Tough Mudder Weekend - 2014 - Nashville

I am excited to write this blog since I couldn't find much information on volunteering for Tough Mudder when we were thinking about doing it.  Hopefully this helps some of you out who are looking for this.

Tough Mudder - Probably the Toughest Event on the Planet.  They FINALLY came to Nashville.  So of course we jumped at the chance to run it.  What?  We can volunteer one day and run the next for a discounted race?  Where do we sign up???

That's exactly what we did.  We are Volunteers, right?  These spots "sell" out quickly.  We all signed up via their MVP (Mudder Volunteer Portal) months ago.  They had 12 hour shifts - 7:00am-7:00pm, BUT we receive like a $100 credit towards a future race!  After discussing this with a friend and trying to encourage him to volunteer with us, he pointed out that we were working 12 hours for $100 or $8.30/hour.  But don't think of it like that....I mean we need to pay it forward, right?  How many races have I done, and I've never volunteered for one.

The week leading up to the race we received a couple emails, a waiver and an information packet briefing us on some of the general information we'd need to know along with

The 5 of us bright and early Saturday morning

 Saturday morning we got up at 5:00, got ready and headed out to Spring Hill.  About a 40 minute drive from our house.  We got checked in, they provided a light breakfast but encouraged us to bring snacks.  We packed backpacks with water, snacks, asprin, a change of clothes and flip flops, sunscreen, hat, and sunglasses.  Basically anything we thought we'd need during the day since we didn't know what they would provide us.

2 of us were assigned the "course" and were given a water station to man.  The other 3 were "Mudder Experience".  We took that to mean "whatever's left".  At first I was jealous, I mean, they were going to be working with the runners while, in my mind, I carried ice.  I'm not sure why I thought that's what I'd be doing, but it was.

We met up with Dave, the Tough Mudder Volunteer Coordinator.  Super awesome and nice guy.  Genuinely cared about us having a good time, being safe, and being helpful.  He picked the three of us who weren't assigned to the course and told us to head over to the Mudder Legion tent.  We headed over there, and we were in charge of checking in all the people who have run the race before.  TM has started the Legion this year, if you complete more than one race, you get a different color headband.  1x - orange, 2x - green, 3x - blue, 4-6x - yellow, 7-9x - pink, 10+x black.  Talk about a great marketing scheme.  Who wants an orange one when you could have the BLACK one?!?!?

We worked the Legion tent until 2.  The last wave started at 2 so there were no more people to check in, so they asked us to head over to either the finish line, or rewards to relieve some of those people.  We of course headed to the finish line where we were able to give out the coveted orange headbands.  I could have easily done this all day.  Watching the expression on the Mudders' faces as they crossed that finish line and we put the headbands on them, it was amazing.  And muddy.  VERY muddy.  Ankle deep mud.  So be prepared for that if you decide to Volunteer.  You will be muddy.  They suggested we wear "boots or rain boots if there's a chance of rain".  That sounded terrible in my opinion.  So I opted for my obstacle/mud run  shoes where I didn't mind if they got muddy.

Me and Cara on our lunch break

They eventually started trading people around so everyone could put headbands on people if they wanted to.  I switched back and gave out rubber bracelets to people to trade in for their Finisher's T-shirt, Ben of course headed straight to the beer tent to hand out beer, and Cara I think opened 1,000 bananas.  I didn't know she was doing that.  How many times have you been handed a banana at the end of the race as you are covered in mud and cannot get it open.  I thought that was awesome of her for opening them for the runners. 

A great "official" picture of me handing out the coveted head bands

Meanwhile, Adam and Lizzy who were stationed at the water tent did that and only that.  They handed out water, handed out gummies and granola bars and that was it.  They said while it was fun to watch the runners, it certainly wasn't exciting.

After our shift ended we checked out, got our information on how to register with our discount for Sunday, got our chip for a free beer, and got our information for 20% off merch we headed to the hose pipes to spray off as much mud as we could as quickly as we could since a bad thunderstorm was rolling in.  We grabbed our free beers and headed off back to Murfreesboro.  We grabbed a quick supper and headed home to get ready for the race the next day.

After weeks of trying to decide, even Saturday I couldn't decide if I was going to run.  There were people in really...actually ridiculous shape, then people in way worse shape than me coming across that finish line.  But when it came down to it, I realized between the great ankle injury of Warrior Dash Ohio and my lack of training, I didn't think I'd be able to do the race justice so I decided to sit this one out. 

I bet you can't tell which two of us were at the water station instead of the "Mudder Experience"

We got to bed around 11:00 Saturday night with 8:00 alarms set for the next morning since the first wave that they wanted to run started at 10:00.  Adam came and tapped on our door at about 7:30 to inform us that they had cancelled Tough Mudder for Sunday.  Initially we of course thought it was a joke, but apparently those storms that we ran from after our volunteer shift tore apart the course.  It made the pathways for the medic vehicles impassable, we heard a creek rose so high it flooded parts of the course, and tore apart Mudder Village.  Parking was a nightmare on Saturday due to the several days of rain we had leading up to the weekend, I cannot imagine if they had tried to park cars on Sunday after flooding Saturday night.

All the people who had registered for Sunday can now have their registration moved to any other race.  They didn't offer a refund, but I'm going to bet if you had registered for the race, you'll probably do another one anyway so a refund didn't matter.  Also, another perk for being a Volunteer is a race is never sold out for a Volunteer.  So if you see one you want to do, you can sign up no matter if it says it's sold out.  Of course we were disappointed, but that just means we'll have to put together a road trip!  Looks like we'll be heading up to Pittsburgh this August!  68 days!  I'm going to kick my ass for the next 68 days and get ready so I can run with everyone.  #toughmuddertraining

In the end, I'd volunteer again in a heartbeat.  I'd just choose one of the half day shifts instead of the full day.  12 hours is just too long.  They provided us with a light breakfast and a really late (in my world at least, it was around 2:00) lunch.  You don't get as much of a discount if you do a half day, but I'd rather pay more than work for 12 hours.  That just makes for a long day.

Have you volunteered for a race?  What was your experience like?

Warrior Dash II - Ohio

Apparently we couldn't get enough of Warrior Dash with only one race this year so we decided on two.  We ran Warrior Dash in Georgia back in April - you can read about that race here - and decided to run it again in Ohio with Ben's sister and brother in law, and a couple friends.  Well unfortunately work schedules didn't work out for a few of the people, so Ben, me, and some friends from Virginia headed over to Columbus for the race.

We met at our hotel, the downtown Hyatt Regency, and headed out to get "an amazing burger better that Litton's" at a place called The Thurman Cafe.  While the burgers were delicious and GIANT, they were no Litton's.

From there we headed back to the hotel, we had some race prep to attend to.  So I busted out my sewing machine. Bet you didn't see that coming, I mean who pack a sewing machine to take to an obstacle run?  I get to work on the ridiculous costume we are wearing the next day.  Doug who came in town to run with us is a band director and had some old uniforms laying around.  After pulling some strings he was able to get us some to wear on the race.  Well these fit high schoolers...we are SEVERAL years removed from high school, so some seams had to be let out, some sleeves cut off.  And of course after finishing 1.5 of the jackets my needle broke.  I may have brought a sewing machine, but I sure didn't bring extra needles!  Thankfully the nice people at the Hyatt Regency didn't ask too many questions when we called down to ask for 3 sewing kits.

Doug Ben and Jenn trying on our overlays

Me and Susan began feverishly hand sewing these overlays as we played Cards Against Humanity.  If you haven't played this game you need to, it's hysterical!  Now don't play this with grandma at Christmas...one of you will be very embarrassed.  For the 4 of us in that hotel room, it was absolutely hilarious.

Ben's Flat Warrior Ready to Go!

We finally finished up for the night and laid out our flat warriors and passed out.  The next morning, we got up early and started making the hour drive to the race site in Millfield, OH.  We parked the car - note it's our brand new (to us) Honda Element - on this giant hill stacked in with all these other cars.

Susan all set up to watch our bags while we run!

This is where Warrior Dash dropped the ball...MAJORLY!  We got in line to get our bibs/hats/shirt, it took almost 45 minutes, we couldn't believe it.  Usually there's NO ONE there that early, then we finally made it to the front of the line and were told all 3 of us were on the "master list" and we had to check with information.  We walked over to the information tent, where we found a line 2 times as long, and only 2 people working it.  After waiting there for another 45 minutes we finally had our gear to go run.  We got all suited up and headed off.

Conquering the Mud Mounds!

Conquering the Mud Mounds

The first basically mile had 1 Warrior Dash obstacle, and the rest was God's obstacle.  I'm not kidding when I say it was hilly.  They have it listed as "slightly hilly", I don't ever want to know what anything about slightly is.  There were parts where no one would have blamed you for getting on all fours it was that steep.

The Great Warrior Roast!

We had Stormin Normandy, the only obstacle where Ben uses his knee pads.  I didn't wear any, and now have cut up knees. The Mud Mounds, which absolutely destroyed me.  After running/walking those hills at the beginning I was already getting exhausted.  We had the trenches, which I've never done before, so that was awesome.  Apparently I was the only one to crawl through them, Ben and Doug just walked then ducked under the slats. Dead Man's Drop, where I was able to complete it this time (with a little help from Ben).  It wasn't slanted back like it was in Georgia so it was much more manageable.  Then we had the Warrior Wall, which I chickened out on, we were so muddy from the trenches and mounds that I didn't think I was strong enough to hold me on the slick ropes.  I did however conquer the Warrior Peak (A-frame) and I didn't use the wussy 2x4s they had nailed into one side!  We had the shock top obstacle, the barn, , and those horrible cargo tubes to climb through.  Those, as Ben said, are deceivingly difficult!  Goliath - which didn't have the GIGANTIC line like in Georgia so I completed it all, the Warrior Roast, and the Muddy Mayhem.

Goliath!

 I'm not sure exactly what happened at the end, Ben started playing and rolling all over me, I couldn't get my balance, somehow I twisted the holy crap out of my ankle.  Again!  I did the same thing in 2012.  So I limped probably the last .01 miles to the finish line.

At the Finish Line!

Warriors!

It was a great race course, if they could figure out the new system for registration it would have been perfect!

One thing I'm not sure if I mentioned in the other Warrior Dash post from Georgia in April, Warrior Dash has decided to offer FREE, yes FREE professional pictures of the race!  So far, we've had tremendous pictures, of course I keep an eye out for the photogs so I ham it up for them.  But this is another reason to run this race, most races set you up with marathonfoto.com which is NOT cheap!

We headed back to the hotel, cleaned up, and headed out to Schmitz for some German food with Ben's parents, sister and brother and law, and Doug and Susan.  After that, we were wiped out.  We've gotten to be so boring in our old age.........

Schmidt's!

Ben's Parents!

The whole crew for the sausage fest!

We headed back to Tennessee on Sunday morning, but not without stopping to fill up the car with various beers that aren't sold in Tennessee due to the ridiculous tax laws.  Hello Fat Head Bumbleberry!

The next day I begin the great task of cleaning out the warrior clothes.  Everyone has their own technique.  I prefer to let them stay in a garbage bag until I get home.  Keeping them wet if possible.  Some people prefer to dry them out then shake out the extra mud.  I bring all that sweet sweet mud home and lay everything out on the lawn chairs and spray it with the hose pipe.  Once I get as much as I can out, I wash it in the washing machine twice then dry it and usually that gets everything out. Most of the time the mud comes out of everything except whites.

It don't matter if you're black or white