Just about two weeks ago I did something that I said I would NEVER do! I did a Tough Mudder race!
The first time I heard about the Tough Mudder series I immediately decided that it wasn’t for me. I mean there were water obstacles AND height obstacles. Both of which freak me out. Plus it just looked really hardcore and I wasn’t sure if I could do something like that. And then I read this blog post from Kirsten at Running in a Girl’s World and I changed my mind! I wanted to do what she did. Minus the ankle issue of course. So I signed up!
The day before my Tough Mudder I was extremely nervous. I started questioning if I could actually do such a crazy race. I reached out to many of my friends with the hopes that they would talk me out of doing it and not a single one did! Thank goodness I have good friends! The morning of the race I was still a bundle of nerves. Luckily Heidi from Banana Buzzbomb was waiting for me at the Tough Mudder parking lot. I am bummed we didn’t take a pic of us so I could share it with you. But I am so glad I got to meet her! She was super nice and friendly and meeting her helped take my mind off my nervousness about the race. Plus she was nice enough to hold my bag since the bag check people were being extremely frustrating and only giving bags BACK to people instead of taking new bags at the time I needed to check my bag. Thanks Heidi!
Just before my wave started I met up with my team!
That was the first time that I had met any of them in person! And I am so thankful I had them to support me throughout the race! I would have never been able to do it without each and every one of them!
The running portions of the Tough Mudder were easy for me, although I will admit that there were times that I walked. I probably could have run the entire course but since I didn’t have a time goal I just let myself do whatever I felt like doing. The obstacles however, were definitely a challenge! I had decided before the race that if I wasn’t comfortable doing any of the obstacles, I would just go around it. I am proud to stay that I only avoided 3 obstacles, but I did all the rest!
Click on the link below to check out the official Tough Mudder Michigan / Ohio video to see firsthand the crazy course I did!
The three obstacles that I avoided were walk the plank, twinkle toes & the obstacle that had rings with water underneath.
Walk the plank was WAY too high and had WAY too much water for me. I avoided the other two because I was cold and I knew that I wouldn’t make it across and therefore would fall into the water and get even colder.
The obstacles that I am the proudest to say that I completed were the Berlin Walls and Everest.
The Berlin walls are high! I am so grateful that I had my team supporting me as I may have decided just to avoid them. But they hoisted me up the wall and when I panicked on top of the first one, one of the guys was nice enough to run around to the other side to make sure I made it down unscathed.
It took me two tries to get up Everest. The first attempt resulted in a sore hip and some bruises on my butt. On my second attempt, I was able to reach the hand of one of the guys on my team and then was pulled up! I was so pumped when I finally got up there! It felt great!
Me taking my walk of shame back into line after my 1st failed attempt.
I am super happy to report that I did not get shocked! Not even once! Turns out that being small was an advantage for me. I was able to go in between the wires on all the shock obstacles without touching them! Phew!
At the end of the race I was bestowed with the coveted orange headband! And I was finally a Tough Mudder!
Don't I look like a bad ass in this pic? 
I drove home that day feeling pretty damn proud of myself! To be honest, the Tough Mudder wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely a challenge and by far the hardest race I have ever ran. However, I trained really hard for it and I think that is why I felt pretty good at the end of it.
I am also proud to report that I raised over $700 for the Wounded Warrior Project. Thank you to everyone who helped with my fundraiser! It was SO appreciated!!! And let’s not forget about all of the fabulous Soldier Story Saturday posts that got featured on my blog. Thanks to everyone who contributed a story!
I was very proud to have those names on my race shirt!
And now that I have finally managed to clean all the mud off of me and my stuff . . . I can’t wait to sign up for my next one!
