Tough Mudder PA 1 Race Review

Okay, Tough Mudder PA.

Background: I did Tough Mudder PA in 2011, and it was at Bear Creek. It was listed as 7 or 8 miles last year but was really 9 or 10 miles. I can't remember. The race report can be found here. This year, it was at Pocono Manor and the supposed race distance was 11 miles. The course map is found here.

Again, they lied about the distance and all the obstacles were out of order. This is typical of Tough Mudder events. I probably won't remember every single obstacle, so keep in mind this is based on memory.

I drove up to Allentown and stayed overnight the night before. I dislike driving 3+ hours on race day because you need to be there 2 hours in advance and you never know with traffic. So I stayed in a hotel in Allentown, which was the closest I could get to the Tough Mudder. I guess the area surrounding Pocono Manor is pretty rural, which is typical of these events. As such, I had to stay about 35 miles away, but that's certainly better than the 160 miles away that I live.

I was up at 7am and out the door by 8am. My wave was at 10:40, but I knew from experience that parking and registration doesn't take 2 hours. I was hoping that I could sneak in to an earlier wave. Since I'm a SOLO runner, it's not that hard to do. Please don't do this if you are a group, since that can really screw up by overcrowding a particular wave. I know, I know, hypocritical.

So first we had to climb a wall just to get to the start line. It was an 8' wall with a board about 3' up to help you get over. I was surprised the "board step" was there to help you over since the berlin walls in the course in the previous year were just straight walls. Oh, yeah, I forgot to go into the parking thing. You park over at Pocono Raceway and are bussed to Pocono manor, which is about 15-20 minutes away from the event. I'm used to this because they did the same thing with the previous TM PA and Warrior Dashes. I guess parking is onsite at some TM events. Then you go to registration, get marked with marker on your forehead and a limb.



I checked my bag at bag drop and hopped over the wall for the 10:00 wave along with everyone else. The announcer guy for this event was pretty hilarious and great at getting us pumped up for the event. I'm usually terrified during the start line because I keep thinking about "oh god, I have 11 miles of pain ahead of me". I'm not one of those people who is like, "YEAHHHHHH I'M GONNA KILL IT!!!!" I'm more like, "Please don't let me get injured or quit and humiliate myself with all the people who are going to know I quit."

The announcer guy brought up the theme of the Tough Mudder: leave no mudder behind AND if people tell us that we cannot do something, we tell them bullshit. This is what I love about these races. This is the heart of why I do them. People may call me insane. People may say that they don't get why I do it. But the fact of the matter is that while other people are busy saying, "I can't do that," I am saying, "I CAN do that and I WILL do that." As the announcer guy says, Tough Mudders have true grit--the ability to push our bodies beyond pain. And this is the number one feeling that I love about these events. I love that even though I'm usually in excruciating pain, I do not give up. It's not part of my vocabulary to give up.

So when 10:00 rolled around, it was time to go! They sent us off on a trail, but thankfully, it was not single track. It was very slow moving until we broke out into a spread of people who move quickly versus people like me in the back, haha. After...I dunno...a quarter mile to a half mile, we came upon the first obstacle: Kiss of Mud (as an aside, I will be lucky if I remember the rest of the names of the obstacles). This involves crawling through mud under barbed wire. It's a low crawl. Apparently, a few waves ahead of us, the barbed wire looked like this:



That's ice on the barbed wire. Awesome huh? It was really cold that day--only reaching a high of 45.

I had no problems with this one, but they were also spraying us with a sprinkler. Unlike last year, at Bear Creek where they made us do this over ROCKS, this was a cake walk. After that was some more running and I was feeling pretty good. I can't remember exactly where Arctic Enema was, but I think it was after mile 1. Arctic Enema is where they have huge pools of water with ice in it and you have to go under a barrier. Thus you are completely submerged in REALLY EFFING COLD WATER. I jumped in and screamed like a banshee and the volunteer just kept telling me to go right under. I did, but in the process, I lost my precious oakley's. My hands were numb and there went my sunglasses. :( :( :( To make matters worse, I had a hard time getting out of the tub because there were no steps or a ladder...and I have no teammates. So I had to grab at a corner and pull myself out while screaming from how cold it was.

Then came a longer running jag up and down hills...and of course, over rocks. For those of you who don't know, I run in Vibrams for the fact that they dry faster and I don't have to worry about them being soaked. The drawback is that it's very hard for me to handle rocky terrain because the rocks jab my arches. It really hurts. So I had to walk/run this section, doing my best while watching my fingers turn blue. They went from numb to burning and I was starting to get really worried about it. I was worried about becoming hypothermic and losing my fingers over a race. As I walked along, I decided to take off my gloves and see if it got any better. My fingers were COLD, as were my arms. My trunk was warm and my feet were fine, but my fingers were my main concern for like the next mile.

I do have to say that the mudders took the "take care of your own" much better this year compared to last year. Dozens of people made sure I was okay as we were trudging along.

I considered quitting at this point. I was seriously worried that my fingers wouldn't get enough circulation. I said that I would re-check how I felt as I got closer to a spectator area. If I was still in horrible shape, I'd consider it. But for now, there was nothing I could do since there were no volunteers around, nothing. Now I either passed the four guys carrying the tractor tire here or after the first set of berlin walls. Regardless, somewhere in the beginning of the race, I passed a set of GoRuck guys who were banded together in carrying a very very very heavy tractor tire through the whole race. Most of the people around me were like, "WTF" but I recognized the patches from my failed attempt at a GORUCK challenge and the camaraderie. Again, this is what i love about TM. Not only are people insane enough to do the race, but they're insane enough to continue pushing the envelope in order to develop "team" cohesiveness. Somewhere around here were the 10' Berlin Walls. I managed to get over them by myself with a slight boost from a nice gentlemen who saw the distress on my face. All I could think about were my fingers. After I got over them, I got back to jogging and just wanted to cry. I couldn't figure out why I was doing this. I had this same breakdown during TM last year, but I had the break down somewhere around mile 8 near the end. This made me even more freaked out since it was happening so early this time. I still had 9 miles to go! I was already crying?!?!?!

I kept trudging along through this very rocky rolling hilly section with a couple of stream crossings. We also had some scary downhills where I was sure my vibrams would fail me and I'd fall down the rocky hill. It was then that I realized that what goes down must also come up. I came upon Death March....the long as hill climb part of the course. I hate hills and there was no way that i could run this one. I trudged up very very slowly whereupon I reached the top and pulled over to pull out my Jelly Belly Sport Beans. I also remembered last year where I ran out of blood sugar and water very early in the race and was kinda hosed as they only offered water around 3x during the course. This time I was prepared. It was around this time that I realized that my fingers weren't as bad, so I said that i'd keep going. I told myself that I probably wasn't going to do "Walk the Plank" which was the jump off the 15' platform into the icy water below. If I was having issues with hypothermia at this point, I wasn't sure it was worth pushing the envelope.

There was a rather long running jag around this point--same type of terrain: rocky, hilly, full of branches. I encountered a trio of women that I shared some of my jelly beans with since they said they were "running out of gas". I ended up passing them and I'm not quite sure if they ever finished. We were only around mile 3 at this point and they were pretty worn out, as I was as well. We had another uphill climb with....firewalker at the top. So not only were you out of breath from the hill, but RIGHT AFTER you had to run through smoke and get your lungs all congested. Yay! I think I spent the next half hour hacking. BUT....they had an aid station, and I considered adding to my camelbak, but my fingers still kinda hurt at this point. What's even MORE interesting is that most of the aid stations had portapotties AND food of some kind. They gave away sharkies at the one after the smoke, I believe. So this may have been closer to mile 4 or 5, because it was at this point where we went along the golf course before going under the road. I saw that it was an out and back and briefly got my hopes up that it was a quick out and back. Nope, the "out and back" loop was around 3 miles, haha. It briefly crossed my mind to just duck under the divider and "skip" the 3 miles, but I steadfastly determined that I was going to do this right, even though my feet already hurt and running on pavement in the Vibrams wasn't good after all those rocks.

The next obstacle that I remember was Devil's Beard, I think? It's where you have to crawl under a cargo net, which sounds easier than it is. You need to rely on other mudders to hold the cargo net taut and high so you can get by. I came upon a group of men and relieved one of them so that he could go through. Then someone relieved me and I crawled under. Pretty easy obstacle, but it does require some team work. Some more running and I believe this is where we came upon mile 6 with the sign that said that we were halfway done. Aha...they lied again, it was at least 12 miles. I'd already heard this at this point, so i suspected it would happen.

We came upon another set of portapotties and "Hold Your Wood". You need to carry a tree trunk piece around...I dunno...a quarter mile or so? I think each piece weighs around 40 lbs. I heaved mine onto my shoulder and trudged along. I didn't see anyone running with their wood and I certainly wasn't going to try, haha. I always love these ones, like during Primal Mud Run with the sandbags. Strength is my strong suit, versus running, so I always like these types of obstacles. I had no issues with this one and started jogging along with some more trail/rocks/branch run-walking. I came upon a guy who was suffering from some cramps, so I gave him some of my jelly belly sport beans that seemed to have some potassium. I always come prepared, so I must be very well liked on the course! haha. He and his friends ended up passing me, but I caught up to them at the next aid station which had more portapotties AND bananas. So that guy really lucked out regarding his leg cramps as bananas are great for muscle cramps.

The next obstacle was the cargo net climb, but the bottom of the net isn't very well secured. Again, you need to rely on other mudders to hold the bottom for you. Some people are assholes who won't hold it, just go up and down, but I feel that you must always put in what you take out, so I held the bottom for a couple of people too. I think it was around this time that we completed that loop and this is where we met up with the people exiting the firewalker obstacle. I ran into someone who was walking by and asked if she could please call Brian to tell him I'd reached mile marker 8 and was expecting to be another hour and a half because the course was really 12 miles. that was really nice of her.

And....it was decision time for me. It was time to decide if I was going to do Walk the Plank. I actually decided AGAINST it because the weather hadn't warmed up enough and I didn't want to go through the hypothermia that I'd had in the earlier part of the race. I know it's controversial to skip and obstacle, but I don't really care. I wasn't going to get hypothermia over this. Since I'm doing it again in two weeks, if it's warmer, I won't skip it. I heard a lot of people saying how cold they were after they rejoined the running course while being sopping wet. I do not regret skipping it.

We were toward the specatator area at this point. We had to army crawl under some more barbed wire and came upon the hardest obstacle: Mt Everest. This was half of a half pipe (ie a quarter pipe)...like a skateboard half pipe. It's greased and wet. And you need to charge up it, grab some hands that are dangling down to catch you and be pulled up. This one is ALL ABOUT team work. Some women who are not tall or strong enough to charge up need to have a bunch of people lie on the half pipe and help them all the way up. I do not have this problem, but I did skid down it at least twice before someone got a good hold on me. And yes, I am heavy. :-\ The line for this obstacle was pretty long so I ate up a lot of time, but tada, I saw mile marker 9 and figured I was 3/4 of the way done. After this was Electric Eel, where you low crawl under dangling electrical wires. Rock Solid Mud Run 1 had this same obstacle. I have a lot of junk in the trunk so I have the tendency to get zapped in the ass. A LOT. Electrocution doesn't really scare me, but I still knew it was going to hurt. I put down my camelbak (I didn't want anything making me "taller") and stepped in...to the water. Oh yes, they soaked the area we have to crawl through to make it worse. I got zapped about 4 times in total and OMG did it hurt. It was breathtaking...literally. A lot of women were trying to slowly maneuver themselves through the wires, thus succeeding in being electrocuted a lot.

There was another aid station around here. I remember seeing that this was another place where the course going out meets up with the course coming back and I briefly, again, considered "cheating" but cutting across. But my honor always gets the better of me in this. It was some more trail with rocks, branches, etc. My feet were KILLING me at this point. I knew I'd have blisters, but at the time, I had no idea how bad they'd be. Every step was like torture, but I kept on going, at a much slower pace. I pretty much walked those last few miles because my feet just couldn't take it. My legs were burning from a combination of the electricity and soreness. This was another low point of the race for me.

And then we came upon the second set of berlin walls...12 feet this time. Ugh, these were hard, and everyone around me was exhausted. I was seriously beat and I kept thinking that last year, I was essentially done at this point, but I still had another 5k to go. Like I said, it was a low point of the race for me. I was cold, but not quite hypothermic, and I hurt. I was in a lot of pain and I kept wondering why the hell I was doing this. I'd been at it for 3 hours, 45 minutes at this point and I just wanted to be done. I was at mile 10 and knew there was still at least two to go, if not more. Plus even more obstacles. The last obstacles were the Funky Monkey (Monkey Bars) which I made through...like 2 of before dropping into the water. Then we had the Mud Mile, which is hills and pools of water. Then it was Boa Constrictor, which is crawling through corrugated tubes into ice water. Just more and more and more wetness. I was soaked and tired and just wanted to be DONE already. Then we had the other mystery obstacle, which were the rings.

The rings intrigued me because it was just like that event in American Gladiator where you monkey from ring to ring and I so wanted to be good at this. But they were wet and greasy and my arms hurt, so down I went into the water. Again. Then we had twinkle toes, which was balancing across a board and...of course I couldn't balance. I was seriously just...done. More wetness.

I was running through the woods and...I saw Brian and Logan. Logan was so happy to see me. He screamed "MOMMY!!!!!!!" Brian told me that it was only a little bit more. At this point, I'd passed the 12 mile marker about a half mile previously. So...like I said, it was closer to 13 miles. He told me that there was only one more obstacle left. And of course, it was Electroshock Therapy, which is an audience favorite. You have to run through dangling live wires. As I said last year, I refused to believe that they were 10k volts. Oh but they are. And they hurt like a mofo. You can HEAR them shocking people. I ran up to it, stopped and it took a little while to work up the gumption to go through.



I cannot get over how much that hurts. There was the announcer guy, who gave me a fist bump and I crossed the finish line. In a daze, I was given my orange headband, my beer, my other swag (technical t-shirt, protein bars, etc).

I am a tough mudder sophomore!



Oh...now I remember an obstacle I forgot. We had to crawl through a tunnel into the earth. that wasn't that bad either, but it was dizzying.

So....bottom line:

--They've done WONDERS with the organization and aid stations. I'm SO SO SO glad they've increased the number of aid stations, added bananas along with water, and added portapotties. VERY SMART on their part
--They've ratcheted up the insanity by quite a bit. If you're not in reasonably good shape or have sheer force of will to put yourself through pain, don't do this kind of stuff. It takes a special kind of person.
--The course was harder than last year. I finished in 4.5 hours, compared to 4 hours last year...but this course was 3 miles longer. I think they did a good job at arranging the harder obstacles versus the easier ones.
--The people were better about helping more this year, except that when I got toward the end, people were kinda jerky about passing in the woods in order to get a better time. I realize the reason for this is that it's likely a later wave that is lapping people toward the end, but seriously, people this isn't about time. It's about challenging yourself and HELPING OTHER PEOPLE FINISH. Calm down, okay?

Next up: Same race in two weeks, Tough Mudder PA 2!

Primal Mud Run (2) Race Report

So Primal Mud Run.

I've done this one before. I reviewed it here. The one in November was its inaugural run, so this was their second event. The distance was the same: approximately 4 miles. The obstacles were NOT all the same, but the course followed the same path as previously.

The "wave setup" was exactly the same too. You signed up for a wave time (in my case 11:00) and when your wave time came up, you were put in the holding pen and released 4 people at a time or so in order to prevent course crowding. I looooooooooooooooooooove this setup, but it would never work in the large events like Tough Mudder or Warrior Dash. I think only a couple thousand people participate in this event, so it works out fine.

Last time, there was a wall, followed by flipping a tire three times, then a 20' cargo net climb. According to race organizers, it was "too difficult" to put them one after the other like that and they were getting a lot of snags of people holding up the race. I did think the three events right after one another were the hardest part of the whole course, but I LOVED that we were challenged that way. So I wasn't happy when they reduced it to just the wall at the beginning. And the tires were COMPLETELY GONE, again, probably due to backlogging of people.

I was in group F (Foxtrot), the letter assigned to everyone in the 11:00 wave. You had to write your number and your letter on your left arm. This is standard practice in all events except the Warrior Dash, I believe. They don't do race bibs. Personally, I think race bibs are stupid because they rip off after the first wall. They DID chip time the race (like last time). There was some confusion, for first timers, as to what to do. They could have done a better job explaining this...or perhaps people didn't read the packet emails that came out just before the race. I have no idea.

When I got there, I saw a group of people charge at the wall, Thor being one of them. he threw his hammer at the wall....and it bounced right off. Part of me was hoping that he'd knock the wall clean over because...uh...I get performance anxiety about having to climb a wall in front of spectators. Last time, I was helped by that group of women. This time, I was looking around trying to locate another group that would be so kind.

As an aside, this is always my fear in these races, since most people do them as a team. I fear this in the Tough Mudder in a couple of weeks.

When it was my turn to line up (and this time they WERE enforcing wave times by checking your letter before letting you into the holding pen), I befriended an older man and woman couple who were doing it for the first time. I anxiously asked if they'd help me over the wall and they said that they would.


That's us standing, waiting to go.

When it was our turn to go, the guy said that he'd go first, then come back around to help us. I decided to actually attack the wall, so I ran at it, cognizant of how many women did this and bounced right off. I ran at it, grabbed the top, gripped on and pulled myself up. Then I was able to hook my right leg over and my legs are extremely powerful. I was able to pull my body over with my right leg and when I was straddling the top, I had this huge smile on my face. The crowd cheered and I stuck a fist in the air.











This was, essentially, my crowning achievement of the entire race. Of ANY race. I've never scaled a wall on my own before. We ran over the slight hill and into the tunnel. Out the tunnel and around a bit, over a fence, and this is where we encountered the cargo net--the seemingly shorter cargo net, and instead of up and over, you had to run up a log to a platform, then balance across a 4" board to another platform, then up and over. The 4" board were like 5' above a mud pit that was...I have no idea how deep. This was actually the most terrifying obstacle as far as I was concerned due to the fact that it looked like you could seriously injure yourself if you fell off the "balance beam". I took the easy way out by straddling two boards and waddling up it. The cargo net was easy, and off we were for a running jag before the icy cold water and barrels. The water, last time, was around 50 degrees and I was hypothermic after the race. This time...it was slightly warmer. And the air temperature was in the 70's so it wasn't horrible at all. I was actually able to dip my head under the water this time (8x in total for all the barrels).

I was putting my over shirt back ON because I knew how cold it was


After the water was another running jag along a plain until we reached a new obstacle. You had to climb up a rope ladder, grab a rope, that went from the end you were at to the other end. Then you hang yourself upside down with your hands holding on to the rope and your ankles holding up your lower half. I don't know what this is actually called in any kind of boot camp, but I call it an inverted rope climb, since you're handing upside down. This crap hurt. It hurt bad. Bring gloves. Holy crap. It took awhile because I was hooking my legs around my knees, not my ankles, because the pressure was too much for my ankles.

From here, we had to run through the woods up a huge hill that was at this ridiculous incline. This was the only large, steep hill. The whole course, though, was rolling hills, which explains my time, haha. Once you made it to the top and through the clearing, it was slightly downhill and you had the waterslide (ie tarps and water). Last time, the water pit that caught you at the end was full of tarps that were like "seaweed" that would trip you. They did a better job of fixing it this time, but the "sliding" was much slower. This is, allegedly, the halfway point where they gave us the only water station of the course. Last time, I didn't care. This time, I was actually kinda hot, and I ended up dehydrated when the whole thing was over.

Back up the hills for a bit of a running jag and then the "warrior dash-style" obstacles where you climb through a "window", go over and under short walls and planks. They included some plyo boxes for you to jump on, which I assume most people just treated as rocks that you jumped from one to the next. There was another log balance beam thing, but it was an inverted V, rather than a straight beam. This is where I gained ground because the hills weren't horrible and the obstacles were not bad either. It was interspersed with several running jags. They put the sandbag that was at the beginning of the course over at this point. You had to carry this 40 lb sandbag up and down a hill. This was also the section where they had more walls to climb, none of which were as tall as the first. So it was 3 walls in a row, hill, high knees through tires, down the hill, up a wall with a rope, over another wall, and then down these corrugated tubes into freaking ice water. I always go head first. Then you had to army crawl through water, over rocks, and you were out the other side. This is where you reach the final few obstacles.

They added another obstacle just as you were soaked. You had to climb a rope (some had knots to hoist yourself on). This was extremely hard to do when your hands are wet. Again, bring gloves. You climb it to the top, come back down into a mud pit. Then you climb a climbing wall, which was slippery as hale. From there, you go to what they called "mud hills". Up and down this slippery hills of mud followed by pits of "mud quick sand" as I called it. At one point, I was stuck and nearly lost my shoe. A group of guys that worked at a local mine quarry helped me out, and thankfully, I didn't lose my shoe. We went up another hill and over the giant bales of hay to the final "real" obstacle: the monkey bars. Last time, we could not climb on top of them, so I had to swing my way across via my arms and legs. This time, we were allowed on top, so I crabwalked across them and was on my merry way to two more hay bales and the finish line. They dug trenches in the mud and put barbed wire over it.







All done!

I finished in about 1:35 which is close to where I finished last time. I realize that's incredibly slow for a 4 mile race, considering I finished Big Bash Obstacle Dash in like 40 minutes, but the obstacles were much much harder. I said it before regarding this race, but it's like a miniature tough mudder.

Final Thoughts:

I love this race. It will always be close to my heart, since I scaled my first wall and in the previous incarnation, I made it across those monkey bars in a very unique way. It was only $40 for me to enter, so it's on the cheaper side for these races. It's a good distance for a beginner and I like the difficulty of the obstacles! I miss the tires though.

Next up: Tough Mudder PA

Race Planning and My Workout

I've started to solidify my race schedule for 2012. I've already signed up for both Pennsylvania Tough Mudders (I think the first is 29 April and the second is two weeks later). I've also signed up for Primal Mud Run two for April 14th. I definitely want to attack Tough Mudder Wintergreen since I was too sick to participate this past October. I believe they're opening a Tough Mudder DC, which I'd also like to give a shot. I'd like to try some startup races as well as a Spartan Race.

I think I've given up on Warrior Dashes. They're too overpopulated, too easy, and too full of the weekend warrior. They're not "true" feats of athleticism and after the parking debacle of last year and the stupid way the volunteers were behaving, I'm kinda done with it.

Oh, yeah, I signed up for RunForYourLives Baltimore again. That's in October.

So I guess I should spent the majority of this winter training my ass off (literally). Yeah, well, grad school is kicking my ass. Work is pretty intense toward the end of the year, and my personal life is meh. I see the workouts listed on Spartan Race's FB pages and I'm like, "Uh......what?" They're crossfit-like. I'd love to get in to crossfit, but I don't have the equipment and there are absolutely no affiliates in Harford County.

As such, and the fact that I don't have much time until I finish these school/work projects, I picked up George St. Pierre Rushfit ($89) to give a shot. It consists of 6 DVDs and runs for about 8 weeks. I decided to go with the "intermediate" circuit suggestion. Each workout is a 10 minute warmup, a 30 minute work out that consists of 5 minute rounds with 1 minute rest (it ends up being a little closer to 35 minutes if you include the breaks). I'm on day 6, right before my rest day. I'm reasonably impressed with the workouts thus far and I took a "before" picture (that I will not share at the moment, heh). I just don't think that 30 minutes a day, even at high intensity, is enough to get appreciable amount of weight off of me.

I guess I should acknowledge what my goals are. I am ridiculously slow when I run these races. It's due, mostly, to the fact that my cardiovascular health is poor. I mean, maybe not POOR but I do not score in the high ends of cardio. Mostly, this is because I seem to have a yearly dance with pneumonia of some sort and my lungs are scarred--thus cardio of painful for me. And then I don't want to do it. My forte is strength. I am ridiculously strong. But my endurance sucks. I kinda feel that I'm not pushing myself hard enough on a day to day basis to increase my cardiovascular endurance. I also feel that if I were more compact and muscular, I'd be faster. I carry excess weight as fat, thus I'm slower than I should be. Or at least that's what the visualization in my head tells me.

I've loosely followed the Rushfit schedule this past week, except that on Saturday and Sunday I was too busy studying to work out, so I doubled up yesterday. I'm definitely sore. We'll see where it leads!

Primal Mud Run Race Report

I had a race in warrenton, VA this past weekend. It was the Primal Mud Run. It's an inaugural run and it seemed like they didn't give a whole lot of information out about it. Or perhaps I didn't look into it that clearly. I thought it was a regular 5k ala Warrior Dash, thus, I didn't put too much thought into it. It wasn't until I realized that I hadn't read the participant packet and opened it up that I realized it was different.

It said that if you skip an obstacle, you must do 20 burpees. Burpees are this exercise where you start standing, squat down, kick your feet out so that you're in a plank position, lower down into a pushup, come back up, kick your feet back, and jump up. They make me puke with all the up and down. Zuzana of BodyRock.TV is a fan of them. It goes without saying that I am not.

I stayed the entire weekend in Warrenton because it's really close to my favorite Spa, Poplar Inn. I did not stay at the Inn, though, due to it being "leaf season" and room rates being $279 a night. No thanks. Getting to the race was not a problem, and no parking issues ensued like at RunForYourLives, probably due how how hard the ground is in Virginia and how cold it was.

Ah yes, it was 40 degrees. This did not bode well that even in my normal running attire, I was shivering. It didn't help that I was sick.

When I got marked (they mark you on your forehead like the Tough Mudder and didn't even bother with race bibs, thank you), I looked over at the start line. Now this is where Primal Mud Run is a little bit different than the others. They start you in groups of 4, continuously. You're supposed to get in line 10 minutes before your wave time, but uh...the line was long, so I got in line around 10 (an hour before). They have a group of 4 start and when they've cleared the first couple of obstacles, they send in the next four so that there are no backups.

I have to say, this actually worked. REALLY smart on their part.

Anyway, I looked over and saw that the first obstacle was a 10' wall and that thing about the burpees flashed into my mind. Not to mention, this wall was in full view of the spectators so there was the real possibility that I was going to be doing burpees, immediately, in front of an audience. Great. Then I looked over and saw that immediately after the wall were tires that you had to flip, then a huge cargo net. This was nothing like the Warrior Dash. The obstacles were different than all the other races I'd been in. They were more crossfit-like, and then it occurred to me that this goes along with the "primal" motif as the Paleo-diet people are really into simply "move around and lift heavy things" types of workouts.

I got in line and was talking to this set of 3 women from West Virginia who were really freaked out about doing the wall. I said that if we were in the same heat, I could help them out. I mean, after all, I helped a guy over a wall at Rock Solid 2, so I could practically toss these ladies over. The question is, would they be able to help me?

We saw quite a few guys just LEAP right over in feats of awesome athleticism that leave me drooling in jealousy still. We saw a couple of women make it over themselves like little spider monkeys. When it was our turn, we ran right at the wall, and I stopped, helping each one over until it was my turn. No problem! (if you're on my FB, I have video of this).

Then came the truck tires. I had no problem with this as I am HULKSMASH strong. One of the smaller women did have a problem, though, so I helped her flip hers in order to avoid burpees.




Then came the cargo net. Now, it looks far more secured than it is. You end up with your upper body kinda swinging backwards so you're climbing at this weird incline. The littler woman to my left didn't make it over and had to do the burpees which were enforced (if you didn't, you were kicked off the course).




I'm at the top, trying to convince her to come over, rather than quit

My heart rate was already pretty high at this point, and I was close to throwing up. We ran through a tunnel, over some haybales, and over to this area where we had to pick up at 20 lb sandbag. Then we had to carry it around for awhile, and into this water crossing that went up to my knees and later hips. Holy CRAP was the water cold. It was so cold that I felt like my insides were burning. I also slipped a few times in the mud and fell, complete with the sandbag. I tossed it down where we were supposed to and told the ladies to go on without me. I needed to get my heart rate down because I was close to puking. They reluctantly went on without me and I walked a bit to get my heartrate down until it was time to go into the next water crossing. You have to go across this little pond and under these barrels. The water was so cold that it was paralyzing.





This is me walking off the paralysis of the cold

After this it was a jag of running up this huge hill into the woods. After you get to the top, you go down a slip n slide into a pool at the end. Well that was all fine, except the tarps weren't tamped down at the end and so it was like walking through a pool of tarp sea anemones that trip you up as you try to get out (I don't have pictures from this point until the end). I slipped and fell a few more times. After this was the long jag of running, which I spent run/walking because of the hills. I also kept tripping over the fines that were in the ground due to the fact that vibram five fingers give you five more chances to snag a foot under a vine. I tripped about a bazillion times. During this long running jag, we had more walls to scale 6' and a couple of 5', a bunch of haybales, a wall that you climb with a rope, some balance beams, over unders, etc. I don't think you went more than 1/3 of a mile without some kind of obstacle. We also had to army crawl down these tubes into rocky water and then climb out into mud. Toward the very end, we came upon a monkey bar thing. I was like, "Are you kidding me? I'm soaked, cold, and I can't even feel my fingers." Sure enough, I saw a whole bunch of guys doing burpees. I thought for sure that if I did any burpees, I would puke (again...at this point, I'd thrown up 3 times). I got up and asked the guy, "Can we get over any way that we can?"

He said, "yes, as long as you don't climb on top."

So, i hooked my elbows over each bar, and then hooked my legs over the bars and slowly made my way across by monkeying it with my arms and legs. These guys that were doing burpees were like, "What? How is that fair?" and the guy said, "Hey, she used her brain. Being primal is about being smart, not just strong. Get back to it."

My arms kill, still, from this.

Over some more hay bales and then we came upon the final mud crawl with barbed wire that snagged me.






I was essentially hypothermic for the rest of the day. Even after a hot shower and blankets and warm clothes, I was shivering and my fingertips were blue.

I finished in 1:37 and well...I'm impressed that I did. I know that's slow for essentially a 4 mile course but this was, IMO, a mini Tough Mudder.

Final Thoughts:

They did a great job with parking, but this wasn't a very crowded event.
I'm so happy I didn't have to bother with a bib.
The obstacles were really innovative and interesting, and the course was a good combination of hills.
I do like that you can't skip obstacles or face burpees.
I'd definitely do it again.

I need to work on being in better shape for explosive power and high intensity cardio though. My lungs were practically seized up with how high my heart rate was and I'm still coughing today. It was my last race of the year, but one of my favorites!

So there is nothing next up for awhile! I'm going to start solidifying my race schedule soon.

Run For Your Lives Race Report

I really do not want to write up this one since it will remind me that I did not do the Tough Mudder. And I have crap going on that is really draining. But I know that a lot of people are interested in this one.

So on Saturday I did Run For Your Lives, the 5k zombie chase's inaugural race just 20 minutes away from where I live. It was like kismet when i signed up back in April. Only....it got really popular, including commercials, leading up to it and sold out. Over 10,000 runners were doing it, and I suspected that the 2 lane roads in Darlington around where I live were going to end up backed up just like what happened at the Warrior Dash.

I left about 2.5 hours before my wave time of 10:00am. I needed every minute of it. I got over to the venue alright, but I was stuck in traffic for a short period of time (maybe 20 minutes or so?).


The traffic including cutesy signs

I had to park in a field, and what do you know? It was wet and muddy...just like the warrior dash, so cars were getting stuck. I parked and started to gather my things when the dumb bitch next to opened her car door and slammed into mine. She didn't even really apologize, just shrugged at me and walked away. When I got out of my car to inspect the damage, she didn't apologize. She just turned her back and walked away. I half expected to see a plate from Jersey on her car.

The line for the bus was pretty painful and long. Just like TM and WD, you park in a field and they bus you to the race since the venue rarely has that kind of parking infrastructure. Well.....it took another 20 or so minutes to get to the bus line and another 10 to get to the site. I was on the bus at 9:12 and my wave was at 10. Not good.

Luckily, since I have a last name with a letter that is not very common, I ended up getting through registration really quickly. I got all my stuff put away in bag drop off and got in line in this enclosure tent thing that they have everyone starting at.




We were off! It was just a bit of a jog through some woods and stuff. People kept screaming that there were zombies everywhere, but I saw none. Then we reached our first obstacle, which was to climb over these bales of hay upon which the zombie apocalypse had started.


Look at them all! They're even climbing the hay!

Chaos!

Bride zombie!


You had to juke left and right to avoid having your flags snatched while watching out for all the people you were likely to crash into who were doing the same. I got through whilst keeping my flags. We entered another wooded section where slower, non aggressive zombies were just hanging out.






There were a couple of low rolling hills where we had to dodge flag grabbing zombies and we came upon a cargo net climb with a zombie underneath trying to snatch flags. Then we had to crawl through corrugated tubes with zombies on either side. At this point, I still had all three flags. Then we had to run up a hill where I almost puked (apparently, all the sprinting from being chased was getting to me) and through a hay maze with zombies everywhere. Then down a hill, through more zombies, juking left and right, etc. I managed to have ALL of my flags at this point....until we had to go down one hill before a blacked out bridge and a fast, tall, female zombie got a flag. But...I was at the halfway point, so I made it over halfway with all of my flags.

At the halfway point, we had our first fork (or maybe second...I forgot to mention this..there were points where you could fork and take different routes). You could either go through the water or around. I chose through the water. It was cold.



Damn was it ever cold. From here, the mud was so sticky that even my vibrams were getting stuck. I have no idea how some people finished this race in 21 minutes. They must have taken the other forks. We had a long muddy trail run at this point with a few very unpleasant hills. There was another fork where people had to go up another hill and deal with aggressive looking zombies and....I chose the "easier" one. I have no idea if it was easier.

At one point, we had to go up this gigantic hill. It was a TM style hill. It was huge and muddy and at the top there were a bunch of zombies hanging out on top.


The giant ass hill


The zombies on the top


During trying to get by them, I managed to get snagged by one zombie who got a flag. And then I tripped over another. I thought it was another racer. So while I tried to help her up, I discovered she was a zombie and she got my last flag. Dammit.

There were a couple more hills that, no joke, were pretty ridiculously hard. The grades were insane and they were VERY muddy from people being all wet. I had to do more juking to avoid some zombies when we came upon the most dangerous obstacle of all. It's this set of boards that are put together so they look like a teepee. Well, you ladder climb up one side and slide down the other. There is a very sudden stop at the end but they had hay and straw as a cushion, while also telling people to buckle their legs as to not sprain things.


One side of it


From what I understand, during later waves this obstacle had to be shut down due to injuries.

Then we ran and jumped into a tub of dyed red water and waded through. I stopped using my camera at this point because it wasn't cooperating. We had a couple more hills where there were ridiculously aggressive zombies that would get the flags of anyone who remained. I honestly have no idea how people still had flags left because zombies were EVERYWHERE. Finally, we had to slide through this hole in the fence and we were done.

I finished in just over an hour, but considering the mud, lines at the obstacles, and hills, I'm not surprised. I probably could have done better, but I dunno why I didn't! I did not finish a survivor, but I got a cool medal nonetheless.



Final thoughts:

They already know about the parking situation and are going to fix it for next year. Apparently people were spending 2 hours waiting just to get into the parking "lot" and an hour to get on the bus. Yikes. Some people actually missed the race completely due to traffic. This is why I always choose the earlier waves. The later you wait, the more muddy and unsafe things get plus parking is always a bitch.

For the hardcore obstacle course racer, the obstacles were "meh". The appeal of the zombies, though, certainly makes up for it...at least it did for me. I thought I wouldn't get as "into" it as I did, but I was sprinting to get away with the best of them.

Good race, a bit overpriced though.

Next up: Primal Mud Run

Rock Solid Mud Run (2) Race Report

I had Rock Solid Mud Run (2) on Saturday. This was the second version of the race I did on August 6th. This was a 5 mile version compared to the 10 mile version back in August (there was also a 5 mile version in August). This race compares itself to the Tough Mudder and I would say that the obstacles are similar. They're more difficult than Warrior Dash or Merrell Down and Dirty Obstacles, but this second version of it was a "lite" version of the previous. The previous version, I thought, was harder than the Tough Mudder due to how many obstacles there were, how close they were, and how much upper body strength was required.

Anyway, I didn't stay the night before this time as I'm going down to Virginia for the Tough Mudder next weekend. I've been trying to conserve the amount spent on hotels. So I left at 5:30 in the morning. I figured since I had about 4.5 hours until my wave, I might as well splurge on breakfast, so I had a sausage biscuit. I remembered the last time I did this race, I was about a mile in and I was starving. The drive was pretty hellish because I was so exhausted. I kept falling asleep, and at one point, I pulled over to rest my eyes for 20 minutes. But at that point, the sun had started to come up and I perked up a bit. However, I noticed that my check engine light had come on. Perfect. It wasn't blinking, so I kept driving.

I arrived at Raceway Park at just before 8. I figured I'd check in and duck into an earlier wave like I did last time. Welllllllllllll the gate wasn't open. Considering their organizational issues last time, I was a bit concerned. I pulled over and checked my email to see that they were going to open the gate at 8am. I checked the clock and it was 8am. So....I was confused. I also opened the registration list to notice that the earliest wave was at 10am. I had signed up for the earliest wave as it was. I was going to have some time to kill.

During this time, I noticed a guy pull up in a truck, go up to the closed gate, turn around, look at the sign, drive back and pull up next to me. He asked if this was where the mud run was. I said that it was, indeed, and according to my email, they'd be opening the gate any minute. He seemed surprised, because if the first wave was at 10, you'd think they'd have things open quite a bit earlier. For instance, it is recommended that I show up 2.5 hours in advance at the Tough Mudder to park, get shuttled over, pick up my packet, get marked, and prepare. I agreed and asked if he'd done the previous one, mentioning how disorganized it was. He said, "I was here for it, but yeah it was disorganized."

They opened the gate and I followed him in, picking a spot very close to the registration table that was not open yet. I decided to put on my shoes and run over to the bathroom....which was locked. Of course it was. Thankfully, I was familiar with raceway park, so I knew where the other bathroom was. I saw the guy in the truck getting a four wheeler down, which I thought was confusing, but whatever. Then he rode over to the registration table and I thought, "oh hell, I think I just told one of the organizers how disorganized they are."

When the table opened, I was first in line. They had me sign the waiver. I noticed that it said "waiver for minors". They had to find the real waivers. Then she forgot to give me my license. And my "over 21" wristband. I decided to go back to the car.

I had about an hour to kill before the race. I went to the bathroom a few more times (lol). People kept asking me about my shoes. I seriously don't understand how there are people out there who have never seen Vibrams. I explained why I use them (I can wash them, they stay on my feet in sticky mud, and they dry quickly). I have to do this at every race because people are all aghast at the idea of "barefoot running". Look, I don't run fast enough for this to be an issue lol.

In this time, I noticed the guy on the four-wheeler putting business cards under people's windshields. I took it from him, noticing that he was a photographer. Since almost no professional pictures of me ever end up on the pages, I said, "If you take a ton of pictures of me, I'll buy them." He took note of what wave I was in and my number and agreed.


Before the race

I lined up, first in line! I spoke to the announcer, mentioning that I'd done quite a few of these (only because he noticed I was alone and that's rare for these kinds of events). I mentioned what was good and bad, and soon, we were off.


That's me all the way over to the right

We went over the ramp that was there last time and into the water. I heard these women expressing fear at having to go over the ramp. I told them that they'd better quit now then.


The ramp


The barrels into the freezing water!


We went over the ramp and over some floating barrels into the water. Holy crap was the water a shock. I should have known it would be that cold, but for some reason it didn't click with me HOW cold it would be. It was cold enough to make me cry out and I thought for sure I would quit, which doesn't bode well for the Tough Mudder that is coming. We had to swim across the channel thing, run a little bit and then go across again, going under the barrels.


Freakin cold


The barrels we have to go under


Once we were across again, and I heard a lot of people freaking out about how deep the water was. I did have to swim at a few points, but it really wasn't that bad to me. Then again, I am 6' tall. We had to climb up on shore, run over to two platforms. One, you climb up with a rope and jump off an elevated platform. The other was this ladder up to a waterslide. Last time, all that existed was the platform and it was hell on earth. I still have scars on my knees. knowing I would be doing a platform at the Tough Mudder, I took the waterslide. I mean, come on, it's a WATERSLIDE. I know it was the less badass of the two, but come on, I have nothing to prove.



The platform and waterslide

And this is where I lost my bandana. I managed to keep my sunglasses and camera though. I kept sputtering because a bunch of water went up my nose. The same thing happened last time and during the Tough Mudder. I was absolutely convinced I was going to drown until I calmed myself down. Then we had to swim back across. This is where I saw that the photographer was there, indeed, fulfilling his promise to take pictures of me!







We had to run around the lake, by the airport/airstrip and then enter the mud hill (you run up it, climb over an elevated log), across a log, then into a mud pit, then onto cargo nets. I had ZERO problem with this area, but I did laugh about the ladies wondering if the wires over the mud pit were electrified.


Mud hill


Me going over the log


About to go into mud pit


Mud pit




Cargo nets


We had a brief running jag, then the aid station before entering the woods. I tried to rinse off my camelbak hose as best I could, but it was covered in mud. And this is where my camera stopped working as well. The woods were the same as before, only much stickier and muddier. I'm glad I was wearing the vibrams because you slipped down to your knees in this mud. It was after exiting the woods that we reached what the announcer referred to as "The 10 Commandments". You have to go over a series of walls, the first of which was around 6'. I managed to do this one on my own, and I was utterly freakin amazed. I pulled myself up, hooked a leg over, and squealed as I went over, saying to the guy watching, "Did you see that? Was that NOT AWESOME?"

After the walls was the metal things that I mentioned before. You have metal poles over your head. You have to grab them, swing your legs up and through them, then crab walk over the poles til the end. Again, no problem. This is where I got injured last time. We had some zig zagging balance beam logs and then you have to go over a series of elevated logs, which, of course, I had no problems with due to my height. This was followed by the 8 or 10' walls. This is where I had problems. I needed to be boosted, which was fine, but it was hard to find help at this point. :-\ I always end up in the middle where no one else is. I'm not quite as fast as the leaders, but I'm not as slow as the people walking the whole way. We had a repeat of the inverted rope climb where you are supporting yourself with your hands and ankles. Only....I supported myself by wrapping my legs around the rope to the knees (you're hanging upside down too). I made it about 2/3 of the way up before having to stop, but that was further than any other woman at that point. It was a short jog through the woods again before coming across the suspended ropes over the water. You have to balance on one rope while holding the other. This is where I found the photographer again.






I made it across with no problems other than it kinda hurting my feet due to how little padding there is on Vibrams. This is where he got this picture:


Through the woods again and we came upon another aid station. After this, we needed to go back into the woods where the mud was unbelievable. It was hard to even jog with how slippery and sticky it was. We had to do a few "river" runs (where you're running in a stream). I slipped a few times, but no major injuries. We had a monkey bar crossing which...I could not do. My hands had no grip strength left in them. We also had another cargo net to go up and over and a jacob's ladder of logs. There were three logs that you had to go over and at the top, I think it was about 12' in the air or so? I don't know, but it was hard to get over since the only thing you could support yourself on was whatever log was below you. I managed to get over by using the rope joints as leverage.

I exited the woods shortly and came upon the photographer for the last time:


The obstacle with the huge 12' angled wall with a rope was next. I got all the way up the wall, but couldn't make it over, sliding over and falling. There was no one around to help and I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but a well-muscled guy came out of the woods very soon. I asked if he could just pull me over the top, since I slid down the last time. He said that I was giving him a lot of credit that he'd get up it. I said he would as I did, I just couldn't get over the top. The problem is that I had to brace myself against the wall with my feet, keeping my legs straight to keep the rope taut enough to use my upper body strength to pull myself up. But the minute I needed to get over to the platform, I had to bend a leg, and I knew I'd fall again. He helped me over and I sat for a minute on the platform, as I saw a guy coming up that I knew would struggle. He tried twice to get up, said that the third was going to be his last. He got up and I pulled him over. We sat for a minute joking about how hard it was and I offered him some of my water. Then we had to go over the cargo net bridge. I used the trick that I used last time, which was to step on the joints. Then up a laddered platform and over the other side.

From there we went back into the woods over by the 10 commandments, which was kinda hellish with how tired I was. We exited the woods, went under the ramp that we went over at the beginning and over the final wall.



I came up to it with the guy that I helped over that elevated platform. He boosted me, and I went over. Then I ran around it and boosted him, so we finished together.

They asked for my bib number at the finish (I took my bib off and put it in my pocket). I guess that's how they kept track of who finished when. I finished in about 1:35. It was 5 miles.

I showered off and went straight home. Thankfully, my check engine light went off after I got gas.


Thoughts:

This was easier than the previous Rock Solid Run. I kinda miss the motocross hills and how difficult that one was. I would compare that one to a Tough Mudder. This one was not as long and not as hard. I didn't even "almost throw up" once in this one. Either I'm getting good or these are getting too easy.

Usually, I see a ton of injuries due to people not understanding that you need to train for things other than running. But in this one, I didn't see any injuries. I think this might be due to how they advertise themselves as comparable to the Tough Mudder. Good as far as I'm concerned.

This one was better organized, but they still need some work, especially with registration.

I liked this race. It's a good mid distance one and I'd definitely do it again. Next up: RunForYourLives (zombie chase) and Tough Mudder VA.