Conquering the Tough Mudder Half!

Wow, what a blast that weekend was! I’m still stiff and sore from the experience, but I’ve got a lot of good memories, too. I’ll try to relate just how it all happened.

One of my coworkers at Lucidea picked me up early on Saturday morning. We stopped over at the company parking lot to pick up a third coworker, and then headed to the USA border. Crossing the border was painless; there was no line-up. A few minutes later, and we were in Washington!

But we had one stop to make before heading to our hotel in Seattle. We stopped near Arlington to pick up a fourth coworker, who was staying with a friend. After a hearty welcome and well-needed rest, we continued on our way.

We arrived at the hotel late Saturday afternoon. Since some of the other members of the Lucidea team had already arrived, we decided to grab a late lunch at a local Mexican restaurant—delicious!

Late on Saturday evening, we had a dinner with the full team, and went over what we knew about the Tough Mudder Half event. We shared some trepidation about just what we had gotten ourselves into, but the food and company greatly alleviated that. With full stomachs, we tucked into bed and prepared for a very early start the next morning, at about 6 AM.

Bleary-eyed and ready for the worst, we quietly ate our complimentary hotel breakfast. By 7 AM we were at the coal mine where the event would be held. We waited quite a long while to be signed in and for our turn to run the course. We had a couple of pep talks from some very intense speakers, and then we were off!

Me climbing the “Berlin Walls”!

Even from the very beginning, we got muddy. We ran through a river bed that was full of mud, and had to crawl under barbed wire and over muddy gravel. We waded across knee-deep pools of cold, muddy water. And we eventually had to slide through black, coal-ridden mud pits that could suck the shoes right off one’s feet, and that left stains on all clothing. That particular obstacle required some teamwork, too–the walls of each mud pit were too slippery and steep to climb without getting a boost.

Of course, many of the obstacles required teamwork, and that’s the aspect that I enjoyed the very most. For example, the Pyramid Scheme obstacle consisted of a steep and slippery plastic ramp, which would be almost impossible to climb alone. But by leaning several people on top of each other and against the ramp, a “human ladder” could be built to the very top. Then, the person at the bottom would climb up over the people above him or her. The next person from the bottom would follow, and so on.

I also enjoyed the running, since that’s the part I’d practiced the most before the event. I didn’t have any trouble keeping pace with everyone else, even after we’d been worn down by some of the obstacles.

Powering through the “Hero Carry”!

When we reached that finish line, though, I was ready for a break… and a shower. The closest thing available was the ice-cold spray of a garden hose, which I reluctantly accepted. I was also hungry. Thankfully, there were some free snacks given out by the sponsors, and each participant received a lunch token. I was almost overwhelmed at the choices for lunch; I would’ve eaten leather at that point!

We all sat down and had a good lunch together, reviewed the highlights of the Tough Mudder event. There were some great stories, and we were all more comfortable with each other (having to climb over each other helped a lot with that!). Eventually we headed back to our cars and began the long trip home. By late Sunday evening, I was back in my apartment.

Throughout the time since the event, we’ve continued to retell those stories from the Tough Mudder Half event. They’re stories about how each of our team members stepped up and had their moment to shine. Everyone else at the office has been asking us about those stories, and about the experience overall. I think some of them are content to experience the event vicariously. That’s fine, but there’s really only one way to understand what it feels like to have conquered the Tough Mudder–and that’s to go out and do it!