Tough Mudder- 2018

Address: Amelia Earhart Park- 401 E 65th St, Hialeah, FL 33013

Another obstacle course race, another first for Marilyn.

While she dipped her toes in the OCR pool earlier this year (Spartan Sprint- 2018) she was about to embark on a journey through her first Tough Mudder! You know, the Tough Mudder; the race everyone relates to ANY ocr ever. “Oh, like a Tough Mudder right?”

The Sticker So You Can Find Your Pictures Online

Well, this was actually a Tough Mudder and we were back at Amelia Earhart Park for their 8AM wave.

When asked what a Tough Mudder is like, there’s not really anything you can say to relate it to any other OCR. Just like Spartan has its own style, Tough Mudder is its own race as well. In Spartan, while you can race with friends or in a group, ultimately YOU can only complete the obstacles by yourself; it’s you vs yourself on that course. On the other hand, Tough Mudder is a bit different; they encourage you to run with a team and complete the obstacles with friends or to get a helping hand from strangers. Hell, there are some obstacles you can ONLY complete with the teamwork of those around you.

Anyways, this was a great weekend and we started off the day with some GORGEOUS weather; it was sunny with a slight breeze. The miles seemed to melt away and we were making great time on the course during the race. The first obstacle we encountered was the “Hero Carry” and I carried Mari the whole way through; lord knows she can’t carry my fat butt. And then there were a couple “mud”/water walks we had to get through which were the “Mud Mile” & “Quagmire” obstacles.Then the next two obstacles after that we came upon were okay as well; they were the “Hold your wood” & “Tired Yet” obstacles; and after a short run you got to “Devils Beard” which is annoying as hell. Lmao.

After the “Devils Beard” we were on our way to some wall climbs. First off was the “Berlin Wall” which is a straight wall and then off to “Skid Marked” which is an inverted wall and both were just up and over. Right after we got through those we did the “Kiss of Mud 2.0” which is a barbwire crawl though mud and onto the famous “Everest 2.0” which Mari MADE IT All THE WAY UP & OVER! I was so proud of her. Then before the 1st lap was over we did the “Humpchuck” which is like an inverted wall climb while you’re waist deep in water.

Now the course for the full race was ten miles long, it was kind of upsetting that it was set up as two five mile loops rather than one ten mile loop, but it was what it was. With the Tough Mudder Full you did most of the same obstacles, but there were certain cut off points where you got to do different obstacles on your second lap that you didn’t do on your first; and what was cool was that those obstacles in the second lap were different than any other Tough Mudder obstacles I’ve encountered before. And what I loved even more than that was was Mari put her trust in my hands AGAIN at this race. During the “Block Ness Monster” obstacle you have to hang on to a turning block that’s suspended in water, once you make it over the block you get dunked in water. Mari can’t swim, so she trusted me to be by her side and help her through the obstacle; SHE MADE IT THROUGH AND LOVED IT!

The extra obstacles stated above in the second lap were “Just The Tip” instead of the “Berlin Walls” which was a wood grapple that changed to door knobs and grapples back to a wood grapple; then there was the “Kong Infinity” which was a rolling ring grip that changed to monkey bars instead of the “Everest 2.0” which then led to the also famous “Electroshock Therapy” and then the “Funky Monkey-Revoultion” which was monkey bars which changed to a spinning wheels and led to a pipe that you had to maneuver across before you reached the final platform. Then we had “Block Ness Monster” (listed above) and the “Happy Ending” which was an inverted wall climb that led to a slide into water which after you got to stroll through the finish line to a nice cold Guiness Blonde ale.