One Tough Mudder

       Ere it twas' an October morn. The race was the Tough Mudder and the hour it began was 9 and twenty in the morning. But lo' the story began many hours before. The race was in Beatty Nevada which meant that my running partner and I had to leave Las Vegas at 6 in the morning in order to make it in time to pick up our numbers, stretch and drop our bag off at the check in station. We made the journey with just enough time to wander around the extra booths they had but soon after our arrival we headed to the start line.
      To begin the race we both had to climb over one 8 foot wall just to get to the starting line so we did, then we were lined up getting ready to go as an announcer with a microphone tried to pump everyone up by getting them to yell and jump and stuff. Then we were off. We started running and the dust was kicked up in our faces and the fun began. We soon ran into the first obstacle, the kiss of mud. We had to army crawl in some pretty cold mud under barbed wire. We got up with our bodies covered in muck and started running again. We then ran through two pools of the thickest mud around. It was waist high, sticky gross mud. Then we kept running. Next was a man made hill at about a 45 degree angle covered in mud only about 20-25 feet high. So far we were cruising. We made it a little over a mile and ran into a terrifying obstacle, the arctic enema. This obstacle had you swimming, fulling submerging your entire body and head in a pool of ice water. The ice was so thick that it was difficult to just get through the ice itself but the 34 degree water was cold...very cold.
       Then we ran, this was all trail running so there was a lot of sand, gravel and steep hills to prove the run more difficult then expected. We ran until we got to what are called the Berlin walls, two 10 foot walls back to back that we had to climb over so I boosted my partner, Clay, over the first wall and then some stranger helped me out, and the same for the second wall. For those of you who haven't experienced that fun it is very difficult, even with a boost.
      Now I do not remember every obstacle, being as there were 24 of them, so I will briefly go over what I remember. Walk the plank is jumping off a 15 foot ledge into a pool, we rope crawled about 100 yards over a lake, army crawling under electric charged wires, 2 more Berlin walls that were 12 feet instead of 10, a few more water obstacles, monkey bars, a huge mud covered quarter pipe, more electricity, 11 miles of trail running and lots and lots and lots and lots of that thick thick mud.
       The next one is in April and it will be a good time. Fun was and will be had by all. Huzzah.