BackBeach - How was your Tough Mudder?

[Back Beach]

Mile 3 through 6- The "electric eel" and a little poetic justice.

So with my breathing barely restored we complete the last obstacle on mile 3, which is the mud crawl under barbed wire. This was a real cool obstacle, not super difficult and one of the most fun obstacles of the day. We then proceed back up the mountain again through a mud bog which was real steep, slippery terrain. People were laying all over the place with leg cramps once we got to the top. Finally, we wind up at the first water station..whew. We're thrilled to be almost 1/3 into the run within the first hour and our confidence was starting to build until I noted we had only gone through 2 of the 30 obstacles thus far...

Next obstacle was the underground tunnels. Kind of scary to look at as there were a bunch of people hesitating , possibly claustrophobic or the like. I ducked in and got about 10 feet into a 40' tunnel and everything turned black. My buddy and I were head to feet and kept up the banter while crawling through. Not a real tough obstacle, but the sudden darkness made you wonder what might be lying in wait for us. A few people were freaking out, but we blocked them out and made it through with a few scrapes, but nothing serious.

We then barreled down the mountain a couple thousand feet once again in heavy mud until there it was, the dreaded "Electric Eel." Thoughts of my past atrocities towards the elver species began to resonate in my head. "Payback time," I told myself. As we neared the obstacle, people were all shouting to keep your head down and go real fast. I got up to the tank, which really looked like a back yard skating rink, and noted dozens of strands of electric wire hanging just above the water, some of them carrying 10,000 volts. We were politely reminded before jumping in, "It's the amperage that kills you, not the voltage. " As I ducked under the entry wire my eyes were focused on the finish about 50' away. The object was to stay low and crawl fast, so I put my feet up against the outer box and pushed off real hard, rappelling myself very quickly for the first 20' or so. Once my momentum from the push off subsided I began a fast, low crawl towards the exit...then it happened...I felt a sledgehammer like blow to the right side of my head and couldn't believe it...this shot hurt really bad and left me reeling for the exit. I made it to the exit without getting hit again, thank god. I was seeing double for a little while after and had a good crook in my neck, but the coming obstacles would wake me back up real fast as we were about to find out.

[Back Beach]

The mud crawl was one of the better obstacles in terms of fun, the electric eel was one of the better ones in terms of pain:

[bart]

you animal you

[Back Beach]

Home stretch?

Miles 6-8 were a blur as I was shuddering uncontrollably from the electric shock and cold water. Every so often the sun would pop out and provide just enough heat to keep things going. Fortunately, our workout regimen positioned us well for the long distance as I never felt overwhelmed in terms of physical need, nor did any of my buddies. One of them had done several Boston Marathons and was really impressed with the level of challenge as well as the diversity of the obstacles. At this point, though, it seemed like time had stopped. There was a good number of people bowing out around mile six as it seemed like the miles were getting real long at this point.

We encountered a couple real challenging water obstacles at this time. One of them was called, "walk the plank" where you plunged about 15-20 feet into real cold water, then had to swim back to shore. My buddy Joe jumped off and disappeared under the surface for what seemed like an eternity. I did a straight jackknife and wound up way under the surface. I was thinking I would touch bottom and push off to get back to the surface quickly, but guessed wrong. The water was real deep and cold, thus I had to claw back to the surface. My buddy Joe was in the water when the guy next to him popped up and started convulsing from the cold water. The medics responded real quick and got the guy onto a board, then delivered him safely ashore where he came to his senses shortly after. There were some sick dudes doing back flips off the board which made for some fun viewing:

[Back Beach]

These weren't too bad, but there was so much dirt suspended in the water I couldn't see for a bit once I got out. You had to duck under these trees in about 3' of real muddy water to get past the obstacle. I got mud in every orifice of my body. This was easily the dirtiest obstacle of them all, but pretty fun:

[Back Beach]

Pretty challenging, but real fun series of obstacles leading up to the finish:

[Back Beach]

Good team work obstacle as it made for an interesting setup to the finish. Add in the cold water hose down and we're almost home...

[Back Beach]

"Everest" was one of the very best obstacles as you had to scale a 15' tall half pipe, which a lot of the better athletes did unassisted. After you got to the top you hung out for a bit and helped fellow mudders to the top if they needed assistance.

As expected, my tangle with the electric eel made for a lot of anxiety as I knew the final obstacle was the now famous, "electroshock therapy." This required another pass through dangling 10,000 volt electric wires to reach the finish line...

The four of us approached electroshock kind of bewildered until someone finally shouted "GO"... and we went...I just put my head down and charged. Amazingly, I got through without getting nailed and crossed the finish line. I looked back and Joe was not in sight yet...apparently he took two hard shots and got knocked down twice before escaping the dangling wires. As the four of us gathered at the finish line a huge sense of camaraderie, accomplishment and teamwork was apparent. I was so effing happy as was the rest of our crew. What a day away from the office this was: