw West Tulsa. It is a dump.

In the near term, I am running my third Tough Mudder (Dallas) in three weeks. Should be fun. Two weeks later I have my first marathon which is nothing more than a bucket list item I want to knock out. From there, I have a couple more Tough Mudders that I have already signed up for and a Warrior Dash in Tulsa. I am still debating with myself whether or not to do the "24 The Hard Way" race this fall in OK City. Seems like it would be a good measure of my fitness level for WTM but we will see.

-Loren

Good News, Bad News

Good News: I just got into World's Toughest Mudder.

Bad News: I just got into World's Toughest Mudder and I actually plan on training for and competing in it.

World's Toughest Mudder is the season finale. It is essentially a 24 hour race where you attempt to complete as many 10 mile laps as possible. The winner is the person who completes the most laps in 24 hours. All remaining competitors have 4 hours to match the same number of total laps. If they do, they are considered finishers. 800 competitors started last year. Somewhere around 300 finished one lap. Most got wiped out by hypothermia as it was held in NJ in December last year. Only 10 people officially finished the race.

I have no idea how to train for this thing at this point but it isn't until December so I have plenty of time. I have it in my head that I can use this thing to raise some money for orphan care so hopefully I can figure out something in that area as well. Perhaps getting pledges per lap or per obstacle or something? Ideas anyone?

Finally, I was able to put all of the video from my last TM into one file. I sped up the video for all of the running and the minor obstacles but it is still kind of long. Might be interesting for some of you as it gives you a real view of what an entire course consists of. Sorry it took so long as it turns out that 2+ hours of high def video pushes the limits of my video editing software. The video isn't all that good but it will have to do. I already spent way to much time on it!

-Loren

Tough Mudder Texas Coast

I almost drowned. Twice. I was tortured. Once. I have never had so much fun in my life. Ever.

Tough Mudder Texas Coast is complete and I survived. Barely. Since last June, I spent hundreds of miles running. I spent numerous hours at Crossfit 540 after joining in November. And I spent several hours looking over the course map trying to come up with a plan to conquer the course in a respectable amount of time.  In the end, I was proud and I was disgusted with myself.  I was prepared and I was unprepared. I had trained smart and I had trained like an idiot. Here are my two-cents on the event...


Note: This is kind of long-winded but I am including a lot of info that I wished I had known before running my first one. Maybe it will be useful to someone.


This was my second Tough Mudder after doing my first one last October in Austin.  Remember me talking about how much I hate running?  Yep. I still hate it.  As the CEO of Tough Mudder said "Running is the only sport that is so boring, you have to wear headphones to do it".  He is right.  But yet the appeal of Tough Mudder after doing just one continues to draw me in and push me to run. It pushed me to add crossfit to my workout regimen. Heck, I even ran my first half marathon in December just so I had something to "look forward to" between Mudders. Within a couple of months, I had already signed up for four more (Tough Mudders, not half marathons...let's be serious).  The really silly thing is that these things aren't even timed and aren't even officially races! It really is pretty stupid if you think about it. Train hard so you can do something fast when no one in the world cares if you do it fast!?! Why? As I told a reporter right after the event on Saturday..."because I am an idiot".  Now the reality is yes I am an idiot, but there is just something strangely appealing about swimming for 490 feet and almost drowning; then overcoming the reality that you still have to run through 11.5 more miles of rough terrain, overcome 26 more obstacles, and crawl through an electrical torture chamber (or two) as fast as you possibly can. All of this effort even though your only "reward" is a $2.00 orange head band, a t-shirt, and a beer (knowing good and well that the last person across the finish line gets the same orange head band, the same t-shirt, and the same kind of beer).


So I decided to run this one alone. Just me against myself but alongside a bunch of others facing the same challenges. The decision was easy. At 42, it is hard to find friends that want to put in the time and money to do such nonsense. Frankly, most men my age have a dad gut like I did when I started running last June. Let's get real. Those fat bellies don't get there by accident.  That, and my team mate from last time had knee surgery and was out no matter what. My last experience showed me that there was always someone willing to give a hand plus I had made all the obstacles myself last time. Since I was in much better shape this time surely there was no need right? Oops! More on that later.


Training:
So my training was all over the place. Immediately after getting home from the last Tough Mudder in October, I switched over to a more advanced half marathon running program. It basically had me running Tues, Wed, and Thursday for 6-8 miles each day and then again on Saturday and Sunday with most days including a bunch of intervals at specified speeds.  The program was targeted to people that wanted to run a half marathon in under 2 hours which really isn't fast but it was the "fastest" program I found on Runkeeper. I quickly learned the targets were too slow so I started trimming 20 or 30 seconds from the target paces.  By the end of November I had decided that my running was no longer my weakest point but that my muscular endurance was.  (Note: I ended up doing my first half marathon Dec. 7th in 1:56:46...again not fast but better than my target and the course had 750 feet of elevation change) I started doing crossfit in the mornings 3 days on, one day off while maintaining my running.  That ended up being too much for me (at one point I hit 46 miles in 8 days) and I ended up settling on crossfit 4 days a week and running on Tuesday and Thursday using either longer distance intervals from the program I started or the much shorter but more intense intervals from the crossfit endurance site. On Sundays I continued with my longer runs usually 10-12 miles.  By the end of December I thought it would be a good idea to combine crossfit and running into a tougher workout so I started running the 5.5 miles to crossfit, doing a crossfit workout, then running home.  My Sundays basically became my "Tough Mudder simulation" days as I put my body through a very similar level of total work.  Mixed into everything was my decision to start transitioning to Vibrams 5 finger shoes as they feel a lot better on my joints and I know they will allow me to move a lot quicker through a mudder. Let's just say the transition is ongoing and if nothing else some day I will have some sexy calves!

Between crossfit and the running my body is definitely getting a good shock as I am constantly sore in some area from something. Anna and Vika started calling me grandpa due to all the aches and pains, limping and hobbling.  They would even grab my hand and help me walk around the house sometimes.  Pretty funny. I actually did put a lot of thinking into what I was doing, although when I read what I just wrote it sounds pretty scatter-brained.


Gear:
This one I did right. The course had a lake to swim across and since much of the course was following along water I wanted to make sure I stayed warm. I checked out the course the day before the event and the water felt about 65-70 degrees. Cooler than a typical pool but not cold.  The air temperature was around 50 in the morning and was supposed to hit 71 for a high.  I showed up with a pair of Under Armour shorts over the top of a Nike underlayer bottom. For my upper body I started with a short sleeve Under Armour tight fitting shirt with an off-brand long sleeve tight fitting top similar to the Under Armour heat-ware line. When I got to the event and got out of the car, it was pretty windy and chilly. I decided last minute to swap out the short sleeve shirt for a Cold Wear Under Armour long sleeve shirt under my "race jersey" that, once again, my girls designed.

I also had myself loaded with electronics this time. I got a GoPro head mount camera for Christmas from Cammie and had bought myself a Garmin 310xt GPS watch last November off of Ebay. I even decided last minute to wear my heart rate monitor just out of curiosity...both to get the data and to see if all this stuff was going to survive.  As far as the camera goes, I decided on the head mount as I knew I would be crawling on my chest too much for a chest mount to work properly for me. I did end up fabricating a nylon strap that connected to the camera mount, ran between my two shirts, and then connected to a small fanny pack I had around my waist. I know a lot of people lose their cameras and sometimes never find them. Smart move as the camera did fall off my head once. The camera worked perfectly and the battery lasted plenty long to capture the pre-race brief, the entire run, and lots of footage afterwards. Since there were so many water obstacles, the lens stayed clean as well.  The GPS watch also performed flawlessly although looking back, if I had thought about it, I would have learned how to use the multi-sport (triathlon) functionality...this thing was going to include a pretty long swim...did I mention I am not a very good swimmer?

As I mentioned earlier, I had spent a good amount of time looking at Google Earth and the course map to try to come up with some kind of strategy. At the last mudder in Austin the only thing that almost beat me was the taller set of walls as I could barely jump high enough to grab the top and pull myself over. The other concern I had was Everest which is a quarter-pipe looking ramp you need to have a pretty good velocity to get up by yourself. In Austin, it was a breeze as it was towards to beginning of the course and the ground in front of it was generally smooth although muddy. This time Everest was the second to last obstacle and I had major concerns about my ability to conquer it alone as I fully intended to run myself pretty hard before I got there. But yes. The swim. You would think that in all that time I spent looking at the map, I would have taken a serious look at the 490 foot distance that the map showed me I was going to have to swim across. Oops.


So the strategy was to start right at the front of the first heat of the day, sprint to the first obstacle which was kiss of mud (low crawl under barb wire through mud), sprint over the first set of 8 foot walls, sprint to the lake and by then hopefully be clear of most of the 500 person mob. I would run the rest of the course as hard as I could and hopefully stay ahead of as many people as I could, then slow down a little for the last couple of miles so that I could take on Everest by myself.


So as is typical, we all lined up and got a briefing before the start. This time everyone had to scale a wall to get into the start area which was kind of different. One addition to the briefing since my last TM was that they mentioned "if you come up to someone face down in the mud, he or she is no longer having fun. Help them." They then went on to show us the signal to call for help (crossed arms). After that, the National Anthem was played, we recited the Tough Mudder pledge, and off we went!

And off to the races it was. Like I said, I wanted to stay out of traffic so I kept myself up front for the first three obstacles. It wasn't a fast pace (averaged a 7:00 pace up to the swim) Kiss of Mud, no problem. Three 8 foot walls, no problem. Walk the plank, no problem...or at least that is what I was thinking as I jumped off the 12' or so platform.  I came back to the surface and the first thought that came into my head was 'I have never even swam one lap in a pool in my life. How am I going to swim across a lake that I can barely see the other side of'. Umm. Oops!?!


From the Tough Mudder Frequently Asked Questions:

What is the required swimming skill level?
Tough Mudder recommends that all participants possess basic swimming fundamentals and be skilled to not only tread water but also prepared to swim a minimum distance of 25-30 feet. Also, we suggest that persons with limited swimming ability to bypass the deep water parts of the course, as basic swimming skills are essential for the safe completion of these obstacles.

The 'Swim':

You would think in all of my preparation, I would have taken the three seconds required to measure the distance of the lake on Google Earth. Or maybe even take the initiative to call the park to ask them how deep the lake was. Nope. I just assumed that since the last mudder I ran in didn't really have any water over my head, that somehow, magically, this one wouldn't either. I swam maybe 20 yards, my feet weighted down by heavy shoes, my body weighted down with a camera, fannie pack, heart rate monitor, etc. and I was already tired. The cool water and lack of having fully warmed up my muscles didn't help either.  I know! Our exchange student from Germany spent 10 minutes five years ago showing me how to do the backstroke! Certainly that will work and I will be able to breathe too! Too bad at this point I am getting grabbed and smacked by every other poor fool that was in the same situation as me. Every time I got settled down and moving, someone either grabbed me or a wave dumped water down my throat.  Eventually I was pretty much in panic mode. Okay, I WAS in panic mode. What is the signal to ask for help? Oh yeah, crossed arms. That will work wonders in the water. It might be better to just wave good bye to my head cam so at least my final goodbye would be on film. My next thought was reading my friend's blog about his first open water swim in his first Triathlon. Hmm. Now I kind of understand how he must have felt. A lot of good that did me. As it became apparent that there were WAY too many people in my situation for the few rescue people to handle I just sucked it up and kept going. Eventually. Almost 6 1/2 minutes later. My foot finally reached dry ground.  I have to say, I saw no more smiling happy people at the edge of the lake. They were all either physically wasted like I was, or staring into the water looking for their team mates. This was serious.


Only 11.5 miles and 26 more obstacles to go!


All I could do at that point was try to start running. The next obstacle was Artic Enema. I just needed to get through it and I knew there was a lot of flat running with simple obstacles that really were nothing but speed bumps for the next hour or so. Artic Enema is nothing but a dumpster filled with water and hundreds of pounds of ice. You jump in, you duck under a board submerged below the surface, and you climb out the other side. To be honest, it was cold but with what I had on, it really wasn't a big deal. I may have still been jacked up on adrenaline from almost dying though. From there on it was six miles of running against a 20 mph headwind. The guys running shirtless were a little cold but I was fine (I was never cold or hot the entire time).  By this time I thought there were 20 or 30 people in front of me as it seemed like I was in the water forever but I didn't really know. There was a group of 4 or 5 running a decent pace (roughly 8-8:30 miles) so I decided to hang with them a while. Teams are good to hang with in case you need help and teams are only as fast as their slowest runner so I was hoping one of them would need to drop back before the finish. By mile 4 or so, we all got passed by a man and woman team.  Yep. I just got chicked. One goal was to not get chicked in this event. Nothing against women, and frankly I get chicked at crossfit every day, but I had it as a goal and I failed.  Around the same time, I could see that it was inevitable that at least one guy in the team was starting to struggle as you can tell by a persons' breathing how they are doing. By mile 6, they dropped back.


At this point I was alone. Every once in a while, I could see the couple ahead of me or one guy behind me. I was alone for almost an hour. I rarely even saw volunteers or race officials except for the water stations. Nothing. Pretty boring really. By mile 8 we got to another water station (our third I think). I asked the volunteers how many people were ahead of me and they told me "maybe 10".  GREAT! I figured at least 20 which would have been fine I suppose but only ten actually sounds pretty good!  By mile 10 the guy that was behind me for an hour came out of nowhere. Okay, so now I am eleventh. I could tell he was a stronger runner but I also knew we had Everest up ahead which could be pretty tough. We kept pace with each other for a little while and I eventually dropped back. I figured it was best to stick to the plan and there was no one to be seen behind me anyway. Finally we were up to the monkey bars. The guy that had passed me struggled a little bit and I almost caught him by the time I got through (And to all the people that say you can't do the monkey bars with gloves on, you are wrong. You have weak hands.).  Up next was "Shocks on the Rocks"....Hold on. What? Another swim first!?!


Another oversight on my part, not that it made a difference, was that we had the "Underwater Tunnels" obstacle to tackle first. This one was easy in Austin. It was the underwater sewer swim I mentioned in my last post.  Walk out almost all the way to the three sets of barrels, and one by one, swim under them. This time we had to swim just over 220 feet total  according to my GPS.  Here we go again. I asked the rescue guy if he ever saw a man actually drown. He said no. I said watch this. The good thing about being alone was that I had my own private rescue person riding next to me on a surfboard the whole time. I got through it without grabbing the board. Again, I am pretty wasted. On to the final three obstacles.


First up "Shocks on the Rocks".

I have to say, Tough Mudder really outdid themselves on this one. The obstacle appeared last Fall a couple of races after the one I did and from what I can tell it seemed to slowly morph into the torture chamber it is today. What started out as a low crawl through ice cubes under electrified wires, next turned into the same thing with additional wire whiskers hanging down in several places turning itself into a little maze. But this one just threw the whole maze concept out the window and had wires everywhere so there was no way you were getting through the thing without getting zapped repeatedly. Oh and by the way, this time they had the thing sitting on a slight incline. Ever try to crawl up a hill on wet plastic while pushing ice cubes out of the way and getting hit with 12,248 volts repeatedly?  Oh Joy!


By the time I had reached this point, all of the waves for the day had already started. This means that all of the spectators are now out of the building and out on the course. Most spectators were grouped around the final three obstacles. As I approached the obstacle I was a little surprised at the size of the crowd, how much ice was in the obstacle, and how low the wires seemed. The lady told me "just go real fast". Really? What a profound statement! Thank you! No point in staring. Just do it.


I got in and started crawling. Next thing I know, I was riding my red bmx bicycle on my dad's farm as a young boy. SNAP! Crap! No. I am in Texas laying in a pile of ice getting my butt kicked! I have to get out of here! The remaining shocks all hurt the same but I was fully conscious and able to think as I frantically clawed my way through the ice crying like a little girl the whole time. After going through electric obstacles twice now, it seems like the first shock knocks me out for a split second and then my brain reboots and the rest don't impact my ability to think. Perhaps the first shock each time was on my head and that is what did it. I don't know. The flashback was very strange though. I have seen several comments from others that had similar experiences.  I finally I got to where I could see a fold in the plastic at the edge of the obstacle and I was able to grab it and pull myself out. My GoPro worked wonderfully and captured the pure joy I experienced.

I also captured some video later on of a woman that got knocked out for 12 or 13 seconds. She is in the far lane.  They had to shut the obstacle down until she woke up. This obstacle is no joke. Next up, Everest.

Epic Failure:
As I looked over to Everest before crawling through the electricity I saw my lone competition stuck at Everest. I sensed that he might not have the strength left to pull himself up given how long the monkey bars took him but that he probably had the speed to get up to grab the top. I secretly hoped he would still be there when I got there. He was.  Everest was different this time in two ways compared to the Austin event. It was the second to last obstacle here but showed up early in the course in Austin. It was sitting on nice level terrain in Austin but they decided to run a plow or something through the dirt in front of it here. I don't know if their initial intent was to make a mud hole or what. Maybe they just wanted to make us trip. It worked.  I knew my legs were tired and I didn't have the speed of fresh legs but since it was so easy for me in Austin (I easily ran fast enough for the top to be at chest level when I did it there) I hoped that I would at least be able to grab the top and pull myself up. Try 1, trip and crash. Try 2, Cramp!  At this point my left calve muscle cramped up on me. I knew instantly where I went wrong. The Wednesday before, I did three miles in my Vibrams and was feeling so good I kept bumping up the speed. During the run, I felt a little strain in my left calf but decided it was Wednesday and surely by Saturday I would be fine so I kept running.  My calves were a little sore Saturday morning but since I was wearing regular shoes, I didn't give it any thought (not that I could do anything at that point anyway).  Now I was getting frustrated! The other guy and I both continued to try. He would run and was able to to grab the top, but couldn't pull himself up. I couldn't even reach the top. My legs were failing.  Stretch, run, fail. Stretch, run, fail. We both knew we were stuck until someone else showed up. We continued to try and in between tries, we paced back and forth like caged animals, both of us frustrated with how much time was ticking by. After 3 1/2 minutes, one guy finally showed up. He took a shot. Fail. Over the next 8 minutes and 45 seconds, 6 people trickled in.  A couple of them made it themselves and lucky for me and the others, they were willing to give us a hand. Finally, 11 minutes and 1 second later, we all were able to get up and over Everest. My final attempt was probably the last one that I had a chance on. My calf cramped up so bad I couldn't move my entire leg. I sat on top of Everest for a few seconds trying to get it loosened up so I could climb down the back and hobble in.  The guy that was stuck with me for a while waited for me and we headed towards Electroshock therapy. My calf was now free and I could run again.


Compared to Shocks on the Rocks, Electroshock was a joke. Yes, I took a good hit again and yes it knocked me down but the only pain I really felt was that my calf locked up on me again as I tried to sprint through it.  That is why you see me whining like a little girl in the video. I thought the video was pretty cool though as the camera got itself turned around and faced me when I fell. I crawled to my feet and ran the last 100 yards to the finish. I AM DONE!


I thought the video of me going through Electroshock Therapy was pretty funny...

The atmosphere at the finish was a lot different than Austin because it was away from the last obstacle inside the building. The building was almost eerily quiet. There were only a handful of competitors standing there. I thanked the guys that helped me up Everest and headed to the showers. Mission somewhat accomplished.


Debrief:
Looking back, my biggest failure was my decision to run in my Vibrams the Wednesday before the event. When you sprint, you run on the front of your feet. I lost my ability to sprint because my calves were exhausted and eventually cramped up. The 12 miles in mostly soft terrain had already pre-exhausted them as well.  I had never had a leg cramp in my life until then. Ever. And I have done 10+ miles in 90 degree heat without bringing any water several times without problems.  I lost a lot of sleep over the next couple of days thinking about it and I am still mad at myself for losing so much time at Everest.

I reviewed the entire video and noted each obstacle and the time it took me to complete it. When I do the math and subtract out the obstacle times and swims (along with the swim distances) I did the run part at an average pace of 8:50 per mile. Given the fact that this still included a fair amount of running through mud and water and given the fact that I had only run my half marathon at a 8:53 pace, I am pretty happy. It is amazing how much faster you can run when you are having fun and actually care. Maybe I should have worn headphones for my half marathon. By the way, I happened to meet the CEO and the COO of Tough Mudder at the Mystery Obstacle.


After reviewing the video I think I finished 17th from our wave. Again it doesn't really matter (and there is no way to know for sure) but for me, this time, it did matter.  I am somewhat satisfied but again I really hated to have 6 people pass me at Everest.


If I had showed up to this event in the same shape as the Austin event, I wouldn't have made some of the obstacles. This event required more strength. The two swims were rough and the mystery obstacle took a good bit of strength as well. I would have failed at probably all of them if I hadn't joined crossfit when I did. Crossfit was the missing piece that I really needed. The 10 foot walls were a breeze to jump and grab a hold of.  After the race I wasn't even sore except in my shoulders from the swim. I was certainly banged up and bruised and I can't remember how I got a footprint bruise on my abs but all in all I felt pretty good.


I learned the next day that they shut down the long swim immediately after our wave. We were the only ones that had to do it. The rest jumped off the platform and turned around towards shore. After reviewing my video, I think this cost me at least 6 minutes versus the remaining waves. Not only did we have the much longer swim, but we had a longer run as well. Tough Mudder has had to make last minute changes like this in the past. I totally understand but I am glad I was able to do the "real" course even if I did almost die and lose a lot of time.


My Garmin watch, the heart rate monitor, and the GoPro camera all performed flawlessly. I added the heart rate monitor last minute but it actually came in handy as I used it to gauge how hard I was pushing myself. With the varying terrain it wasn't really reasonable to use my running pace as a measure but I know myself well enough to know as long as I keep my heart below the mid 170s, I can go for hours. The monitor worked nicely but I wish it would have worked during the swim. It would have been funny to see my heart rate of 456465887 beats per minute when I was about to drown.


As for future events, I have a lot going on between now and this Fall...


- March 10th, Goruck Challenge Tulsa (I am really excited about this one. 15-20 miles over 12+ hours should really kick my butt).
- March 31st, Tough Mudder Dallas (Running with some good friends. we won't break any records but we are going to have a blast!)
- April 15th, Hogeye Marathon (I figure I might as well do one just to say I did).
- May 19th, Tough Mudder Twin Cities (So far my brother in law and brother are joining me. Still working on a few others)
- June 2nd, Warrior Dash Tulsa (way too short at 3 or 4 miles to really get excited about but it is close to home and I am going with some friends so why not? This one is an actual timed race which will be interesting)
- Sept. 15th, Tough Mudder Missouri


I have one more event I am hoping to do but it is still up in the air at this point. As I mentioned earlier, I got the entire race on video. I am still working on putting a final version together with the whole race in a compressed file where the obstacles are in real time and the run is fast forwarded. I will post it on this blog once it is done...maybe in a day or so?

Tough Mudder Central Texas

“FACT- Marathon running is simply boring. And the only thing more boring than doing a marathon is watching a marathon. Road-running may give you a healthy set of lungs, but will leave you with as much upper body strength as Keira Knightley. At Tough Mudder, we want to test your all-around mettle, not just your ability to run in a straight line, on your own, for hours on end, getting bored out of your mind.”
-ToughMudder.com

Let me just start out by saying I hate running. Seriously, I hate it. Left Right Left Right Left Right…Ugh! But yet, I just spent the last 16 weeks training for and finally participating in a 12 mile obstacle course / mud run called Tough Mudder. Why? Perhaps because I am a sucker for marketing…I don’t know…but I can’t remember that last time I had so much fun!

Until this Spring, I had never heard of Tough Mudder and was quite happy sitting my fat butt on the couch when I got home from work. I saw a Tough Mudder link on a friend's Facebook wall one day and thought it looked pretty cool. 25-30 military style obstacles (along with a bunch of silly ones) spread out over 10-12 miles. Looks like fun. But the distance! 10-12 miles! Even in the Marine Corps I don’t think I ever actually ran more than 5 or 6 miles. Hiking, sure, but running, no.

So I found one person to join me for the event down in Austin, TX. Yep. Just one. Imagine that. We signed up and a month or so later (remember I HATE running) I actually started training. While some of the Tough Mudder courses are held in the mountains and/or at ski resorts with serious hills, a review of the course map from the same event held earlier in the year told me the hills would be minimal…the course was at a motocross park and the surrounding cow pastures. The terrain where I live is pretty much constant rolling hills and it turns out was pretty well matched with the actual race. My thought was that the obstacles wouldn’t be a big deal as long as I could keep my legs under me.

I uploaded a free GPS app called Runkeeper to my phone, bought a Bluetooth heart rate monitor that would ‘talk’ to my phone and paid $20 to runkeeper to take part in a Beginner Half Marathon training program. This was probably the smartest thing I did. I am somewhat of a data junkie and I needed to see improvements to my speed / distance / heart rate over time to keep myself motivated. It also helped to see the times of other fatties to compare myself against.

So the training (just for reference, I am a 42 year old male, 6 ft tall, and weighed 189 lbs going in, 173 lbs for the race. I hadn’t done any kind of consistent weight lifting for probably 10 years and no consistent running for probably close to 20). Oh boy. I will just go ahead and make fun of myself…my first three mile run took me almost 34 minutes and my average heart rate was 176 beats per minute! Ha! Loser!!! And I even had to walk for a few seconds going up a couple of the hills! HaHAHAAHAAA! I remember getting home and reading the results on the runkeeper site after my first run and then looking up what a typical heart rate is. The website said I was in the “extreme athlete range” or something to that effect. Obviously, they needed a special heart range titled “About to skinkin' die”! Anyway, like I said, I hate running but I did stick it out. I ended up modifying the program to delete the Saturday runs as I spend my Saturdays building a cabin by the lake. So basically I was running anywhere from 3 or 4 miles in the beginning to 5 or 6 miles later on, on Tuesday and Thursday. Sundays were the long runs and basically they just add another mile almost every week until you hit 13 miles a couple of weeks before the race. Other than some bad foot pain the first 5 or 6 weeks (my foot arches were obviously weak) everything went pretty good. The program was about perfect for me and I enjoyed watching my average heart rate go down almost every time I ran while I slowly increased my pace to 10 minute miles. This ended up being a comfortable pace for me. Seeing the data points was almost enough motivation to keep me going. I had also told my daughters I was going to do the race and from time to time I watched some of the TM youtube videos with them. There is something about watching people get zapped with electricity and landing face first in the mud that just never ceases to be funny.

This video is from our event last weekend. This one shows the crowd and the final 'obstacle'.

This one was at the same location but in January. You can tell that Tough Mudder has continued to improve the course and obstacles and that the crowds are growing!

Getting my daughters to think I am Superman was kind of cool too. So anyway, by the end of the training, I could do 12 miles at a 9:47 pace without feeling exhausted and with an average heart rate of 156 bpm. Not fast AT ALL, but a huge improvement for me. The program worked.

So finally it was race day. Unfortunately due to the distance from my house, Cammie and the girls weren’t able to attend. A lot of people wear costumes to the race. I had my girls take a white t-shirt and let them each write on one side. I told them no hearts or flowers but fire and blood and explosions were fine. Vika asked if bunnies were okay I said not unless they are bleeding or dead. They came up with this….

I have to say I had several moms give me compliments on how sweet the shirt was. There were even two spectators (following their husbands I assume) that would shout ‘go daddy go’ when I ran by in the very beginning. By the way, it seems they do a really good job of laying out the course for spectators to follow the participants. I saw several of the same spectators throughout the day.

So back to the race. Again, what a blast! Tough Mudder markets the thing as “Probably The Toughest Event on the Planet”. Certainly it isn’t...at least not in the perfect weather we had. But some of these things are run in 10-30 degree weather and you are jumping into water the whole time.  That would change the whole dynamic of the event.  In other words, our event wasn't that tough but some of them are bound to be extremely tough.  Regardless, you can make it as tough as you want by pushing yourself as hard as you want.

Tough Mudder does a good job of creating an atmosphere of teamwork and camaraderie (I should mention that the ‘race’ isn’t even timed). They have a live band playing, plenty of activities in the staging area, free Mohawks for anyone that wants one, etc. The ‘race’ is run in waves with roughly 500 people starting every 20 minutes. Before the start, they play the National Anthem and have you recite some silly Tough Mudder pledge...

"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."

 ...Then a little loud music and yelling and screaming to get yourself all pumped up and off you go!

What a blast! The obstacles vary, but almost all of them involve water and mud. One thing that never occurred to me until we actually started running was that this was basically a cow pasture that we had taken over. Most of the mud holes used in the course were, up to a couple of weeks ago apparently, used by cows and the trails were solid cow patties. Anyone that knows anything about cows knows that they like to stand in the water to keep themselves cool. I have never seen a cow leave the water to relieve themselves. By the time we ran the course, there had been over a thousand people that had stirred up the cow manure, cow pee, and water into a nice black broth of filth! I also know for a fact that it is much more convenient to pee in the ponds yourself than the use the handful of porta-potties they provided throughout the course. Trust me.  Too bad for the 7,000 people that followed Jay and I.  If you have ever done any plumbing work on drain lines and know what that black water smells like, that is what some of the water was like. It doesn't taste good either.  I remember going through the ‘swim under the barrels’ obstacle…or whatever they call it…and thinking to myself ‘Now I can say I have swam under water in a sewer’. I can’t believe I didn’t get sick. I could still taste the water the next day and was pulling out sewer boogars for two days. Just in case you were wondering.

Some of the ponds had fish in them and they were mostly dead or dying probably because of all of the silt being kicked up.  Anyway, the course was well marked and there were only a couple of bottlenecks at a couple of obstacles. People were always ready and willing to lend a hand and frankly it got a little annoying if you wanted to get through it on your own.

There really isn’t much else to say about the course itself. The "jump off a high platform into nasty water" obstacle (or whatever it is called) was a little higher than I thought it would be and I thought it was funny that the little TM girl at the top told me to jump or she would throw me off.  All of the obstacles can be completed by someone in good shape as long as you are tall enough. The walls were probably the most difficult as you had to get your timing just right to catch the 2x4 nailed near the bottom while trying to step up and grab the top of the wall (either 8 or 10 feet high depending on the wall). Most people, if they try to go it alone, run and bounce off the wall several times before either making it, or asking for a lift from others. This also seems to be where the most injuries happen...people dropping down on the other side of the wall and breaking ankles and legs from what I hear. Hanging down from a 10 foot wall isn’t a big deal to a 6’ man but if you are short you have a longer drop. I should say that I only saw 2 injuries myself. The first was an overweight guy laying on the ground around mile 2. His wife (an overweight spectator) was standing next to him with a ‘what the heck were you thinking’ look on her face. I also saw a petite little thing with a nice set of gashes on her neck from some barb wire early in the race. It didn’t seem to faze her and she kept going. Her head is probably is getting eaten by flesh eating bacteria by now though.  In general, the obstacles were safe enough and except for the drop from the wall and/or just bad luck or being stupid, most people don't get hurt….just a bunch of scratches and bruises. Other than getting help on one wall (before discovering the correct technique) I was able to do every obstacle by myself. I also fell off of ‘twinkle toes’ (30 foot long balance beam maybe 6’ above the water) on the first attempt but made it the second. The biggest thing with the obstacles, I think, is not being dead tired from running when you attempt them. Most people don’t make a lot of the obstacles at the end. The toughest obstacles were mostly bunched up at the end of the course after you have gone 8 miles or so.

So anyway, right at the end you get to where you can see a large crowd assembled and hear a bunch of yelling and cheering…the finish line. One more obstacle to go. 10,000 volts of electricity running through wires hanging just inches above two shallow mud holes. Twenty feet in front of the ‘obstacle’ is a crowd of competitors trying to get up the courage and / or strategizing how to get through the thing with the least amount of pain. Almost done!

Let me add to my hate list... I hate electricity too. I believe the obstacle was powered by a cattle fencer. I grew up on a farm and had certainly been shocked by them before. But I have to say, I have never been shocked like this! So my strategy, which by the way didn’t work…AT ALL…was to run full speed and just get through it. Here is the problem. You don’t actually see the obstacle itself until you round the corner and then realize there are two mud holes underneath. My thought process at the last moment was ‘if I stay in the air I can’t get shocked because I won’t be grounded’ so I tried to jump as far as I could. Umm nope. As I was in the air I felt a nice solid SNAP in my neck (I had a red mark the next day) and proceeded to face plant into the ground. FYI...getting zapped in the head hurts worse than getting zapped elsewhere and it kind of makes you dizzy for a second.  Half dazed I hear a ‘OOOOH!’ from the crowd and try to get up and crawl. SNAP! I took another shock in the ribs and heard another nice response from the crowd. Down again. Ugh!

By then I was just crawling and flailing trying to get out of there. Imagine a 40 something balding fat man flailing about in the mud…that would be me. The announcer yells ‘keep crawling! you are almost out!’...I kept going and as I crawled out of the last mud hole visualized a dying Wildebeast making his final attempt to get out of the lake away from the crocodile....finally I didn't feel any more jolts and figured I was out. I crawled to my feet and stumbled over to the four hotties at the finish line handing out head bands (Cammie says maybe they weren’t cute…maybe I was still dazed). Anyway, a couple of seconds later and a slap on the butt from Blondie and I was done!



I will say that next time I do a Tough Mudder I will approach every obstacle with more confidence than I did last time…all of them except this ‘Electroshock Therapy’ obstacle. I didn’t like it one bit and I am already cringing at what it will feel like next time. Next time I cover my head!  I wish I had myself on video going through it though. It would have been priceless. Luckily they caught a couple of photos.

So what did I learn?  As dumb as it sounds, I learned that it is worth 16 weeks of training just so I can enjoy a few hours of bodily abuse. I will say it again, I had a blast!

As for the training itself? I was generally well prepared although my teammate messed his knees up so we couldn't run the whole course. I can't claim victory unless I make every obstacle (which I did) and run the whole course (which I did not).  The day after felt like a typical Saturday morning after a high school football game…slight soreness and plenty of scratches and bruises. No big deal. Except my abs! One huge oversight on my part was that I didn’t do any core training. I didn’t realize how much I was going to use my abs to climb and move through the mud. My abs were killing me the next day. Other than the running I did, I did a few push-ups and pull-ups every once in a while but mostly ignored everything but the running. Participants shouldn’t be fooled into thinking they need a bunch of weight training. This is a running event. You are travelling 12 miles. There seemed to be a belief out there (judging from FB posts) that you can train for 5-7 miles and somehow magically run twice that distance on race day. A LOT of people were cramping up around mile 8 or so and it wasn't even that hot out. I would recommend to anyone to make a half marathon training program in terrain similar to your event course priority one and add the rest only if you have time for it.  Anyone with average upper body strength and healthy joints can make the obstacles and they can make them by themselves if they are tall enough.

As for future events? I am pretty much hooked. I have a way to go to get to where I want to be as far as my fitness level goes but I am looking forward to more multi-hour, extremely boring training runs just so I can do it again. It is SO worth it! I am already signed up for the event in MN in May and plan on doing the Dallas event next year as well. Frankly, I wish I had the money to travel to one of these every couple of months. In fact. Mom, Dad, Cammie, whoever…a perfect Christmas present would be a plane ticket, a tent, a sleeping bag, and an entry fee to the January Phoenix event! Hint hint!

Here are a few photos from the event.
And here is a link to some additional photos.