Tough Mudder–Completed

Another thing I have completed recently is the Tough Mudder (TM). It was actually done in May. I just haven’t got a chance to write it down.

As mentioned in my previous post, it’s an obstacle course, not a race. It’s something that’s 致在參與. The course itself was very very cool. Unfortunately, my experience could have been a lot better if my teammates could be a little more …. hrm… tough…

Basically, there were 4 of us in a team. One (A) is a personal trainer and she has always been super fit ever since I’ve known her. Another one (B) is a marathoner. She does marathons every year. I don’t actually know her. She was brought into the team by person (C), whom I know from ultimate and she has never been very fit. But C is actually the person who put the team together. She’s actually the one who found out abt TM and asked ppl to do it with her.

First of all, (C) didn’t get herself trained up as much as she promised and as much as she needs to. She’s completely out of shape man. Not even funny. I thought she would work herself harder bcos she’s the one who wanted to do TM in the first place.

The obstacle course was on a ski hill resort, which involves going up and down the slope multiple times (10+ miles) with various obstacles (about 20) in between. She couldn’t even run/jog up the first slope and started walking. Unbelievable. I know it’s 致在參與 but at least show some effort. At first I thought that she’s just saving for the rest of the course, didn’t want to wear herself out too soon but throughout the course, she went slower and slower and slower.

And then person (B) skipped a whole bunch of obstacles. She skipped pretty much all of the water-related ones. I have to admit that it was a cold day (around 11 degrees and we were high up in the ski hill and it was a relatively windy day) for water-related obstacles. But isn’t Tough Mudder about being tough and pushing your own limit and fear and to complete the course no matter what?? If you are to skip like half of the obstacles, why bother participating in the first place??? In fact, she skipped more than just the water-related ones.

The fact that it was such a cold day and bcos of all the water-related obstacles, we were constantly freezing. What made it A LOT worse is that we have to wait for (B) and (C) all the time. They were so slow. Me and (A) were walking between obstacles too after a while (cos it’s not worth it to try to jog since the other two were not jogging) but somehow they were like snails. We walked up to the next obstacles and looked back, they were no where to be seen and we often had to wait for at least 5-10 min before they show up. All the stopping really doesn’t help to warm up my body. And even worse, my muscles cooled down every time and had to start up again.

And at a few obstacles, me and (A) would just go once the two of them arrived cos both of us couldn’t wait to get moving and continue. But after we finished, we would still see the two of them on the other side of the obstacles debating whether to skip it or not. They looked at how other ppl did it for like 5-10 min and then most of the time, they decided that they were to skip that obstacles. So basically, me and (A) had to wait for them to watch other ppl (while we were soaking wet if it’s a water-related obstacle) and then they ended up not going in. Like, holy fxxk , do it or skip it, just make a freaking decision nice and quick so we can all press on. Pissed me off.

More than one time, me and (A) wanted to just ditch them to continue at our own pace. But in the face of the word “team work”, we waited for them again and again. But honestly, we were not doing it ‘together’ anyway. We went at our own pace but only waited for them at each obstacles.

The average time to complete the course is 3 hours. I know we were not going to make the average time even before we start. I was thinking about 4, or maybe 5 hours max. And guess how long it ended up taking us????

FREAKING 7.5 HOURS!!!!

So basically, I was freezing cold for 7+ hours. It just made the whole experience NOT enjoyable. The two of them were probably warmer than us cos they have a lot less stop time and they didn’t get into the water as many times as we did.

To say that I was annoyed and pissed was an understatement. There’s simply no freaking way that I am going to do anything like that with the two of them again, unless they can demonstrate that they are completely fit and mentally ready for it.

And another thing that kinda pisses me is that they called themselves a finisher of TM. Oh my goodness, they did about only half of the obstacles and they considered that as finished?!?!? You’ve got to be kidding me. Shameless!

I mean, there’re other ppl who were skipping obstacles, too. I don’t know many those ppl skipped but I think it’s quite hard to beat the two of them and their snail speed.

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On the bright side tho , there were a lot of cool people on the course. Adventurous and nice people. Some of them not necessarily 100% fit (it’s not like I was 100% fit either) but they are willing to push their own limit and to get it done. Also there were some really strong guys ready to give other ppl a hand even tho we were not their team.

One of the best obstacles was the “wounded warrior” one. It’s an obstacle that you have to carry a person from one end to an other as if he/she is an injured solider (oh ya, the whole TM thing is to raise fund of wounded solider and their family). When (A) and I arrived at that obstacle, two big guys came over and asked if they could carry us. I was a bit hesitant in the beginning cos I am a lot heavier than I look. But (A) was going for it, so I was, too.

To my surprise , my guy picked me up over his shoulder with me hanging down (like the picture below) and had no problem and walked very nice and steady on the mud. On the other hand, his buddy, who was carrying (A), slipped on the mud and he had to put (A) down to picked her up again.

Best and easiest obstacle ever! LOL.

Talking to (A) after the obstacle (while waiting for (B) and (C) ), I told (A) abt my concern of my heavy weight and (A) said that the two of them would be more than happy to take us cos I no doubt was a lot lighter than his muscular buddy. True.

And the Berlin wall. Much easier than I though. Did it in one go. Of course, there were tons of guys on top of the wall, ready to help us. As I said, lots of cool and helpful ppl out there.

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The take-away from this experience is that:

Pick your teammate wisely for hard core events like TM.

After I signed up and before I did it, I thought that it’s one of those ‘been there, done that’ thing. But now that I look back, I almost want to do it again just to see how long it would actually take me and exactly how hard it is without having to stand around in the cold.

Well… if you are planning to do it, let me know. Maybe I’ll join you. (well… you better be fit tho. LOL )