Sorry I didn’t get the programming up for this week.  I was away running the Tough Mudder.

Most of The Cave Team after finishing.

For those of you who have been living under a rock and don’t know what the Tough Mudder is, it’s a “hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle course designed by British Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. ”  It’s great fun, and a decent test of the physical and mental strength you develop in CrossFit.

Next year, the course is in July.  Start making plans to attend.

A group of twelve Cavers participated in the Tahoe Tough Mudder yesterday. The course involved 11+ miles of “running” up and down the trails at Northstar and 20 obstacles that were interspersed through the course. The course started with scaling a 6′ wall shortly followed by crawling through gravelly mud under barbed wire. Then we headed up to climb a tower and jump off a 15′ ledge into cold muddy water. These three obstacles set the tone for the day.

Other obstacles included jumping off a ledge into ice water having to fully submerse to get under a board placed in the obstacle to force you under. That was immediately followed by monkey swings on rings (which was pretty tough considering at this point your hands were numb). There were higher walls (up to about 11′) that had to be scaled. Lots of crawling through mud. Two obstacles that involved high voltage wires. One where you were had to crawl through muddy water with wires dangling from above. Some of them were live and if you touched them you got a jolt. It felt like you were being punched. Since you were in water you would also get shocked if someone nearby got hit.

We did have one incident. Jacqui M. was scaling the tallest of the wall obstacles using Nick as her base and missed a foot placement, which caused her to slip off the top of the wall. She fell and hurt her knee. We do not have final information yet on the specifics so check in with her when you get the chance. She had to bow out of the rest of the course at this point (it was about 7 miles in).

The general theme of the Tough Mudder is great. It is not a race, which is reinforced through many humorous signs placed through the course. The spirit is to help your fellow mudders where needed. Nick W. spent much time at the base of the walls boosting people up and over. Some people just need extra encouragement to give things a try, or to keep going, and the crowd is ready to provide that support. One of the biggest examples of this helping attitude is one of the final obstacles called “Everest”. This is an 11 foot high quarter pipe (or a relatively short warped wall for you Ninja Warrior fans). You could see this obstacle before the start of the race, which at that time I figured was going to be trivial given I’ve done the 14′ warped wall at David Campbell’s course, as well as the one at Tempest. However, after an 11+ mile hill run it looked a little bigger. When we arrived there was already a ton of folks on top of the wall holding hands down to receive other mudders and help them up. I took my run in a gap between folks and made  it up (had to try unassisted first of course), then turned around and waited for others. Nick and Dave H. were with me at that point and were able to make it up unassisted, then we lied down and caught the hands of other mudders behind us and hoisted them over the wall. Quite a bit of time was spent here helping. It didn’t matter if you knew people, you just helped.

Give this event a try. There will certainly be a group of Cavers going. Check in with Nick to keep tabs on future Tough Mudder training courses. It is a ton of fun with a group of people. You’ll get to know people better because there’s a lot of time to chat on the run/walk segments between obstacles. Suffering and overcoming together is a great experience.