So, 'plenty of time' to train soon turned into a week, and before I knew it, I'd approached that panic period before Tough Mudder. Despite being bed-ridden in the five days leading up to the event and nursing a recurring injury in my glutes, which had stopped me from running long distances, I couldn't really complain.
I felt as prepared as you could be for 11 miles of skippery hill running and 26 mucky obstacles. Don't get me wrong, I was constantly getting angry at myself for even agreeing to something so ridiculous, but it could've been worse. I owed my trainer, Giacomo Farci, a lot for getting me so mentally prepared. He'd not only made sure I had a basic level of fitness and good muscular endurance to see me through to the end, but he also looked into Tough Mudder pretty intricately and tweaked all of my sessions to specifically get me ready for what a lot of past participants had said they struggled with. This included grip strength, pulling motions and lower-body power. It certainly paid off – I found the rope climbing a cinch and definitely needed the pulling power to drag myself across and over all sorts of obstacles throughout the course.
When we arrived at the venue, I was pretty amazed at the views of the endless rolling hills – you don't get that kind of scene in a gym – but tried not to dwell on them too much, after all, I'd be hating those hills in an hour or so. That proved to be true. In fact, I still hate them: five days later. The running destroyed me. I don't think I've ever experienced so many hills in my life, and somehow, I counted far more uphill runs than downhill... I definitely wouldn't have had the power to push through all that running without my teammates though. Their patience and encouragement was so motivating at just the right moments. And when it came to the obstacles, I physically wouldn't have been able to do them on my own. The amount of times I used my teammates in place of steps, ladders amd worse, I'd say I got off lucky!
Having to tackle Sony’s Arctic Enema 2.0 only a mile in was a challenge I wasn't expecting. Everyone's still talking about how cold the water was, but to be honest I didn't even notice the temperature. I was too worried about trying to keep my cool – excuse the pun – swimming under those tyres. Swimming being a loose term – I can't actually swim, but boy, did I try. A few massive gulps of muddy water and an underwater freak-out later, I made it to the other side where I was pulled out... alive. Hooray!
The rest of the obstacles seemed good fun in comparison. Yup, even the electrocution (Electroshock Therapy – the final obstacle). After almost 11 miles of running and 25 other obstacles, though, it's fair to assume my judgment of what was painful or desirable may have been clouded. I legged it through those wires like a trooper, taking the zaps happily just to know the running was over. I'd made it. My Sony Smartband Talk reported back that I'd done well over 25,000 steps, but it definitely felt like way more than that.
Please don't sign me up for next year's.
