Apr 12 2018
Tough Mudder #1, the Journey Begins
You can do it! It was after a gym session when a friend of ours, Amy S., suggested we could do something called a Tough Mudder. I had no idea of what that was. When she explained it as a ten-mile obstacle course involving mud, ice water, and electrocution, I noped my way out of that conversation real quick. And yet she persisted. Her argument was that I had done a 10K earlier in the year so of course I could do this. I worked out hard in the gym and was getting stronger, it would be easy! Just check it out was her plea.
I did. Still nope.
But then a small part of me began to wonder if I really could do it. And that small part grew larger and larger until I found myself in the starting corral of my first Tough Mudder on April 9, 2017.
After the event, which I did all 10 miles of…
All. 10. Miles.
…I had waded through chest deep mud, gone down a slide into a pool filled with ice water, and been electrocuted while running through mud and over hay bales. It was ten miles of obstacles, mud, awesome people, mud, ice water, and more mud. At the finish line, I was sitting in mud, laughing and crying. I was sunburned, muddy, sore, and exhausted. I was exhilarated. I was invincible.
And I couldn’t wait to do it again.
Shortly after that momentous day, I made a decision. I loved the culture of the Mudder, the obstacles, the “this is not a race but a challenge” and the teamwork spirit. It was an awesome feeling when I looked at one of the obstacles, talked myself out of trying it, did it anyway, and felt so powerful.
I made an outrageous goal to do something so unexpected and completely out of my comfort zone that there was a small part of me that was doubtful it would happen.
I am going to complete 50 Tough Mudders by the time I turn 50 in 2029.
May God help me!