The 2013 Seattle Tough Mudder (TM) took place over Saturday, October 5 and Sunday, October 6 in Black Diamond, WA. The Tough Mudder is less of a race (it's not timed) and more of an experience or a challenge. The Seattle TM was a 11-12 mile course with 16 obstacles.
John and I signed up for the Saturday TM and received an 8:20 AM start time. TM is an expensive event relatively speaking, with my entry costing over $150. Group On and Living Social both ran discounts for the Sunday morning event, but we had already signed up for Saturday.
We opted to drive over the day before and stay near the race site. I have mixed feelings between driving over the morning of an event and staying the night near the event. The pros of the former are all the comforts of home: bed, breakfast, coffee maker, etc. The pros of the latter are that you don't need to wake up super early and you don't have some of the stressors of home. Three hours is about the limit for me when it comes to the day before/day of driving decision. The site being three hours away and since John and I wanted to do a little running/cycling gear shopping, we went over the day before.
John and I arrived at the race site, a coal company, about an hour before our scheduled wave time. Weather was in the 40s with sun and little wind. After parking (an additional $10) and 10 minutes of deciding what we should wear and bring, we walked 15 minutes to pick up our packets. It was a pretty big gathering but I was luck enough to get through since my last name happens to be less popular than the other alphabetical names. We wrote our numbers on our foreheads, pinned our race bibs, dropped off our bag (another $5), and paused for some photos (COPYRIGHT MARATHONFOTO).
We gathered with a large group of folks waiting to be released to wait again at the starting line. Our lolly-gagging made us miss our 8:20 AM wave time, but it didn't matter anyway. After 5 minutes of waiting, we jumped some walls and jogged to the starting chute. Another 15 minutes of waiting and motivation, and we were off.
I'm not the best swimmer but I made it across. John was right after me and we reconnected on the other side and set out again. There wasn't much significant for the next few obstacles. We got to relive our Marine Corps glory days with the fireman carry. I think they must have taught the "Crucible Marines" a different technique, since John carried me lower than I carried him.
The next challenging obstacle was the "Arctic Enema", which involved jumping in a huge vat of ice water and swimming to the other side. The vat was a shipping container and it was painful. John made it through with no problem but I slowly clawed my way through it. Some more running and a few more obstacles with photo ops.
We connected with a Tough Mudder from Ohio named Bobby and ran with him. Bobby was actually doing the course twice in preparation for doing the World's Toughest Mudder challenge. He gave us some tips, like the technique below for the monkey bars.
John and I finished in a little over two hours. It was a fun experience.
20/20 HINDSIGHT: Nothing really. Maybe run it on Sunday and save $80?
HIGHLIGHTS/FUNNY NOTES:
- While John and I were running the Tough Mudder in Seattle, our wives were running the Oktoberfest Half-Marathon in Leavenworth.
- I still can't believe that we actually used to get paid to do this stuff.
- Outback Steakhouse for dinner the night before!
Would I run it again? No.
Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes.
Good
- Plenty of aid stations
- Excellent volunteers
- Salute to the military and Star Spangled Banner at the beginning
- Beer at the end
- High cost
- Spectators in the way
- Not enough post race snacks
- Have to pay for every tiny thing: parking, bag drop, pictures, food after, shirt. Almost nothing included but a lame orange headband.
"I'm a real tough mudder!"
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