Obstacle Runs

Chris and I completed three obstacle runs this year.

We did the Rugged Maniac at the end of July at the motocross track next to Bandimere Speedway.  This was a really fun event – approximately 3 miles and 25 obstacles which made it basically a giant obstacle course.  The obstacles were fun and challenging.  We definitely plan to do this one again.

I completed the rings without falling in the water!!  Big accomplishment for this obstacle run.

In August we completed the Warrior Dash again (last year here).  This is 3 miles up at 8000’ elevation with about 12-15 obstacles.  They changed a few of the obstacles up this year, but the course was more or less the same.  We were really bored with this run and likely won’t do it again next year.

The big one we did this year was Tough Mudder in September.  This is 11 miles at 10,000’-12,000’ elevation and 25 obstacles.  My goal for this was to complete it with a team which we did in around 5.5-6 hours.  Unfortunately half our team left us behind, which was really disappointing to me because that was why I wanted to do the Tough Mudder—not to mention most of the obstacles require team members to complete and that meant I couldn’t complete some of the obstacles and I hurt my ribs/shoulder pretty bad as well.  The best two things were that I made a new friend because she was on our team and her friend left her behind too, and we ran into an old college friend we haven’t seen in years and it was awesome to catch up.  I know I won’t be doing it again – I am not interested in taking a risk again at not having a team to complete the event, I experienced it and that was enough for me, and I don’t like the 11 mile distance.

The ice bath was absolutely brutal.  I am so glad Mikael reached in and pulled me out at the end because I couldn’t get my legs and arms to work.

The log carry wasn’t too bad, but the different heights of team members made it annoying to carry.

Way to go Sophie for helping to carry me for the teammate carry.

Flexibility and lower body strength from ballet made this a mud crawl so much easier for me to complete.

Sophie and I both fell in on the monkey bars, but Chris made it all the way across.  This was a HUGE accomplishment for him after losing so much upper body strength from neck surgery in March.