Tough Mudder Tahoe (Big Mudder)

I've never had a desire to participate in a Tough Mudder. Everything about it is horrible. The distance, the obstacles, and the complete mental and physical challenge is brutal. Watching the videos is terrifying. One of my friends was going up to Tahoe and wanted company on the drive, so I said that I would go and watch the race. Let's face it, I can't just watch. Two of the team members had to bail out, so I had a free ticket in. I said, "Fuck it, I'm in."

I said this 3 days before the actual event.









I've never done anything remotely close to a Tough Mudder. I knew I had the cardio for it, but the strength for all of the obstacles? Uhhh, especially my upper body strength ('sup, I'm a cyclist), is shitty. I mean, really shitty. This was a 10K run (lol, more on that later). Let's keep in mind that since my polo horse accident, I've done one trail half marathon and the most I've ran since is 7 effin' miles. That's it. Shall we remember what my hip looked like after that accident?

The night after the accident.

Okay, so we head up to Truckee at 6 am. Jill and her brother are already up there, so we were to meet up with them at Northstar. Too bad that when we were about 10 minutes from the place, we got a text that said that the parking lot was 95% full. We call Jill and we decide to meet at Alpine where they have shuttles for the Tough Mudder. We meet there and we get on the bus. On the buss ride, I said, "It's only a 10K run. It'll be tough but not so bad, right?"

"Uhhh... it's not a 10K," Said Jill. "It's like, a 20K."

Oh fuck! I was doing the Big Mudder. I told Tamara that I hated her and that I'm going to suck at this because I haven't run that much!!! Look at my hip! Whatever, no turning back now, so I just sucked it up. As we got closer, I said, "I'm going to cuss like a drunken... drunk." We got to Northstar, registered, and went to the start line. Everything was really organized and freakin' awesome. Got a motivational talk, got effin' pumped, and we started the event. Let's also remind everyone that I'm a total chicken shit and I hate water, heights, and tight spaces. This is important. 

Before we started Tough Mudder.

 We start a long hike up the mountain. The hike turned out to be 6 miles up the mountain then 6 miles down, 20 obstacles. We ran what was reasonable to run and walked the super steep stuff. The first obstacle was crawling under barbed wire. This was intimidating, but we got through it. That set the mood. We were stoked, pumped, hyper. We were going to do this. One down, nineteen more to go. 

The next obstacle involved water. We were warned that if we couldn't swim to go around the obstacle. I can swim, I just freakin' hate water. Remember. I'm a chicken shit.


Not only is this obstacle water, we have to climb up a ledge and then jump into the water. What? Oh, crap. I climbed up. Jill and I were going together. I knew as I got to the ledge that if I hesitated once, it was over for me. The officer counted: Three, Two, One and down I went. And it was terrifying. We fell into ice cold water and I was not happy. I swam to the end, got out, and was shaking not just from the cold, but from the fact that I just did that. Two fears in one. No hesitation. Just go. Fuck you, fears.

We kept going up the mountain and some stuff was getting pretty steep. We get to other obstacles, not bad. Then we get to the "Artic Enema." We jumped into ICE. Had to go down a foot and a half in ice to get to the other side under a board, and jump back out. As I was trying to jump back out, I couldn't. My hip seized up. Jill was also having trouble getting out, so Tamara grabbed her. I was trying but failing at getting out, so Larry grabbed my right leg and pulled it out, which gave me enough leverage to get out of that ice. I got down the ledge and was seized up. I started to jump up and down, walked with a huge limp, then started to jog. 5 minutes and I was able to jog to the next obstacle. Team work at its finest there.

Each obstacle was getting more and more challenging. Not only were we hiking up a mountain, we were tested more and more on each challenge. We went through tubes that were half filled with water (hello, fear of tight spaces and water), we went through trenches which were freakin pitch black (ugh ugh ugh), we went through walls. Oh, the walls. So challenging and while some people were able to climb them on their own, we (except Larry), needed help. So Larry and another amazingly strong (and good looking) guy helped us up. Team work. It all worked like that. Complete strangers were helping each other as if we've known each other for years. We didn't care. We were going to get through this one way or another!

The scariest one for me was probably the "Spider's Web." We had to climb up a net, go over it, then climb back down. I hate doing that. I was talking to Tamara and I said, "Oh man, I don't know if I have the upper body strength to do this."
"Um, excuse me, ma'am. May I interrupt you?" A gentleman standing next to us said to me. Oh yeah, total military dude and he was so polite about interrupting us! "It's not your upper body, it's your lower body. Also, grab the vertical ropes; the horizontal ones give too much slack. You can do this!" Alright, Polite Dude, I'm gonna try.

I climbed up and I started to freak out. I got to the top and I said, "I can't do it." Tamara said I could. I started to freak out more. So people cheered me on. One guy climbing next to me saw I was freaking out and he said, "Hey! Kasea! I'm Chris. Let's do this! You can do it!" So I got over it. I climbed down. People congratulated me. I was in near tears. There was another fear conquered that day. I was shaking, I was scared, but I was really damn proud. Thanks to Polite Dude and Chris (whomever you guys are) for cheering and helping me like that!

More challenges. At this point we were going down the mountain. My hip was pissed off but whatever. I was so close to the end. We could hear the finish line. Two more obstacles. Only two more. So we went to them, we attempted, some of us couldn't complete them, some of us could. All in all, it was fucking awesome. 

I'm glad I did this. I didn't know I had it in me to run 12 miles and do 20 obstacles, some of which terrified me. The amount of team work we had, within our own team and with strangers was amazing. It gives me the chills just to think about it. Everyone should experience this at least once. I amazed myself. I never knew that I would be willing to put my body and my mind through such a challenge. While the cardio didn't affect me at all, it was all of the obstacles and the mental strain, having to conquer my fears, and actually going through all of the pain to conquer them that was the most tiring. I never knew that I would ever be able to complete something like this. I never trained for this, I just decided three days before the event that I would participate in this event, an event for an awesome cause. I just went for it, pretty blind as to what challenges I was going to face. I don't think people truly understand how proud I am. I conquered what I was afraid of, and as of right now, this is the proudest and best accomplishment I've had in my athletic career. This is nothing short of amazing to me. 

What's the aftermath of the event? Check these pictures out!

Definitely getting new shoes!

These are some of the bruises on my arm.

I know, my bruises compliment my horsey boxers well.

BAM! Trophies.

So, thanks, Tough Mudder, for challenging me, for helping me conquer so many fears in 12 miles, and for doing this for a great cause. I know I said I would never do this again, but Tough Mudder 2013 may be in my training plan... Miss Kay is going to get through this even stronger next time!