I thought I would put together a slightly different type of post this time. Up to this point I've focused on general issues I've confronted while either planning for or participating in a Tough Mudder event. With this post, I'd like to be a bit more specific about my approach to the obstacles that a Mudder might include. In this case, I'll take the obstacles as they happened in Society Hill, SC last October. In this case, I'll describe each obstacle, give my impressions, and then define my approach to that particular one.
I'll do these 11 obstacles in a future post:
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| Official Course Map from Toughmudder.com |
- Arctic Enema: I talked about this in an earlier post, but in short, this is an industrial-sized dumpster full of icy water. You jump in one side and get out on the other end. In the middle there's a wood board that forces you to duck under water to get across. This is a pretty horrible experience if you don't like the cold. My approach has always been to jump towards the board and use the momentum of the jump to go under it. Once under water, I take one big swim stroke to hopefully reach the other end. Once there, get out as quickly as possible and start running to warm up.
- Kiss of Mud #1: The TM crew are usually pretty good about putting another obstacle within a very short distance of Arctic Enema in order to give you something else to focus on (other than being horrendously cold, that is). In SC that was Kiss of Mud. This obstacle asks you to get down in the mud and crawl under barbed-wire for about 50 feet. It's not a horrible obstacle if you have upper-body strength. If the area is relatively clear, I've seen more experienced mudders roll, but that only really works if there isn't a backlog of people trying to get through. If you are forced to line up, there's really nothing to do except use your arms to pull yourself along. The big issue with this is that over the course of the day (and especially into Sunday), the mud will get carried away as people go through. This usually leaves pretty rocky grooves where people have crawled. This is absolute murder on forearms and knees, so try to get there when and where there is actual mud - it's messy, but it's much better than tearing up your arms and legs on rocks.
- Spiders Web: This obstacle is a climbing net that's about 20 feet tall. You climb up one side, flip a leg over and then climb down the other side. This is much easier if the net is taut, which will usually be accomplished by people laying down and holding the net tight once they have gotten over the top and down the other side. This really helps quite a bit, so make sure that you take your turn holding the net. You usually don't have to do this for long, but let a couple people come over and someone will tap your shoulder to take your place.
- Berlin Walls #1: This obstacle is made up of two "sets" of walls that you have to climb over in quick succession. The first ones are the shorter of the Berlin Walls. I don't know exactly how tall they are, but I want to say that they're about 8 feet. If you have the upper body strength, you can usually just jump and do a pullup, flip a leg over to straddle the top and then drop down on the other side. If you don't have the upper body strength, then you'll probably need help from a couple people to lift you up using whatever method works best (I've seen some people literally climb up people's backs, but it's usually just a quick hand lift). In my case, I usually just do the jump and pullup, but that depends entirely on where these are on the course. If they're later on, then upper-body strength may be an issue.
- Hold Your Wood: This is usually a relatively short loop (somewhere between 1/8 to 1/2 mile, I would estimate). You pick up a log at the beginning, carry it around the loop and drop it again at the end. There will be longer logs if you want to carry them as a team, and shorter logs if you want to go solo. I've done both, and the biggest piece of advice I would give is that you make sure the log is long enough if you are going to do the team option. Three of us did this with a log that was too short, and it was even more awkward than it had to be because it was impossible to really get our steps in sync. There are logs of all shapes and sizes, so don't worry about being picky. I will probably try to do this solo from now on just because it's easier to manage a log without having to worry about syncing your steps, but there are plenty of people who prefer the group effort. I've heard that the group effort is easier if each person holds the log directly above their head, but I usually just sling it on my shoulder and switch sides whenever I need to.
- Dirty Ballerina: This is a series of ditches filled with mud that you have to jump over. I think the ditches were maybe three or four feet across, so the jumping wasn't too hard. As long as you can do a standing jump of that length, you shouldn't have any trouble with these. My approach was to go to the farthest edge of the ditches and jump along that edge. I did this because I was assuming that most people would go the shortest route possible, and if I went the longer route then the landing spots would be less worn out. This really made a pretty big difference on the second lap in SC since most of the grass in the landing areas had been worn away by then, but if you take a few extra steps along you can find better footing.
- Electric Eel: This is a huge pain in the butt. This is another crawling event, but instead of through mud, you crawl through water, and instead of under barbed wire, you crawl under electrified wires. There is no way to avoid this...you WILL get hit by electrical jolt(s). The key is to go fast. The quicker you get through, the sooner you'll be done. You'll still get hit, but you'll be moving past them rather than sitting under them. One of the most difficult things about this challenge is that people invariably try to go slow to avoid the wires. This backs everything up, and ends up not helping them very much. My advice: find an empty lane and go fast.
- Trench Warfare: Here's another event that gets harder the later in the weekend you go. In this challenge, you crawl through a trench that's been covered over with plywood so it's like you're crawling through a tunnel. There are usually at least one bend along the length of the tunnel, so you are in pitch black for a while. If you have claustrophobia, this is a very tough obstacle. The reason that it gets worse over the course of the weekend is that the loose dirt gets carried away by participants and you end up with rocks jutting out that are murder on your forearms and knees. There's really no trick to this though. If you have the upper body strength to keep your forearms and knees off the ground, then you'll benefit, but it would be tough.
- Walk the Plank: I touched on this obstacle on a previous post as well. You climb up an incline to a platform about 20 or so feet above a pater pit. Your job is to jump into the water. This used to be a "free for all" kind of thing where people would just kind of mill about on the platform until they got the nerve - which lead to Brian's awesome backflip - but in SC they seemed to want it to move more methodically. So they had a guy up there with us who would orchestrate everything with a countdown and all that. I'm not sure it's a huge improvement, but it did seem to move a bit more smoothly. The key for me is to jump as quickly after getting onto the platform as I can. Obviously, don't push your way to the front, but if you're at all afraid of heights you want to spend as little time thinking about this as possible. It's not a bad obstacle, unless it's really crowded. The platform isn't all that worrisome, but you definitely want to make sure you're safe with the spot in the water you choose. The last thing you want to do is jump on someone else. So the lesson about not dawdling applies to those people in the water as well...get swimming towards the exit as soon as you come up. Don't try to tread water unless you absolutely have to - you'll definitely be unhappy if someone else jumps on you.
- Cliffhanger: This obstacle was a little different in SC from the pictures that I had seen at other events. Normally, it's presented as a steep, muddy incline that you have to work your way up. It was that, but it also had a cargo net laid out to help you climb. This was definitely one of the muddier events, but it wasn't all that hard to climb. Without the cargo net, though, I'm not sure many people would have made it up the incline. If there's a net, use it. If there's not, teamwork is the key...you have to fight for hand- and footholds, and take it one step at a time. Try to find a pace that works for you, but definitely keep moving.
- Berlin Walls #2: This is the same as the earlier Berlin Walls, only taller. I think these are 10 feet tall, which makes it more difficult to do a standing jump to grab on to the top. There is usually a very small toehold that you can use, but it won't help you too much if you think you'll just stand on it. In the past, we used the teamwork method to get over these two walls (that is, two guys lifting a third up). As we got stronger, though, we found we could take a running start at the wall, use the toehold, and jump up, grab hold, do a pullup and throw a leg over. That was usually enough to get us over. Just be careful, these are usually pretty brutal since you've gone a good distance and you're spent by the time you get to them. In SC they actually put them at the top of a slight incline. It wasn't too much the first time, but the second time around we were too spent to run up the incline to the wall (this was, in fact, the only obstacle we skipped on our second lap - we did help a couple dudes over, but then we went around because we were absolutely exhausted).
I'll do these 11 obstacles in a future post:
- Log Jammin':
- Mud Mile:
- Dong Dangler:
- Underwater Tunnels:
- Kiss of Mud #2:
- King of the Mountain:
- Hangin' Tough:
- Funky Monkey:
- Boa Constrictor:
- Everest:
- Electroshock Therapy:
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