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?