This blog is meant to document our mission and path towards the World's Toughest Mudder competition, and the leadership and educational lessons that we've learned from the process.
So, it appears that we were a bit shortsighted in naming this blog originally. After all, we should have realized that we were going to be spending multiple years in the mud from the get go. That being the case, I'm going to rename this endeavor to be "Our Years in the Mud", but we'll keep the URL as it is for the time being. At some point, we'll change the URL as well, but we wanted to give everyone a heads up that this was going to happen beforehand in case they've got an RSS feed or bookmark that might need to be updated. We'll give you a heads up before that change happens along with the new URL.
Here's to a remembering a great 2013 in the Mud, getting ready for an even greater 2014 in the Mud, and keeping this thing going for many more years in the mud.
One of my favorite authors Seth Godin recently posed this question in his blog. This question made me think about my World's Toughest Mudder experience. His answer to the question of failure was quite simple yet profound. The answer to the what if question is, you will. You will fail and fail often if you are truly stretching yourself and trying to achieve lofty goal. World's Toughest Mudder was a very lofty goal two years ago that became a reality in 2013 through a course of repeated failures.
My World's Toughest Mudder experience can be looked at through this lens of failure. I did not reach my initial goal of completing 50 miles. My legs gave out much earlier than expected. I failed repeatedly to cross the rings. I even took several penalties without attempting obstacles in the early morning hours of the race. I've teetered between proud of the experience and disappointed in my performance. DC's post about Always Do Your Best and Pat's post about Dealing with Expectations have helped me grapple with my own notions about performance. Did I do my best? I believe so...especially in that moment in time. Would I do some things differently? Absolutely which brings me to Seth's second question about failure.
A better question might be, "after I fail, what then?
Many people spend time thinking about things that they should have done differently. This happened for me as a teacher after every lesson. Keep in mind that you only know how to do things differently once you have tried something the first time. My best lessons as a teacher never occurred the first time I taught the content. As I refined lessons and changed assessments my results got better. The same holds true for World's Toughest. My failure on the rings is a perfect example. DC and I have concocted a number of different techniques to stay relatively dry on the rings. Each one of these ideas was born out of a failure. So far none of these techniques have been successful but it could be related more to operator error. After you fail you will be one step closer to succeeding. Success will occur on the rings in 14.
I can look at my WTM experience as a failure which could be accurate. I did after all wind up face down in the New Jersey swampland at 3 in the morning unable to move with the world's dimmest headlamp. I am instead choosing to look at it as a springboard to my successes in 2014. Similarly, my first mudder in Wintergreen was the springboard to many successful future races. I know the weaknesses that prevented me from even more success at WTM13. I need to be a stronger runner (both in speed and distance). I have to continue to work on grip and upper body strength. I need a brighter headlamp and additional baselayers. I'm working on the plan that will get me back to WTM in 2014. This plan will be littered with failures along the way. Each one of these failures will continue to move me step closer to success.
About six weeks ago my Year in the Mud concluded in reaching the
goal of participating in the World’s Toughest Mudder. That is what we set out
to do. Mission accomplished!!
Since the race, I’ve done a lot of reflecting, partly still in the stupor that many participants already described – a bit of groggy, fog set in as the energy from the event subsided coupled with the feelings of success in accomplishing our goal. My race was probably
similar to many – great friends, mudda bruddas as we have become, and a support crew (of one) who was indomitable in making sure she did
everything possible to document our race and, more importantly, just help. She also takes a cute selfie! Oh yeah – I turned 40 on race day. I forgot to bring the balloons, but given the
photo coverage that MarathonFoto provided, I doubt if 40th Birthday balloons
would have guaranteed me a picture on Facebook. Terrible job MarathonFoto. All in all WTM turned out to be an incredible race, and we are
already preparing for what we can do better next year.
For those of you who are more frequent readers, you will know that the focus of the blog has always been to try and infuse as many posts as possible with reflections on the educational and leadership lessons learned along our way.
My theme – yes I do have enough posts to develop a theme – has focused most often on the idea of what it takes to train for a "Mudder" - with the definition of said Mudder always reserved for the individual sweating to make it happen.
I always find it reassuring how life allows us so many opportunities to reflect on our experiences - and as time passes to look at them through different lenses. For me it was a group of my own students who helped me conceptualize what it was that I learned throughout my Year in the Mud.
Recently I taught an adjunct course this past Fall, and, overall, think I did a fairly good job of practicing what I preached each week. Practicing what you preach is a skill
not to be overstated. It's hard! So to provide a grading system focused on content mastery and allowing students to revise and resubmit work to show their learning meant I spent a lot of time reading student work.
When I began this post, I had
only had 3 students ask to meet with me and discuss their first assignment. Yes there were more than 4 students in the class. And yes I would have expected many more students to take advantage of the opportunity to revise and resubmit. Grades for a graduate class were not good - far too many Cs.
One idea that really struck me arose during one of these conversations, and in the end, provided the the impetus for this post. The general idea - next semester's students would benefit from an
initial writing assignment to understand exactly how they would be graded
and the level of work that they would need to put in. Yes – the request is to try an understand the level of grading I would use in order to determine ultimately how much
effort they would need to put into an assignment.
The irony, which I probably still enjoy the most, is that I
had effectively done just this. They had an initial assignment, just happened
to be the mid-term, and, of course, it was graded. I expect her true desire was more to have the assignment ungraded but with a great deal of grading effort on the professor's part. Plus everyone was provided a detailed rubric explaining how the essays would be graded. My initial, and only question was,
“Do you think this is a reflection of your best work?”
“Oh by no means…I’m not disagreeing with on that at all. But
I just turned in this same level of work in a math course and got a 96...” (quotes for stylist blogging effect only)
Lap 3 Complete - TCC
No argument with the grade. No argument that her work did
not meet expectations. She just didn’t know how much effort to exert.
And the only reply that came to my lips, “Always, always do your best. Always!” And this time you can quote me.
“I completely agree.”
In looking back on everything it was a great lesson on assessment. Here we
have a student, working to learn the ins and outs of developing a equitable grading strategy that she will use one day in her own classroom, telling me, in all honesty, that this work was not her best effort, agreed the grading was fair, and, ultimately, in the
end, thanking me for letting her have another opportunity to demonstrate
mastery.
Doing your best – such a novel concept. Over the past six
weeks I have often asked myself if I felt I did my best during the WTM. I'm not really sure why the
question continues to come up. And as I prepare for WTM 2014, that question has definitely faded. Maybe it’s knowing that I didn’t arrive 100%. Our race schedule leading up to WTM 13 was tough and probably a bit silly given WTM was the goal. Three laps at Tri-State and then a
Saturday double at Mid-Atlantic took their toll on the leg and shoulder. Even today the
leg and shoulder aren’t 100%. Maybe now that I’m 40 they never willbe.
And the idea that the 22 year old side of me keeps thinking - if I would have
found obstacle racing ten years ago, things would have been different. But I found
it closer to 40, and while my mind might still pay some ear to that 22 year old, I may have to redefine mentally what it means to do my best.
What does it mean to give your best? At this point, I can tell you it sure can look like a moving bar - tied up with expectations and a 22 year old hammering away at you about memories past. Might make another whole post to think through the whole idea of how ultimately defining your best can go a long way in helping you decide on what that next great Mudder is for you.
This I do know. WTM 14 is a long way away. And I
know that I still have things to prove. This is the exciting part. It is
actually being at the place you always wanted to be – concluding our year in the mud and thinking about what's next.
And I’ve come full circle, back to my first real question on
this blog, what Mudder are you training for. I can only speak for myself, but I
find it to be such a different question now than when we began this endeavor so long ago at Wintergreen.
I started 2013 with a self-described "Brilliant" post on my Mudder Resolutions for 2013. Feel free to read it again by clicking here. I thought I would go back one year later and see what we were able to cross off the list. The majority of resolutions that people make don't stick but I was fortunate to work through this list with my mudder brothers which at times forced me to cross things off. Let's take a look at the 10 goals that I set to start 2013. The results are displayed in red for your viewing pleasure.
Qualify for the 2013 World's Toughest Mudder (WTM) - We actually qualified for WTM at the Miami race before Tough Mudder decided to open access to the event to anyone crazy enough to attempt it.
Compete in the 2013 WTM with Patrick, DC, and a yet to be found fourth member. I'm quite sure we will find this person during our journey this year. We moved away from this goal as the year moved on. People kept looking at us like we were crazy when we tried to sell the adventure. Our most prolific blogger TCC actually became the fourth member of the WTM team and all three of us would have been lost without her.
Complete a Tough Mudder on consecutive days (Saturday and Sunday). This actually became the norm for our team. We completed this in Miami, Mid-Atlantic and New Jersey.
Finish two laps of a Tough Mudder in 2013 without ending up in the emergency room. This was accomplished twice in New Jersey and in Mid-Atlantic. No emergency room was needed but a trip to an orthopedic doctor, a walking boot, a lot of ice and advil were required!
Double/Double - Two laps on Saturday and two laps on Sunday. This one might be a stretch but it would serve as great preparation for WTM. The Sunday start times make it very difficult to pull off an official Sunday double but DC and I did manage to pull off the elusive blackjack in Jersey (2 laps on Saturday and 1 on Sunday).
Complete a Tough Mudder in at least five different states. We came close but I backed out of the Charlotte race due to injury and bad timing. We did officially run in four states (Florida, Virginia (Twice), West Virginia (Twice), and New Jersey).
Complete the Dong Dangler/Ball Shrinker obstacle without completely falling in. I had two very ugly attempts in South Carolina. Luckily, we have no video footage. We unfortunately have yet to face that obstacle again. We'll see what 2014 has in store.
Dominate the Funkey Monkey obstacle. I was satisfied with completing this obstacle once in Pennsylvania until DC did it twice in Carolina. Patrick and I did as much swimming as we did crossing the bars on that trip. Mission accomplished. Just check out the Cuatro video here if you need more evidence. DC managed to make it a Cinco in West Virginia while Patrick and I impersonated Phelps and Lochte at the Olympics.
Meet and befriend an amazing cast of characters throughout the journey ahead. Two Words...Superstorm Sandy. We actually met an amazing group of people throughout the year and also at World's Toughest Mudder. Check out the picture.
Wait on Patrick to catch up to me for at least one obstacle. Although I have narrowed the gap, the one consistent factor in each race is that somebody is waiting for me. I know this is a goal that DC and I share. It will happen and I will have footage of it!!! This did actually occur pre-Achilles injury for DC and I. Patrick had to stop and fix his shoe and we ran ahead and over some hay bales. I know it probably shouldn't count but I have the footage. It's tough running with a gazelle. You take what you can get.
All in all I feel pretty successful with the 10 goals I set for myself. World's Toughest Mudder was our end goal for 2013 and all three of us made it through the 24 hour event. I can tell you that I never would have attempted this journey without DC and Patrick. I can also honestly confess that I was trying to talk myself and others out of WTM up until the weeks leading up to the event. We make a lot of excuses when fear and anxiety rear their ugly heads. I am so glad that they guys pushed me to compete at WTM. It was an amazing experience that has certainly altered me in ways that I cannot quite capture for the blog yet. I'm working on my WTM experience and you should have that soon. What does 2014 hold for me? I'm working on that list as well. I do enter this year humbled from WTM, honored to have two great friends that I know will always have my back, and determined to make 2014 a year to remember.
