Mania and Perseverance

I've been thinking a lot about Batman lately.  I realize that's a weird way to start a post on a blog about the educational lessons we've learned from running mud runs, but bear with me for a few minutes.  Hopefully, it will all make sense.

So, back to Batman.  I'm pretty sure that anyone reading this has at least a passing knowledge of who and what Batman is.  If not, here's his deal.  He's a rich guy who witnessed his parents get killed when he was a kid.  He went a bit crazy and dedicated his life to fighting crime.  He dresses up as a bat to scare the criminals.  That's usually about the extent of what people know about Batman, but there's an interesting concept that Batman, through his very existence, caused his villains to come into existence.  That's not in a "if you dream hard enough, things will happen for you" sort of way.  Rather, it is in the "crazy attracts crazy" sort of way.  If that's the case, then an argument could be made that the world (at least the comic book world) would be better off if there had never been a Batman. 

Anyway, I'm certain that I could go down this rabbit hole all day long, but it's not really why I was thinking about Batman, but it did get me started.  I started to wonder what it takes to be motivated to peak performance EVERY day.  That's what it takes to be Batman, after all.  You definitely can't skip leg day - not even once - if you want to fight alongside Superman with nothing much more than a pair of tights and some gadgets. 

I had always thought of Bruce Wayne (as if I have to tell anyone that he is Batman's alter ego) was an intense and driven guy, but pretty much just that.  Anytime anyone would tell me that he was legitimately as crazy as any of this nemeses, I would kind of laugh it off.  After all, we don't want to think of Batman being as driven by mania as the Joker is.  But, the more I think about it, the only way that you could really maintain the kind of physical and mental regiment it takes to be an otherwise human comic book hero is to be broken in some fundamental way.  It's not all that hard to keep motivated when you're in your 20s and 30s and the physical exertion is relatively easy, but where is the motivation coming from to maintain that pace into your 40s and 50s when the aches, pains and minor/major injuries start to take their toll?  Slowing down is a natural experience.  Even witnessing the murder of your parents would eventually fade a bit (not that you'd forget it, but the visceral nature of the event would blur over time) when confronted with your 4th knee surgery and recovery.  It's tough to get motivated every day if the only thing driving you is a memory that has lost some of its hard edges.  The alternative explanation is that he isn't being driven by that memory as much as the memory is the starting point of his sickness, and the sickness is what's pushing him forward.

What does this all have to do with tough mudders, though?  Well, as I approach the second half of my 4th decade on this planet, I am confronted with the inevitability of my slowing down.  I'm not planning on retiring anytime soon, and I can easily see myself out there on the course a decade from now.  The difference being, at that point I'll have to be happy with a different pace and ability to complete the events.  I don't have the same kind of sickness that pushes Bruce Wayne every day, and so I have to become comfortable with the effects of the aging process.  I'll check back in a decade, but my guess is that I'll be running fewer races (assuming mud runs are even a thing in a decade) and I'll be moving slower at the races I do run.  I'll just have to find a way to be okay with that.

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First Event of the Year

The 2018 Year in the Mud season is officially off and running.  I was all alone running a Terrain Race in Myrtle Beach, but luckily I purchased the unlimited laps pass, so I got to run as long as I wanted.  That ended up being 5 laps of the 5k course.  I thought I would give a quick summary of the obstacles, and my general thoughts overall.

Obstacles:

1. Water - the first obstacle was at the starting line.  This was a dumpster-sized pool of water that you had to jump in before getting underway.  Pretty inventive having it right at the start, but it kinda sucked first thing in the morning when it was 35 degrees outside.  This got better over time, though, as the day warmed up.
2. Four foot wall - get used to hearing the word "wall" because there are plenty more to come.
3. Six foot wall - like I said, we're just getting started with walls.
4. Rope climb over 15 foot wall - at tough mudders, this is called Balls to the Wall, but it was different in that you actually had to use the rope at the Terrain Race.  There were foot holds, but they weren't wide enough to climb, so the rope had to be used.
5. Rope climb rig - this was a pretty straight-forward climb.  At the top you had to ring a bell.  I'm not the strongest climber since I don't have the technique right, so I ended up failing on this for the last three laps.
6. Tire flip - pretty standard.  Participants had to flip a tractor tire two times out and then two times back.  It became pretty chaotic over the course of the day with tires pretty much left everywhere.  
7. Sledge hammer tire - this was an obstacle I'd never seen before at any other race, which was fun.  You had to hit a tire with a sledgehammer about 15 yards out and then turn around and bring it back.  Pretty tough unless you could hit it just right and make it jump up and roll.
8. Twelve foot wall - more walls.
9. Tunnels and Mud - the tunnels were pretty short, and they ended in a mud pit.  You had to wade across, climb up a mound, go down into another mud pit, and then climb out the other side.  The mud itself was about mid-thigh deep, and the mounds were pretty small.  Pretty standard stuff for a mud run event.
10. Sandbag carry - another pretty standard event.  Grab a sandbag and carry it around a flag and then back.  The sandbag itself wasn't all that heavy though, so it wasn't too bad.
11. Cargo net rig - climb up one side, cross over about a 10 foot span, and then climb down the other side.  Not too bad unless there were a lot of people on it.
12. Rope/Rings Rig - this was one of the more challenging obstacles.  You started on a rope, swung to a ring, swung to a second ring, and then finished by swinging to another rope.  The rings were pretty low, and you weren't supposed to touch the ground, so this was almost impossible as the day progressed and my grip strength went.  I failed this obstacle on all laps except my first.
13. Water bucket carry - carrying heavy stuff is pretty standard.  The carries themselves weren't all that far at this event, and the stuff wasn't all that heavy, so these weren't too bad.
14. Cross-shoulder tire carry - two tires attached to a pole, which you had to carry across your shoulders.  Another obstacle I hadn't seen before, but since the carry wasn't too far, this wasn't too bad.
15. Rock-wall traverse - I usually have a pretty tough time with rock-wall obstacles, but this ended up being doable since it was situated on an A-frame.  There were three different rock-wall sections connected with handhold pegs and then a walking board.  Pretty fun and challenging over time.
16. Standard rig - start with a hanging grip, then swing to a hanging ball grip, then a second hanging ball grip, followed by three foothold rings.  Since my grip strength left me, I failed this obstacle on the last three laps.
17. Tire pull - pull a tractor tire on a rope, and then drag it back to its staring spot.
18. Fifteen foot A-frame cargo net - pretty standard obstacle.  The net was hung pretty tightly, though, so it ended up being easy to get over.
19. Monkey bars - standard incline/decline monkey bars over water.  The one wrinkle was that some of the bars would spin.  Only failed this on the final lap, and that's when I knew my grip strength was truly shot.
20. Cargo net - the final obstacle was an inclined balance beam up to a 20 foot cargo net.  The wrinkle on this one was that there was a fireman's pole at the end that you got to slide down.  

All that being said, I can unequivocally say that I had fun on the course.  I'm still not in 100% shape yet, and really felt sore afterwards (although that might have something to do with the fact that I drove 6 hours home immediately afterwards).  I started with the 8:15 wave and finished my 5th lap just around noon.  I could have gone out on the course for a 6th lap, since they had a noon start, but I would have failed every climbing/swinging rig and the monkey bars.  It wasn't worth a glorified three mile run, so I called it a day.

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