furthermore, 4TWC's TM: Tri-State 2011 is also dedicated to the memory of Carol Smalley, TS' mother. she unexpectedly passed away this sunday, nov. 13th, the morning after. our thoughts, prayers, and love are with TS and his family. i write this with a heavy heart, however, the realization is that we must continue to do good and do right by others in order to glorify the memories of the ones that came before us and enabled the lives we live today. TS & the rest of 4TWC- i love you all & from the bottom of my heart, i hope you know that regardless of the challenges ahead of us, i will find some way to help out...
without further ado
TM: Tri-State 2011
for completion
12miles, 30-32 obstacles (depending on when your heat was and the choices you made)... we started w/16 members (had last minute fill-ins and no-shows) and started at 10am.
1. monster chase- a sprint to start off the challenge. as a big group, we kept a moderate pace.
2. turd's nest- tough mudder lists this as the 2nd obstacle, but i'm pretty sure this marked the halfway point... there were so many obstacles that it's really hard to recall.
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| RH makes his way up! |
3. chernobyl jacuzzi- haha this is the part of the race when it kind of gets quiet because this obstacle is just a big slap in the face and kick in the pants. all it is, is a long tub/trailer filled with ice up to your stomach that you dunk yourself into and walk across... extremely cold! for some reason, it seemed like people were taking their time to get out of the tub haha.
4. just a tip- a one rope version of the "ball shrinker..." challenging, but not extremely difficult. right after this, we lost LC. he had to receive medical attention and could not complete the rest of the course.
5. rope-a-dope- this obstacle was deemed unsafe by the time we got there. we were re-routed and sent to the next obstacle.
6. walk the plank- this is a 15-20ft. jump into a body of water, then a 50-75m swim to land... one of our members held us up because he was pretty scared lol. nonetheless, because of faith, he successfully negotiated the obstacle and we didn't have to take his team t-shirt from him.... see note below.
7. berlin walls- scale 12ft walls. so far 4TWC was pushing strong
8. king of the mountain- traverse hay bales
9. spider's web- climb a cargo net
10. mud mile- my favorite part of the course where you get to goof around and start diving into the mud. definitely the part where i got the dirtiest.
11. kiss of mud- low crawl under barbed wire
12. mystery obstacle- we believe we bypassed this obstacle when we were asked to choose our path... we went right, others went left. and those who went left, it seemed like they got an extra obstacle
13. cliff hanger- run over really challenging and muddy hills... they seemed easier this year and then again, i'm in 10x better shape than last year
14. mudslide- self-explanatory
15. berlin walls pt.2- these were definitely higher than the initial set and team work was a must
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| in good spirits |
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| i love these people |
17. everest- a slippery quarter pipe you had to scale. all of our remaining members completed this obstacle on the first try. it seemed like a lot of people were getting denied a lot. at this point, our team chemistry was evident and our group definitely worked well together
18. high stepping - hurdles
19. tired yet- skipping through tires
20. rubbernecking- carrying a tire around a track
21. firewalker- running through fire. since i was experienced, i covered up my face pretty good and looked down. piece of cake compared to last year... haha, when i almost ran into a bale of hay on fire because the smoke got the best of me
22. the trenches- maze of muddy trenches
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| RL, me, and RH |
23. log jammin'- negotiate over and under logs
24. devil's beard- low crawl underneath a cargo net
25. log bog job- hurdle trees
26. creek crusade- more mud running
27. funky monkey- monkey bars. RH & DK did extremely well and were able to complete the entire obstacle without taking a dip into the water. i'm not sure if anyone else on the team was able to stay dry
28. twinkle toes- balance beam
29. underwater tunnels- this basically was a kick in the pants because you thought you were going to stay dry after the funky monkey. haha, needless to say, TM: Tri-State 2011 made sure everyone was soaked throughout the whole 12 miles.
30. boa constrictor- crawl through pipes that are half filled with water... last year they were dry :(
31. turd's next- revisiting... i ran into a high school buddy of mine (whom i haven't seen since 2003!) & he finished w/4TWC!
32. electroshock therapy- for the second year in a row, yes i got shocked, and yes it was in front of the TM HQ media people... so perhaps i may be one of the poster boys for bloopers... haha embarrassing, but what are you going to do?
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| CC beats shock therapy |
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| 4TWC finishes TM: Tri-State 2011!!! |
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| family time afterward |
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| two weeks after urbanathlon! |
results
15 members finished in approx. 3hours & 45mins
12 miles, 30 obstacles
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| another pair of sneakers that's served its purpose |
sure there was bottle-necking and i'm sure we could've finished faster... but that's not what we set out to do. the point of the day was to experience everything together... and we did! when we crossed the finish line, we were interviewed by the TM staff so we'll see if that makes it to the final cut. official TM media will be pouring in here and there and when it does, i will be sure to share as time goes on.
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| the car ride home |
all in all, this year was an excellent, excellent, excellent experience! we were blessed with warmer weather and i was fortunate to run this event with a bigger group who stuck with each other through thick and thin. we started with 16 and we finished with a legitimate 15. i'm sure if LC didn't get injured, he would've been there at the end with the rest of us. i am so lucky to be surrounded by such a great support system and i look forward to future challenges... most of us already pre-registered for TM: New Jersey 2012 for next october!
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| post mudder dinner at Mike's |
again, 4TWC, i love you all and am so proud of your accomplishments. outstanding job, excellent efforts... now on to the next!
TM: Tri-State 2011 4TWC is
AK- Ashley Koehler- our queen!
AM- Armando Mendoza- LIPS!
AM2- Antonio Mesa- flew all the way from cali!!!!
BV- Brock Vazquez- joined us the day of
CC- Chris Colgan- brother of BV & also joined us the day of
DD- Daniel Dominguez- one of the towers that helped us scale the tall obstacles
DK- Daniel Koehler- silent assassin
DV- Don Valdez- yours truly
HD- Hero Dengah- the reason why i am in shape
JS- Joe Sanchez- conquered his fear of heights and drowning haha!
MD- Mat Dominguez- instrumental in helping the team conquer each obstacle
RH- Ryan Herrlich- old salt dog and mr. sleepy head lol
RL- Ryan Lind- another silent assassin
TS- Terence Smalley- future CrossFit Games contender & event organizer
TD- Tim Donovan- our crazy doc
to the future... i can't wait for what's in store.
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| post adult beverage consumption at hansel n'griddle |
get involved w/or donate to the Wounded Warrior Project
cheers,
-DV _ level ^ fitness
CrossFit Level 1 (CF-L1) Trainer
note: we have a little joke within the team that if you quit & don't finish the race, we're going to have to take your team item from you in the middle of the course. last year we had shorts, this year we had t-shirts haha...
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