the obstacles were as follows and the reviews of each obstacle are my reflections alone (teammates/other participants could’ve found them more challenging or easier):
(1) monster chase – basically chasing a monster truck for a couple of hundred meters on raceway’s straightaway track before you hit the next obstacle. not difficult. (2) ball shrinker- this is where participants started bunching up because you had to wait in line to go. not difficult. (3) walk the plank- jumping off a 15 foot platform isn’t difficult at all… it’s landing in ball-shrinking-jersey-november-cold water and having to swim that could be. thank God this was in the beginning of the course, otherwise there may have been some fatalities. i would say that this is the point where most of the people that quit did. i remember seeing a guy who wrapped his upper body in naughty by nature chains do a bad ass flip into the water… only to go into a seizure the second his skin got wet. seeing Marines working the event pull him out of the water made me think that flip maybe wasn’t as bad ass. (4) underwater tunnels- i thought this was cool, however, AM and GI almost drowned. haha i made the mistake of ordering customized cotton team shorts to wear for the event. you would think having experience in arctic weather that i would’ve been smart enough to remember why cotton, water, and cold weather don’t mix well.
nevertheless, all of us soon remembered as it felt like we were running with tupperware stuck to our crevices as the cotton immediately froze to our skin once we exited the water… signaling how cold it was that day lol. at the end of the day, although those shorts added to the course's difficulty, they're still pretty comfortable shorts to rock to the gym and a good memento. (5) spider’s web- we were one of the last runs to go, so by the time we got to this obstacle, they took it down… it was probably causing a lot of delays. (6) mud mile- actually fun… see below:
 |
| literally "chilling" w/a couple of Norwegian officers in the arctic circle |
 |
| RL, DK, DV |
(7) cliffhanger- this is where i personally saw the tough mudder camaraderie developing and being exhibited. there is no way possible, considering how muddy those hills are, that an individual can conquer them without the aid of someone else especially if you are in one of the last runs. everyone helped each other and pulled strangers up throughout... the only way i see people bypassing the cliffhanger is if they no sh*t bypassed it and decided to skip this portion of the course. at this stage, this i where i experienced my first left calf cramp… maybe a little more than third into the course and i know this worried my older cousin JB... cause then, he was waiting his turn to start cramping. (8) kiss of mud- not difficult. my teammates were helping the rest of the TM crowd as they waited for JB and i to catch up:
 |
| Doc TD, DK, RH |
right before we hit the next obstacle, we passed by the straightaway racetrack again... there were rumors that the course was only 6 miles and it was "falsely advertised" as being 12-13. at that point we were assured that we were only halfway done haha... and last for now, (9) berlin walls- the girls said we blazed through this portion of the course cause our teamwork was on point. they couldn't catch up in time to take pictures.
to be continued...
When I walked the plank you're cousin was like "you ready"...my mouth said yeah but my mind said helllll nooooooooo. Once in the water I thought I was going to drown cause I lost my breath from it being so cold. You're cousin def. helped me get through that. So someone better swim with this class 4 swimmer for this year. Goodtimes! Haha
ReplyDelete