(Photo courtesy of Tough Mudder Staff — running through Electroshock Therapy)
“Actions speak louder than words […]
Be brave, clench fists.” – The Streets
It’s one thing to say “I’m going to try something out of my comfort zone”; it’s another to actually do it. As part of actually doing it, this was my first Obstacle Course Race (OCR).
Going into it, my largest concern was Electroshock Therapy (a 10K volt shock field). But as I found out throughout the day, I should have been worried about other things…
Before you start, they take a photo. WHile I’m sure that 90%+ of this is to ensure proper photo IDs in states where facial recognition is allowed, that didn’t stop the bad jokes…
The first obstacle we encountered was “Devil’s Beard”. This involved crawling under a cargo net. It was a good “intro” obstacle. After a short run, we then hit “Mud Mile”.
I think the best way to describe “Mud Mile” is (a) spend a few hours digging a 8×25 hole, and then (b) fill that hole about 75% full of water. Thankfully, on most of the holes, there was a “lip” to use for footing to get out. Scott helped tremendously with getting in/out.
Next up was “Kiss of Mud”, which involves crawling under barbed wire, with occasional mud. There were a LOT of small stones and gravel throughout. I regretted not putting on the kneepads before we went through; but lesson learned for 2024.
After “Mud Mile”, we headed down into the water (Abseil) and across it. It was a nice day, and this was a nice way to get a fair amount of mud off! Once across, we headed to “Berlin Walls” — a straight vertical wall without any handholds. Imagine trying to do a 10-12 foot box jump… The first time around, I fell, and fell into one of the struts. I was fortunate to walk away with just scratches, and after a second failed attempt, we passed on it.
We then headed over to “Arctic Enema”. With it being in the 80s and late in the race, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The ice bath experiences that I’ve had in the past helped a lot. I would guess it was 35-40 in the water.
Up next was “Block Ness Monster”. This is a set of rotating blocks, where you have to get a long grip over the top, and then get rotated over. The first block wasn’t too bad; but when I went over the second one, I got blasted up the nose.
After “Block Ness” fun, we headed to the second of the climbing obstacles. While it was listed as “Texas Hold ‘Em”,, the name may be different. I think the best way to describe the obstacle is this — cut a log in half, and then put steel steps upside-down on the top part of the log. This was the first obstacle that we encountered the Oscar Mike guys (including Tim), and they helped tremendously several times. With this obstacle, a group of 3 or 4 helped me to get up the “front” side, and about that many had to help ensure I got down safely (as I turned around too early at the top).
After making it back across the water and back up the hill (“Cliffhanger”?), we headed to “Widow’s Peak”. This obstacle has you on a pair of slacklines. At first (and as the vidoe shows), they were wobbling a lot. Thankfully the person behind me held them taut, which made things better.
After this, we headed to “Everst” – a 12+ foot sloped wall. As I didn’t think I could make it up, the offered a ‘lift assist’. The problem being that the harness kept slipping. Very interesting ride up, but the Oscar Mike folks helped again at the top.
We then headed to “Mudderhorn”, which had an about six foot space before you got the start of the cargo net. Once at the top (about 30 feet), you then had to go up and over. While coming down, I missed a couple of footholds because of connection points. This became a real issue when my foot went through the hole and I almost fell. Thankfully TIm from Oscar Mike was there to help Scott keep me on the net.
After getting down and taking a few minutes to recoup, we headed to the final obstacle (“Electroshock Therapy”). This was a field of hanging “shock wires” (10K volts). In theory, you could crawl through it, and maybe get shocked minimally. As we were standing there, I said to Scott, “let’s just rip the bandaid off and run”. We did that, and I got shocked about 15 times; but we made it through on our feet!
Even with some of the missteps, it was still an amazingly fun day. A huge thank you to Scott and all of the Oscar Mike guys for their help!
