World’s Toughest Mudder 2014

(Pictures will be added to this as I collect them.)

“Race” & Goals

This is not the most important part of this recap but I know that you’ll want to know this. At the end of the pain (which I will describe), I ended up staying out on the course for just over 25 hours, 75 miles and 16th place. I was the last person to make the 75 mile marker. Happily, I was one place behind one of my friends from Tough Mudder, Grant Hollis.

My primary goal going into this was to be out there for the whole 24 hours, with a secondary goal of 75 miles. I made both of them, and it wasn’t my fault. There were so many great people out there that made it possible for me to keep on going through all of the challenges. Here’s a short recap of the main challenges:

10am-11am/First lap: I jogged out and made sure to go slowly. I set out to do 10 minute miles and hit just under that. I walked all up hills, and took bigger strides for the downhills when it was safe to do so. I hit 9:57 min/mile.

11am-4:30pm/Day: The day is all about going at a reasonable pace and building up buffer for when the walking commences. 75 miles required at least 1:43 minutes per lap, so I went out jogging the flats, lengthening my strides on the downhills and walking the uphills. After a couple laps when I started to feel the wind, I added a windbreaker. There weren’t major challenges during the day other than trying to optimize the obstacles for the night. Well, except the ankle that I rolled just after mile 23. I walked for a bit, and then got back to running on it. The pain went away and now it’s slightly swollen by okay.

4:30pm-10pm/The Calm Before the Storm: Once the sun set, it was clear that it was going to get cold fast. I had planned to do a lap in my lycra suit prior to switching into my 3/2mm wetsuit, but I could tell that it was going to get cold fast. I switched straight into my wetsuit (with the lycra suit under for chaffing) to keep myself warm before I got cold. I was too warm the first half of my first lap, but I thanked myself after that.

10pm-3am/The Storm: Just before the storm, I had an inkling that I was going to get colder, so I put on a windbreaker. Less than half a mile after that, up to 50mph winds started up all of the sudden and continued until at least 8am. At times, I couldn’t even see 2 meters in front of me. I just walked forward, both of the uphill and the flat ground. I jogged the downhills and tried my best during most obstacles. Surviving the storm was all about continuing to move forward despite the huge amount of pain, windchill and darkness around. After doing one lap, I said, “This isn’t about times or miles anymore, it’s about surviving the night.” Giving up on that distance marker, but maintaining the 24 hour pact with myself helped me keep going.

That was the first breaking point that I navigated successfully, but I know others didn’t. No one knew that it would happen, including TMHQ. All plans went out the door and I relied on pure strength of will to move forward, plus my wetsuit and windbreaker. This was the difference between those who made 50 miles, and those who made less.

3am-5am/The End: By 3am, my body was loosing heat quickly. The huge amount of water between mile 2 and mile 5 made it so when I came into the pit, I was absolutely freezing. That was manageable with nutrition, toweling off and warm liquids when I hit the pit until 3am. By 3am, my mind was broken by the cold, the wind, and the grueling became unbearable. I needed something to keep me warm. I had brought out my wetsuit hood earlier in the day, then returned it because I didn’t need it. At this point, I needed something to keep my head warm, except my hood had been blown away by the storm. We couldn’t find it, but my dad asked my fellow racers that I set up a pit with if they had a hood. Andrew Glaze spoke up and said he wasn’t going out anymore, and had a 5mm wetsuit hood.

That was the energy and gear I needed to get out for one more lap. When I was finishing that lap, I could see the sun rising and feel the temperature increasing. I got hope in my heart to keep on moving forward. I did some math and realized that I was just in range of 75 miles, if I kept on my pace. That was all the hope that I needed to make it through the end, and get all the way there.

That was the second breaking point. Before the night, I was slowly gaining positions on people. Once the night hit, I started plateauing around the upper 30’s. After 3am, I jumped into 19th place, and then worked up to 16th from there. That part of black ops (the night) is the hardest. It’s far enough from the day that you lose hope that it will ever come, but it’s deep into the pain of the night.

5am-11:30am/Coasting: Once the run started peeking over the mountains, I knew that I had made it over the hardest part. All I needed to do was keep moving at the same pace, and everything would be over soon. I forgot my nutrition plan slightly, because my brain wasn’t working, but it didn’t matter. I trudged forward at around the same pace and the miles came. I started the last lap knowing that I had 2:43 hours:minutes to finish it. That’s a full hour longer than my usual lap.

In my head, I called it my glory lap. I didn’t and don’t care about my place relative to other people, so it wasn’t about me being top 20. It was about how everything and everyone came together to make me succeed. It wasn’t my fault, it was everyone’s. I was the vessel through which it happened.

Reasons for Success (aka People Responsible for my Success)

There were a lot of reasons why I was able succeed through this grueling course, not a lot of them were my own doing. In true Tough Mudder spirit, I need to thank and acknowledge many of the people that made it all possible. I couldn’t have done it without all of them. I really mean that.

I want to thank all of these people personally and publicly because I know that people congratulate me for my success this weekend. I want to stress that it wasn’t me. It was all of them.

My pit crew (Jane, Dad & Mom): Each of you were important for so many reasons. Dad being out there during so many obstacles moving me forward, talking to me, getting myself to think forward and not wallow in the pain. Your constant effort made me not think about how much I was feeling, and made me think about what I could tell you to help me more. Mom is a master of organization. Without her being out there optimizing the food, Gatorade and every other switch, this wouldn’t have happened. I would have forgotten to eat, or my shoes would have taken twice as long. You made me smile that the pit was a well oiled machine. Of course, Jane (my fiancee) was indispensable. Your moral support and cheering me on made me want to keep on going. You thought of the little things like hot chocolate, warm broth and forgetting to eat. You thought of things that I didn’t think of, and helped me. I’m so glad that I’m marrying you. (FYI, I shared pit with other people, so I didn’t cheat by having one extra pit.)

Andrew Glaze: Without that 5mm hood at 3am, I was done. You and Amy’s smiles, efforts and selflessness even when you couldn’t get out there yourself mean so much to me. Without you, I couldn’t have gotten 75.

Erik Panu: That belt was golden. I wasn’t planning on having much water on me during the race, but those small packs were everything that I needed to keep my nutrition and cramping up.

PJ Catalano & PJ Catalano’s Pit (Lindsay?): When PJ mentioned that he couldn’t feel his hands, I realized that I couldn’t either. That comment made me think to use my gloves that I brought just in case. Without PJ’s pit, those gloves couldn’t have gone on. That psychological success made everything else possible.

Shared Tent Alcove: PJ Catalano, Reny, Russell, Andrew, Lotz, Scott, Andrew Glaze, and all their associated pit crew: Coming back to our little alcove of tents reminded me each time that I wasn’t out there alone. You guys were out there, struggling to make it happen. You should be proud of yourselves for what you accomplished.

Tough Mudder Volunteers: Something that everyone says about Tough Mudder is where do they get the awesome volunteers? These people were out there for 12+ hours yelling at us and cheering us on. I’m sure that they were freezing as well. They struggled through it to make us smile, and make us keep on moving through everything. So where do they come from? It’s the people that do Tough Mudders. They care about you, even if they don’t know you. They’re frickin’ awesome.

Fellow World’s Toughest Mudders: You are beasts. Even in the depths of the night, people said encouraging words and talked to each other to help each other out. They gave advice on how to do obstacles better, and always stopped to help each other get over the obstacles. The hump obstacle with the long swim and the ledge that we needed to jump up was impossible on our own. People ran forward to get in a group, or waiting when someone was in the water, just so they could assist. After a certain point, I was entirely useless at helping people with my muscles, but I did what I could by giving people lifts and ledges. We did this together. For every mudder that was successful, there were 40 that made that happen.

TNT: TNT is a veteran that’s struggling through leukemia right now. He’s a big guy that dedicates himself to inspiring other people through his struggle. He completed 2 laps with a gas mask on. I saw him out there and congratulated him many times, but it’s the last time I saw him that I’ll never forget. He was out there, on mile 2 with two crutches in his hands. He was clearly in pain but refused to let anything stop him. I told him this, and believe it to be true: “TNT is an inspiration to us all.” TNT currently is trying to raise money for a bone marrow transplant to help treat his cancer. You can read about it here.

Clifford: Clifford walked with TNT the entire time. She was there to help him, and listen to other people congratulate him. In my mind, she’s also a hero.

Jim Campbell: Jim has completed over 60 Tough Mudders. A few years ago, he was in a devastating motorcycle accident that put him in a neck collar and almost took his life (read more about it here). He’s currently running on a hip that is grinding bone to bone, but he still moves forward with a smile, taking selfies with everyone he meets. He’s inspired people about the Tough Mudder brand, and what it’s all about. Seeing you out on the course, even in the dark of night, reminded me that doing these things is about more than me or my group. It’s about inspiring people to go farther, and do more.

Difficulties Post-WTM

As I told the medical person as I finished my 15th and last lap, “I’m so cold. So so cold.” I was in the medical tent for around 20 minutes getting attention. Once I changed out of everything, I was feeling a lot better. There were people that were worse off than me, so I moved myself out of there quickly.

Inability to regulate my own body temperature until midnight. I was always cold. At first I thought I just needed more clothing or being by a heater, but I was in my car for 25 minutes with the heat blasting and my core was still cold. I forced Chipotle down my throat, but was still cold under all the covers of my bed. I forced myself to go to sleep, and woke up with a returned temperature regulator.

After peeing every 20-30 minutes, my body forgot that peeing at will is not socially acceptable. Yay for repeated, sudden and urgent trips to the bathroom.

My groin area looks like a either a warzone or strawberry patch. Everything there was chaffed. I used vasoline, and re-applied but it wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t ever be enough.

I cannot feel my pinky toes, nor my index toe on my left foot. It’s Monday night.

Driving without sleep post-WTM is not advised. If you need to be the driver, get a hotel VERY close to the event for the night after, no matter how close you live.

Suggestions for Next Year

Be prepared. Be over prepared. As evidenced by the sand-storm that occurred at 10pm, anything can happen at WTM. I brought my 6/5mm wetsuit even though I didn’t need it or use it. The 5mm wetsuit hood and gloves were absolutely critical to completion, and I thought I wouldn’t need them.

Vasoline. Vasoline everywhere (and repeatedly)! Especially: flexor surface of the elbow, armpits, heels/feet, inner thigh, perineum, crack, scrotum, shaft. Once the wetsuit goes on, it doesn’t come off, so reapply prior.

Longer underwear: There’s a big chaffe mark right under where my underwear ended, but only smaller chaffe marks above it.

Wetsuit hood, 5mm preferred: I didn’t need a hood when the wetsuit went on, but I needed it to survive past 3am.

Wetsuit Gloves: I wear light biking gloves during the day and most of the night to protect from light cuts that build up over time. Once it got very cold (12am-ish), I switched into 5mm gloves and my hands felt warm. That didn’t matter for going over obstacles, but it mattered mentally. Cons: I couldn’t even grip balls to the wall, so if grip was necessary late into the night, it could hurt.

Get your pit to practice with your gear. I was very comfortable with all my eccentric ways of doing things, but my pit had no idea how to deal with things like heel locked shoelaces. Also, tell them to get pit breaks down to 1 minute, at most. They’ll still take longer, but getting yourself out there on the course for the most time is good.

Know your pit’s strengths and weaknesses. My dad is great at supporting and following. My mother is great at organizing and making things ready. My fiancee, Jane, is wonderful at everything except going outside the pit area. You need a mix of skills in your pit.

Clothing for after, and lots of it: You’ll be really cold afterwards, so pamper yourself.

Support everyone that you pass, because they’ll support you back. If you walk/run like a zombie and hate yourself and the process, then some psychological challenge will destroy you. If you think about cheering others on and moving forward, then it’ll distract you from the huge amount of pain that you’re in. Just don’t get disappointed when the person you cheer on doesn’t return the favor.

Tell your pit that you can’t quit, for any reason. At 3am, I really wanted to, but my parents and Andy got me a hood and pushed me out there. After that push, I just kept on going to succeed.

That’s all

Even more than WTM 2012, this changed my life and how I think about people. There are groups of people out in the world that are great, and once you find them, you can do anything. They will help you!

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I’m going back to the clinic years of medical school starting June of next year, so I don’t think I’ll have the time or the days off to do WTM’15. Even if I don’t come back to a WTM ever again, I will never forget this.

Train running is for time

Tags

running, trail run, Ultimate (sport), ultramarathon

 

Trail running is a great change of pace from road (or soft ground) running. I tried it for the first time yesterday, and was planning on going for 2 hours, or potentially 20 miles. Oh the naivety of a road runner. I normally run my long runs at 7:30 min/mile or 8:00 min/mile. My first mile was 12:15, and it felt like I was putting a lot more effort than I should have been, considering how long I was expecting to run.

That’s why trail runs should be for time, not distance. As long as you keep a steady effort level or heart rate, you can get a good (or even better) workout. As I continued running on the Los Liones trail (see above picture, taken on the trail but not by me), my mile times were a lot slower than they would have been otherwise, so I figured that it’d be good to continue running at a constant effort level, instead of trying to aim for pace.

I ended out running an out-and-back route where I turned around at 1 hour. I kept my normal Tough Mudder strategy of running the flats and downhills, but walking the uphills. I turned out that I got back to the car at 1:47:47 for 9.82 miles (much shorter than planned). That difference in time is completely due to elevation difference.

My GPS watch, which doesn’t take elevation into account, estimated my burned calories at 1,080. That seemed to be low, so I used mapmyrun.com, which adds elevation to the calorie count. Mapmyrun.com said 1,670 calories, which is about what I would burn if I ran for 1:47:47 on a relatively flat trail.

So, trail running is awesome (more on that later), but recognize that elevation and terrain are important considerations. When taking a run on a new trail, with new terrain, focus on time and how hard you’re pushing. When the miles don’t come like they used to, don’t worry and keep on going. The new experiences are worth it.

I definitely will plan on going out on that trail again, and not paying attention to the miles. The sights, the effort, and the experience are well worth the change in pace.

Workouts

Sunday: Run on San Vicente 42:41/6.12 mi (6:58 min/mi pace)
Monday: 2 hours UCLA ultimate
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 2 hours UCLA ultimate
Thursday: 1 hour stationary bike/16.68 mi, 45 min UCLA ultimate
Friday: 30 min UCLA ultimate, 20 minute swim
Saturday: 1:47:47/9.82 mi trail run (Los Liones + Fire trail)

Weight: Weight has been pretty consistent over the week, sitting at 171.0 lbs (BMI 25.4) for most of the week. I hit a high of 173.2 lbs (BMI 25.7) and a low of 170.2 lbs (BMI 25.3). Now that I’m getting back to running distance, I hope that the weight will come back off.

Cross-training for the win

Tags

biking, cross-training, recovery, running, Ultimate (sport), ultramarathon

Ultimate Layout (not me)

After an epic effort, it’s important to rest your body and mind. Resting allows microfractures and overuse “injuries” that built up from event day. As many runners know, after 3 or 4 days of doing nothing at all, we get antsy. After working out at least 5 or 6 days a week, it just seems strange to not do anything. That’s why you actually do something during race recovery (as well as during training).

Cross-training! Cross-training is anything that is not running. Preferably, it’s something that works on similar muscles but doesn’t lead to the same over-use injuries as running. When you’re putting on heavy miles, you’re just waiting for an injury if you’re running every day, especially on roads alone. Cross-training will train your muscles less specifically than running, but it will allow you to build up stabilization muscles, and rest the ligaments, tendons and impact-absorbers that running hits so hard. I’ve heard about many ideal cross-training sports, but the two that I like are biking and ultimate frisbee.

Biking is one of the popular ones because you can get a great cardiovascular workout without the heavy impact of running. There is a big debate as to how much biking miles or time translate to running miles or time. Personally, I say that I can bike twice as long as I can run, for the same difficulty. For me, that translates to 3 or 4 times the mileage. As long as you’re okay with sitting on a bike for that long and far, it’s a great choice for cross-training. I highly suggest biking tights if you’re going to be biking for more than an hour. However, there’s a reason why I’m a runner instead of a biker, so you start wondering if you’ve chosen to train for a bi-athalon instead of a running race.

As people that follow this blog know, I also play a lot of ultimate frisbee. While this is still running, it’s more sprinting oriented. However, when you’re playing pick-up, it’s quite easy to be out for 2 hours of almost continuous play. That makes it quite easy to get a cardiovascular workout. If you tack on a running workout before and/or after, you can get into impressive work-out periods that are almost required when running ultramarathons. I think my favorite workout is to play ultimate for 2 hours, then take my cleats off and put my running shoes on for another 2 hours of running. I just feel accomplished afterwards.

The other benefit of ultimate is that there’s an aspect of team. Team and practice times get you out there on a regular basis, and add camaraderie to an otherwise solo sport. I never can find someone that’s similarly crazy about the running to me, especially the ultra-marathoning. That means when I do my big training runs and workouts, I’m all by myself. If I’m part of an ultimate team, then I get regular social and physical interaction, which makes me feel like the workouts are less crazy than really are.

At the end of the day, you should cross-train with a secondary sport that you like almost as much as running. What’s important is that you get yourself out there for a good workout that isn’t running. For the die-hard runners, it seems strange to tell them to stop running so much, but you’ll quickly realize the benefits of cross training.

2nd Post-Ultra Week Workouts

1st week post-ultra: Rest, rest and more rest.
Monday: 3 hours ultimate frisbee: 2 hours men’s and 1 hour mixed
Wednesday: 2 hours mixed ultimate frisbee
Friday: 2 hours men’s ultimate frisbee
Saturday: 4 hours club ultimate frisbee (Renegade Try-Out)
Sunday: 1st run back: 42:41/6.12 mi (6:58 pace) run along San Vicente Blvd.

Weight: After the ultra, I reached a new low of 166.2 lbs (BMI 24.7). In the days of recovery, I popped back up to 173.8 lbs (BMI 25.8) while I wasn’t working out because I was just so so hungry all the time. Since I started working out again, I’ve gotten back down to 171.0 lbs (BMI 25.4), showing me that 173.8 lbs was a peak that didn’t reflect weight that I would hold on to. That’s a little set back from prior to my ultra, but that’s okay.

 

 

The long, meaningful 46 mile journey

Tags

american cancer society, cancer, fundraising challenge, mental challenge, race recap, Relay for Life, UCLA, ultramarathon

During my Relay for Life challenge, I learned many things both about myself and the long arduous journey that I was raising money for: cancer. I ended out getting to 46 long mile, which is impressive overall, but short of my goal. I did complete all my guaranteed miles from donations though, so I’m happy. Let me take you through the major parts of my strife so that you can enjoy and maybe even learn a bit along the way.

Mile 0: 10:05am

The day started as planned, with me driving over to the parking lot under the IM fields (right next to the track). I got there at 9:45am, and put on sunscreen, my shoes and got everything ready for the long day ahead of me. Everything was pretty much set, but it took me until 10:05am to take the first picture and get off and running. Since Relay for Life didn’t officially start till 2pm, we were not allowed to be on the track until noon. The UCLA Ultimate team was showing up to set up at 1:30pm. That means that I had some sight seeing to do prior to getting to the track. So I set off with my camelback, salt pills, GPS watch and some bags of mashed potatoes.

I decided to do the most popular route at UCLA: the perimeter. I jogged up to Sunset Boulevard and turned down Hilgard. I was trying to hold back the pace so that I could last the whole 24 hours. I ended up getting to mile 1 in about 10 minutes. The first mile felt good, and I couldn’t help but use my time to do the math and project 10 minutes per mile for 24 hours is 6 miles per hour, or 144 miles. That would be quite respectable distance, considering that I was aiming for around 100 miles.

As I got to my first walking break, the weather was a great California sunny day. That’s a little warm for running weather, but I had enough water and Gatorade to keep me through the day. I decided to take the common tactic of jog 25 minutes and run 5 minutes, then rinse and repeat all day long. It’s impossible to keep up the stamina by running constantly for 24 hours. The human body just can’t do that, so you work in rest to get your heart rate down and let your body do what it needs. Just a little after my first 30 minutes, I got back to the track and realized that I needed a better plan than running a 4-ish mile loops all day long.

That better plan was to run all the way to the beach and back. I had heard rumors that it was at least 12 miles round trip, and I knew the way. With that little decision, I went off into implementation. I circled around to the track and started off away from the rising sun. As I crossed under the 405, past the VA hospital, I started seeing my familiar running trail in the island of San Vicente Boulevard. The grass felt good under my feet as the miles just racked up, and up, and up. I went about 6.5 miles per hour, instead of the planned 6 miles per hour. My legs felt like the distance and speed was totally within their means.

The thing is that San Vicente is slightly downhill on the way there, and slightly uphill on the way back. That made the first 13 miles of the day fly by, as I got the great view of the ocean and run up and down Ocean Boulevard for a while. The toughness started when I started the trek back towards UCLA. By around 26th Street, which is a couple miles from the beach (around mile 15), I had almost finished the two Liters of water that was in my pack. I had enough food and was feeling like my electrolyte level was good, with taking one salt pill per hour.

It was then that the miles started wearing me down. I was breathing hard, and my running miles were getting slower. So I told myself that I was biting off more than I could chew. I slowed down my jogs and didn’t curse the breaks forcibly induced by stoplights. They were embraced with the opportunity to sip a little more water, and maybe take a bite of mashed potatoes to make sure I had my requisite 200 calories an hour.

That kept the next couple miles going well, but then I recognized that the course between the 405 underpass and UCLA was almost exclusively uphill, and at a steep incline. That gave me a tough battle during some tough miles. At this point, I was determined to keep the course. I took the hard miles in stride, and made it to UCLA after around 18 miles. It was around 1:20pm. Those were some very beautiful and relaxing starting miles.

When I got back to the track, I went to my car and got some food and Gatorade. I took a quick load of stuff to the Track and said “hi” to some people that I recognized. I set my stuff down and started on the track miles.

The UCLA Relay for Life event is big. There are lots and lots of people that come out in support. It’s truly a great event. That also means that there are lots of people walking in the first few lanes of the track. Instead of running around them and constantly trying to get in and out of their way, I chose to run in lane 4. The laps in lane 4 are 440 meters long, which means that for every 10 laps you run, you get a bonus lap.

So how did I keep track of this hard calculus (it’s calculus because it’s adding, and calculus is fancy adding)? Fingers are key. In my relaxed hand, I hold out the requisite number of fingers indicating the lap that I’m on. As everyone was coming and setting up, I waved and kept on going around and around the unsurprisingly elliptical track.

When I got to mile 21, I felt my body switch from using glycogen for fuel, to using fatty acids and breaking down my less efficient energy stores. In non-medical terminology, that’s called “the wall.” You feel like you don’t want to go further, and your body suddenly feels exhausted. Just as in a marathon, the only thing you can do at this point is keep on moving forward. Just move forward. So I slowed down, and walked when I needed to. I ate my potatoes, drank my Gatorade, and ate my salt.

It was then that opening ceremonies started, which was a happy break for me. I had gotten to mile 23 before I sat down in respect of why we were all there: support for people battling cancer and/or caring for people affected by cancer. The opening ceremony was inspiring to hear the stories behind why people were there. The survivors stories reinforced in all of us how cancer can take away those dearest to us at any time. Tradition also says that the survivors walk a lap first, while everyone else stands inside the track cheering them on.

That gave me a good 30 minute break, and then I was off running again. When I got up, my knees and joints ached from what had gone before, but they were ready for more. This time, my body had recharged, some of that potato fuel had worked it way towards my muscles.

The miles after that came quite easily. I was able to keep going for at least 2 or 3 hours at my consistent, desired pace. One of my friends from Bruinrunners, Jesse, ran with me briefly and talked about running his first marathon. He said he was inspired by my efforts to run for 24 hours. Indy, from ultimate, also was out running 10 miles. He hadn’t been training for distance, but he wanted to challenge himself to go farther.

The good times lasted until around mile 32, when I was noticing that the rocks that were encrusted in my shoes from running multiple laps of Tough Mudders in them, had come out of their semi-permanent locations. Of course, they had to crawl their ways under my feet and started rubbing in the exact same places for mile after mile. I finally gave in and took off my shoes, to remove the rocks and re-position the duct tape that was keeping the blisters at bay. It was then that I noticed the blisters and abrasions on, well, all of my feet. In particular, the entire medial side of my left pinky toe was a blister. The skin just outside the bounds of my duct tape on my arch on my left foot had long since left its sweet home on my foot. It would be everyone’s guess where the skin now lives.

Taking the rocks out of my shoe made my journey much better, but the repositioning of the shoe around my new wounds was uncomfortable. At this point, my body hurt and I was happy to welcome different pain. It wasn’t better or worse than before, just different. However, it was just the start of the hard journey. Even though I had been taking in fluid, salt and potato fuel like it was my job, my right groin started pulling, and pulling progressively harder each lap. When you think about running a large number of laps around a track, you realize that all those left turns can lead to some asymmetric problems with your body. Eventually, my groin was pulling so much that it started hurting whenever I was on the curved part of the track. I decided to take an extra salt pill, and just walk it out.

So I walked, and walked, and walked. Indy finished his 10 miles of running and kept on moving to get to 13.1 miles. Jesse made good progress on his 13.1 miles, although I didn’t hear that he finished.

As I got to mile 38, I tried to jog again. I was successful in getting about a lap in, but then the entire lower half of my body was aching with continual pain. I took a break, to re-duct tape my feet over the blisters, to remove some rocks from my right shoe, and to give myself a little break. When I sat down, it felt like heaven. My body desired rest, and lots of it. I took around 15 minutes to reset and re-fuel, and then I walked off, trying to continue going farther and farther. That was when the pace dropped even further.

I managed to make it to mile 43 before the Luminaria ceremony. This ceremony is extremely meaningful because they ask everyone to be silent, while they listen to the stories of those who did not survive the fight. You also learn why people are taking the time out of their schedule to Relay. After the ceremony, I walked a couple laps in honor of those who have passed.

After those, I just kept walking and listening to everything that was happening around me. I got to mile 45, and my body was aching. The blisters on my feet were hurting with each step, and I could feel that I wasn’t going to get my legs moving any faster than a walk. My heart was tired and exhaustion prevailed over my entire body.

I talked to my friends for a while, and they encouraged me to get up to 50 miles, or even a double-marathon. I listened to them and stayed, sitting on the ground and trying to work up my strength. After sitting on the soft grass in the middle of the track for about 20 minutes, I knew that I could probably get 50 miles out of my legs, but it was going to take a whole lot of time and pain.

At this point, I was just two laps shy of 46 miles, so I decided that it was going to be another huge effort to get to 50 miles, but I could put my mind towards 46. So I got out there and did my last couple laps, feeling quite accomplished at the end.

Even though I set out for a much loftier goal, I think I completed the idea of the challenge that I set out for myself. I wanted to go as far as my body would take me in 24 hours. My mind said that 87 miles totally doable, and 100 would be a reasonable goal. My body, however, had other plans. The Tough Mudders I had recently completed told me that 30 miles in a day was hard, but doable.

What I learned last weekend is that every mile counts. Every step takes constant effort. It’s not as though someone jumps from 26.2 miles for a marathon to just pushing themselves consistently for 24 hours to get 100 miles. It takes long, arduous mental and physical training. My body was ready for 40 miles, and my mind took it to 46. Those last four miles to get to 50 were seemingly insurmountable at that point in time. What I can hope is to come back later, having pushed myself past or to the point of utter exhaustion repeatedly, and conquer that challenge.

For me, the next ultimate test will take place at World’s Toughest Mudder 2014. For those struggling with cancer, every day is a struggle. The pain of pushing myself taught me that you cannot imagine what that struggle is like. You can only feel respect and admiration for those who go through it, and come out better people on the other side. For those who succumb to the disease, we can only bow our heads and remember the happy days that they shared with us.

For me, 46 miles in 13 long hours.

The limitations of the human form

Tags

Relay for Life, teaser, ultramarathon

46 miles, 13 hours (there’s no way to hold up 46 using fingers, except if you have 3 hands)

This weekend was great, challenging, and disappointing. I got enough donations so that I could guarantee 30 miles run during Relay for Life. That, in itself, is awesome. I feel honored that people supported me, and the fight for cancer.

This weekend also was challenging once I got to completing my challenge of running for 24 hours. I felt like I was ready, and set off at 10am, running 10 minute miles (25 min run, 5 min walk, repeat). I was eating and drinking well, but once I hit 23 miles, I hit a wall. I pushed through that wall and got to 35 miles. At that point, I trudged forward and forward, hurting more and hour with each additional mile. By mile 44, I was broken and feeling like I was going to collapse. So, by mile 46, I decided that 100 miles, or even 83 miles, was not in my body.

46 miles, however, is respectable. It matches the farthest that I’ve run in a weekend. It is a new record for how far I’ve run in a 24 hour period. I am happy with how I did, and am motivated to train more so that my body can go farther next time.

Don’t worry, I’ll give you more details and a full post-run breakdown later. I’m traveling to D.C. tonight on a red-eye and am very tired.

Workouts: Rest, rest and more rest.

Weight: After the ultimate tournament, my weight had grown back up to 171.0 lbs (BMI 25.4). Over the course of the busy week and glycogen storing for the event, it grew up to 172.2 lbs (BMI 25.6). Post-race: a new low of 166.2 (BMI 24.7). I burned a whole bunch of calories…

Every step counts

Tags

donation, fundraising, ultramarathon

It’s the little things that matter. Whether it’s making the effort to call your mother on mother’s day, thanking a soldier in uniform for his or her service, or raising a little money for charity; it all matters. If we all put our small efforts together, these small things quickly add up to be huge, important causes. On a larger scale, if we get more people involved in supporting a cause, it makes people realize and recognize the struggles involved with that cause.

In that way, I feel honored that people support me in my efforts for the American Cancer Society. With their help, I’ve raised $540 for the cause so far (That’s different from what’s on my page due to company doubling of donations.). That contributes to the over $70,000 that has been raised for the UCLA Relay for Life event. That amount of money can make many meaningful differences in the lives of cancer patients, their loved ones, and those dedicating their working lives to caring for patients and researching cancer.

For my most recent challenge, I’ve raised $150 dollars. That means that I guarantee that I’ll run at least 30 miles on Saturday. That’s a great distance, but I think that I can and we can do more. So, I urge you to support the cause for fighting cancer by challenging me to running farther. That way, you get a concrete reward for your donation.

We have 4 more days. How much do you think I can run in 24 hours? You think 30 miles is totally do-able? How about challenge me to 35? Or, together, we can get together and challenge me to run 100… or more.

Want to participate in the challenge? Donate here.

End with a bang: Tough Mudder NorCal

Tags

cameraderie, mud run, race recap, running, tough mudder, ultramarathon

If you like these recaps, please consider supporting me as I raise money in support of people suffering from Cancer. I’ll guarantee 1 mile in 24 hours for every $5 donated here.

Tough Mudder NorCal (Diablo Grande)

This last of the Southwest trifecta of Tough Mudders definitely took the cake. Between SoCal and Arizona, this was by far the hardest course. I also had a great time seeing so many other veterans of the Tough Mudders. This event pushed me to my physical limit and also reaffirmed what Tough Mudders are all about. Without much more ado, here’s my recap from the weekend.

Pre-Lap

For this event, I didn’t have family nearby and it was sufficiently far away (5.5 hours) that I needed to get a hotel. I got a hotel about 40 minutes from the venue and had to leave for the first wave about 15 minutes before the free breakfast started (sadface). I was surprised when I turned off the I5 with 20 more minutes to drive, but it all made sense when I started driving into the mountains. Diablo Grande is a quaint golf course community next to some killer hills.

I got the premium parking because the general parking looked to be a good distance away from the start line. I got there right at 7am when the gates opened and walked my way though the efficient registration. I said “hi” to some of the TMHQ people that recognized me, including a guy with a mic that recognized my bright red tights. I put my stuff in the bag check and made my way over to the start line. I said “hi” to Sean and met Peter, another person from TMHQ.

So far, my body felt tired from being sick the week before (Food poisoning on Monday before a Saturday event). I felt like I didn’t have proper nutrition going, but my legs felt mostly fine. Well, that’s at least what I thought then.

First Lap

For the first lap of NorCal, there were so many 10+ mudders and a good amount of people that had done World’s. I also saw PJ who ran the first lap of Arizona with me. We caught up a bit and talked about running together. There was even a girl in a bright pink skirt with World’s Tough Mudder gear on. Sean gave his normal, awesome pump-up speech. This morning, he seemed exceptionally on his game, which gave me some extra energy to get going. He also called me out specially for running 4 laps the weekend before, which made me feel good.

After the countdown, we were off. The map showed that there wasn’t an obstacle in the first mile: it lied. There were some steep jump ups in the course that we had to climb over, but they weren’t hard. Within about a quarter mile, we saw this gigantic puddle and looked across. In the middle of the puddle, we spied the ropes showing us that we had to go straight through it. I went around the right side and PJ went around the left side. At this point, we were running together up in front with lots of guys right on our shoulder.

That’s when we ran into the wooded area. We saw that there were deep and prevalent potholes everywhere. After running over some nice green substance and hitting the first mile (again, much farther than an actual mile), we turned around and found the first listed obstacle: Glory Blades. At this point, I’m used to these so I ran up and grabbed the top, put my right leg on the supports and got my body the rest of the way over, sliding down the far side. Repeat this, and I was through faster than anyone else so far.

I turned a corner right after the obstacle and suddenly found myself on the ground. I had stepped in a pothole and was going to turn my ankle, so I just let myself fall. I got quickly up, and yelled back to warn the others. When I looked up, I saw what I would see a lot of the rest of the day: a gigantic hill.

This was just like the killer hills from the SoCal courses, just a bit longer and quite steep. When we got to the top, we saw the hill roll back down and then come up again, over and over again. By this time, PJ and I were running with two other guys: Mike Delany (from WTM) and Eduardo.

After a good amount of work, we got to mile 2 and were rewarded with a Wounded Warrior Carry. I really like these because it encourages people to run together so that they have someone to carry. When we got there, I got carried first, then picked up one of my fellow mudders. The first half was slightly uphill, but that just revealed the second half. It was quite a bit uphill, which made carrying someone on your back even harder. I pushed through to carry my fellow mudder, then we kept on going.

The next half mile was basically all a controlled fall downhill. I couldn’t help but think that we were just losing all that elevation that we so painstakingly gained. Then again, that is just like the TM course designed to do that to you.

At the bottom of the hill, the three of us (Eduardo, PJ and I) saw a wall of tarps hiding an obstacle. We turned the corner and saw a sign: Cage Crawl. Eduardo is scared of water, so I gave him the tip to take 4 or 5 big strides with your arms, then pause to breathe. Do that three times and you’ll be out. We both went down and I got out faster, but he was quick behind me. He was clearly flustered from the water, but I could tell that he felt accomplished that he made it through.

We ran through a flat section and made it quickly to Pitfall. This time, the Tough Mudder course designers gave us something special. They had electric wires just before you dived into the water of pitfall. I didn’t get shocked, and just made it through the water. Both Eduardo and I decided to crawl through. That decision had us periodically getting plunged face first into water, but it definitely made us go through faster.

Getting through that, we went up a quick hill and found ourselves at Killa Gorilla. It would have been easy to just run along the ridge, but the TM course designers instructed us to go down the steep slope down to the road. This was basically a controlled fall or slide down the hill. Immediately, we turned around and had to climb up the other side. When I say climb, I mean climb. You had to use your hands and feet to basically scramble up the wall using whatever leverage you could. Then, in good Tough fashion, you immediately went down the hill and climbed up again. Finally, you went down the wall face and went off your merry way.

Quickly, you made it to Mud Mayhem. This was reminiscent of an obstacle in Arizona, but it was better (and harder) when mud was present. There were a bunch of mud hills and valleys that you needed to run though. About half way through, there was a large puddle that you needed to stride through. We quickly strided through it and turned to make it through more mud hills. We just ran through on the valleys and kept on going, towards the next obstacle.

In quick order, we came upon Walk the Plank. This was the obstacle that Eduardo was dreading. Tough Mudder has a habit of making you run around a big curve so that you can look upon the wonder of Walk the Plnka (and psychyourself up) for a while before you climb up. After that little stroll, we climbed up the wall and jumped off. PJ and I paused and cheered Eduardo on as he swam through the water. He made it through, clearly rattled but feeling accomplished.

With that, our pace picked up and we found ourselves at Arctic Enema. At this point, this obstacle is fun and routine. I jump in so that in my first submersion, I make it past the barrier. A couple strides and we’re out of the cold water.

Almost two strides later, we got to Ladder to Hell. Right before this, there was a great sign that said: “If cleanliness is next to godliness, welcome to hell.” This obstacle is 4 large slats that have huge spaces between them. It’s basically a ladder for giants. All you have to do is climb up, which isn’t hard, but you do get high and need to hang on carefully.

And soon after, we hit Funky Monkey, which was the final obstacle in this cluster. They like to cluster the obstacles where the spectators can see, which is appreciated. For this Funky Monkey, the ladders were much steeper than the past two weeks. I made it about half way through then the grip of my gloves gave out. It is definitely easier to do when bare palmed. I swam through and looked behind me. Eduardo had made it through without much effort, but PJ was fading. I kept walking, but yelling back to egg PJ on. He made it through without much trouble, and I had a little lead on the others.

I allowed myself to get a lead because my legs were aching. My body was reeling in fatigue from the past couple weeks, as well as my illness. I could tell that this course was harder than the others and my legs were not fresh, but I pushed on.

Quickly (because I was running slower), Eduardo and PJ caught up to me and we went through Balls to the Wall together. For this, we just grabbed the rope and pulled ourselves up, using the slats for leverage. It only takes two big tugs to get close enough to the top to climb over. Then we just ignore the rope on the other side and climb down.

It was then that the boys were separated from the men: Cliffhanger. You know how the first hill was big? This one was about 25% longer and even more steep. The three of us went up the hill as fast as we could, which meant that Eduardo made a lead and PJ dropped behind. Just as we reached the top of the hill, we looked forward and saw… another.  We struggled up that second one and, once over the ridge, we looked forward and saw… a third, just as steep.

We struggled up that third one, and found ourselves at Devil’s Beard. Before we get there, recognize that those three absolutely killer hills spanned almost a full mile: definitely the hardest mile on the course. This Devil’s Beard was tight and long, and my butt high tactic didn’t work because I just got knocked to my knees. I did the crawl and sweep to make it through.

At this point, Eduardo was far ahead and PJ was far behind, so I just kept on going, trying to push my tired body as fast as I could go. As I got to the bottom of the hill, a new face (Mike Delany) caught up to me. We went through Kiss of Mud together. He crawled and I rolled. In this case, his method was faster because the mud was so slick that there was no friction for the roll.

Extremely soon after, we made it to Hold Your Wood. For this, I picked up a reasonably sized log from the huge number of immense logs. Mike and I were quickly off, only Mike walked faster.

Soon after, we made it to the Legion split, which occurred early in this course. We ran up a ridge and saw a familiar sight: a 150 foot Kiss of Mud. As we rolled through, the mud just piled on and onto our feet, knees and elbows. By the time I got out of that epic battle (pausing a couple times for dizziness), I had a good two or three inches of mud on my elbows. I shook it off and kept on going.

We made it to Sled Pull. This was basically a sled with rocks in the middle. I put the rope around my waist and started walking. The volunteer cheered, “Now you must be an engineer, that’s smart.” I called back and said, “Nope, a mathematician.” Your hips are made for bearing weight. Putting the rope around your hips makes it high enough that the sled is slightly lifted, reducing some horizontal friction, but not high enough that you’re actually lifting much of it’s weight. I pulled the sled to the flags and back, then kept running.

That brought me to the Berlin Walls. My legs were aching and I was pushing myself to just keep running, so I went over the easy way that I had learned from a short girl in Arizona. I grab the support and put my foot on the small ledge. Then I pull myself up and fling my foot over, doing almost a split. Once the leg is over, then I’m done. I do it again, and then I’m off.

At this point, Mike’s superior legs allowed him to get some distance on me. I tried to run through the pain and catch him, but that didn’t work. The fatigue and sickness caught up to me, but I still tried to make it through.

In the last mile, we had another cluster of obstacles. First, we hit Soggy Bottom, which was harder than any other one. I slid down into the water and looked forward. There was a huge wall with no foot holds. Apparently, Mike had spent a good minute or two making his own ladder out. I saw where he did that, but him going up ruined it for me. So, I did the same, making footholds into the wall to get out. With much effort, it worked.

Next, we had the new fancy obstacle with a fun name of Pole Dancer. These are two poles that are wider than shoulder width apart. They have a V in the middle, so you slide down so your bottom half is in the water, then you have to somehow get up the far side of the V. It’s hard to get up. I tried, but ended up just falling and walking through.

That brought us to Quagmire, which was yet another mud pit to make it through. I just kept on moving forward and there wasn’t much to say.

Just as we reaches the base camp, we got to Prairie Dog. I just slid into the tubes, waded through the water on the other side and kept going. It wasn’t as epic as Arizona, but the cluster of obstacles was wearing me down.

Just after that, we made it to Everest. I got my speed up and ran up the quarter pipe. You can tell my legs were tired because I barely made it over myself. I grabbed the top and tried to swing my leg over, but failed the first time. I got it the second time and rolled through.

Next, we made it to the second Legion split. This time, we crawled through a tube and found ourselves at Family Fued. There were a bunch of kids at the obstacle, who were strangely strong. I almost made it through and then a particularly strong one hit me and I fell into the water.

I turned the corner and looked upon Electroshock Therapy. I looked at the mud situation, to see if I could pull my hay bail and air trick, but there was just too much water. For some reason, I’ve started to get scared of this obstacle. I ended out just wriggling through the mud and getting through to the finish line, exhausted.

Final time: 1 hour 59 minutes for 10.3 miles. Mike was waiting and cheering me on. We talked for a bit then I talked him into a second lap. That was much much harder than the last two weeks. It might have been influenced by the huge number of miles I ran, plus being sick. However, I still think that NorCal was slightly harder than SoCal and hugely harder than Arizona.

Second Lap

I quickly made my way to the start line, put my Orange headband in my bag in bagcheck, stretched out and drank some Gatorade. This time, Sean called me out again and cheered me on. To his surprise, Mike was also in the same start wave and has a 10+ mudder headband. This impresses everyone because it is impressive. This was Mike’s 15th TM.

After the pep talk, we were off with a bunch of people running up with Mike and I in the front. I quickly realized that my legs had taken a huge toll on the first lap and I wasn’t sure how much I could do on the second lap. I pushed myself through, talking to others and giving them tips. This time, the potholes were more evident from all the feet pushing down the foliage and making them quite visible.

I made it up the first hill and down through cage crawl fine. The second time through Killa Gorilla, there was no way to run down the slope. Instead, you have to slide down. It’s best to have one foot down and the other extended, so that you slide slower and have control on the way down.

Second time through the Mud Mayhem  the pits were deeper and the valleys had turned into rivers with large dips in them. This time, I jumped from hill to hill to avoid wading through the crazy water that I couldn’t see the bottom of.

I kept on pushing through Funky Monkey, but I felt fatigue hitting me real hard. I sat down to take the rocks out of my shoes, only to realize that they were also in my socks. This break let Mike catch up to me and we ran together for just a bit, until right before Cliffhanger, which was right before Mile 6. I waved him forward as my legs just gave out.

I pushed myself up the three huge hills of Cliffhanger. I cheered people on as I walked past and with the other mudders going up the hill. At one point, I asked someone, “Do you want some bad news?” They replied, “No.” And I replied, “Then it’ll be a surprise.” The surprise that it was three almost equally huge hills each time.

By the time I got to the top of the hill and to mile 7 in 2 hours, my body was just spent. I could barely jog, but I dedicated myself to keeping on moving forward in whatever way I could. There was no way that I could push the pace, but I could keep on going.

That was the attitude that I kept throughout the whole rest of the course. At mile 9, I saw a friend from Arizona named Luigi. He was running the other way and was almost to mile 6. I yelled out a word of encouragement to him and he yelled back at me.

By the time I made it to Everest the second time, I was hurting. I managed to get myself up with one last feat of strength. I looked at my watch and marked the time, then I turned around and encouraged people up the wall. After I helped 2 people up that I didn’t know and wouldn’t have gotten up on their own, the volunteers said that I could keep going on my own. I replied, “Nope. This is what I do.” They didn’t think twice of it, and I stayed helping at least 6 to 10 people up. It was just person after person after person.

After a while, I saw my friend Luigi come up. He made it up himself, then turned around and helped 2 more people up with me. After that, there was a lull in people coming, so I told him that he could keep on going. He said what I said, “This is my second lap. I want to stay and help more people.” With that, we both waited for more people to come and helped them over.

After about 25 minutes on the wall, I continued the course and made it to the finish. I slithered through Electroshock again. When I made it to the finish, I saw two girls that I had helped up. They immediately recognized me and thanked me for the help up Everest. I smiled and cheered them with my free beer that tasted so good.

Final time: 2 hours 50 minutes (with Everest waiting time not included). That’s my slowest time for a lap yet, which goes with my slowest first lap time. This course definitely tested me, and I don’t think I could have gotten 3 laps in even if I wanted to.

Tough Mudder successfully pushed me to my limit, and then inspired me to keep on moving forward. Even when pushing myself individually, I was also inspired to always think of my fellow mudders by giving them advice and helping them whenever I could. To me, that was a great end to the series of events.

That’s my last Tough Mudder for a while. My next one is in July in Upstate New York.

And Beyond: Ultramarathon-ing for Cancer

My next epic event is my Relay for Life challenge in April 26th-27th. For every $5 donated here, I will guarantee to run at least 1 mile during the 24 hour Relay for Life event. All money goes to the American Cancer Society. I will guarantee up to 100 miles. If I get money past that, I will try to live up to the challenge but I cannot guarantee it.

So if you like my posts and recaps, please consider supporting a great cause that will effect everyone in their lifetime, either by having cancer themselves or knowing a loved one and/or family member that is effected by cancer.

Workouts: This week was all rest. I didn’t even play ultimate between recovering from the 46 miles of Arizona and food poisoning.

Weight: After the crazy 46 miles, I dropped down to 171.0 lbs (BMI 25.4). The illness made it easy to drop weight because I expelled anything solid. That dropped my weight down to 168.8 lbs (BMI 25.1). I couldn’t even carboload properly due to sickness.

$5/Mile Challenge (Relay for Life)

Tags

american cancer society, Relay for Life challenge, tough mudder

 

Today, I’m announcing my last Relay for Life challenge of the year. One of the reasons that I do these crazy races, and do them more than once per event, is so that I can be part of something that is greater than myself. In this case, I will guarantee that I will travel by foot at least 1 mile per every $5 mile donated here, up to 100 miles in 24 hours. If we get more than $500 donated, then I can’t guarantee that I will achieve the additional mileage, but I’ll try. I will take a picture of myself or my surroundings every mile, so that you can enjoy it in video form afterwards.

Note that the push-up challenge put my donation mark at $340, so it’s every $5 on top of that. Donations must be in by 9am on April 26th, 2014. The day of the UCLA Relay for Life.

BUT WAIT!  100 miles is really really far. Yep. If you’ve been keeping track, you may have noticed that in the past 3 weeks, I’ve run 31.2 miles, 46 miles and 20.6 miles of Tough Mudders each weekend (write up of NorCal coming later this week). Each mile of a Tough Mudder is certainly harder than track miles and the Tough Mudders limit me on time. I think 100 miles in 24 hours is a great achievement and has great symbolic value.

For those of you that don’t know the history of Relay for Life, it was started by Dr. Gordy Klatt, who decided to run for 24 hours in support of his patients. He ended up running 83 miles and raised $27,000. I don’t think I’ll achieve his monetary goal, but I definitely aim to recreate his physical struggle.

So why support the American Cancer Society now? What do they do? Overall, they raise and spend a little less than $1 billion (yes, with a “b”) dollars per year, of which 60% go to charity services and 34% go to fundraising/awareness events like Relay for Life. You may say that 60% is a pretty low number, and I’d agree with you. The reason why they spend so much money on fundraising is that cancer affects us all. It’s important to support the community affected by cancer, as well as involve as many people as possible with the struggle. That’s why there are hundreds (if not thousands) of Relay for Life events that get small activists and donors together to build a community.

So what do they do with that 60%? They’re big enough to do everything, on every scale. They support cutting edge research that is too risky or experimental for other agencies (i.e. the NIH) to fund (16% of the 60%). They spend 28% of the 60% on detection, treatment and prevention (funny article on prevention). The last 28% is spent on patient support, which includes everything from giving patient’s information to counseling, to any other services.

Please join me in supporting the American Cancer Society by donating. It means a lot to me to do something (anything) for the millions of people suffering, as well as my friends and family that have been affected. No donation is too small.

Workouts

Monday: Food Poisoning
Tuesday through Friday: rest from sickness/46 mile run for the NorCal TM
Saturday: 1:59 and 2:48/10.3 mi of NorCal Tough Mudder (more on that later)

Weight: Sickness makes me not be able to eat, so I drop pounds. I was at 171 lbs (BMI 25.4) after the weekend, then dropped to 168.8 lbs (BMI 25.1) from not eating/expelling everything I did eat.

46 flying miles

Tags

obstacles, running, tough mudder, ultra marathon

 

 

 

 

 

Tough Mudder Arizona 2014

The best description for this weekend was epic. The course was different than expected, and it was my first TM to run alone. I had a great time meeting people and getting to know people. There was so much great camaraderie and support of our fellow mudders that I was blown away. I also stepped it up and ran 4 laps of a 11.5 mile course over the weekend (46 total miles). I left the weekend feeling tired, accomplished, and part of something bigger than myself. Here’s my summary of the weekend for me, as well as course overview:

Lap 1: Flying Through

The day didn’t start out that well. The address given by TMHQ was on the wrong road. I arrived 15 minutes early and noticed that the parking ticket I bought had an intersection on it, so after driving an extra 2 miles, I turned around and found a small blue writing on black sign that pointed us towards parking.  Eventually, I got into line to get through registration at 7am, when the line was already backed up a bit. The new registration process worked well though, so I wasn’t delayed all the much.

I met so many awesome people at the start line. I met Jim Campell and saw Michael Drueen again. After the event, Michael even had the wisdom of showing how he thinks that I look like some strange smurf-like character (see below). Arizona wasn’t overly warm that day, so I wasn’t too worried about the sun beating down on me all day long. Without much ado, we had our pump up speech from Sean, when he gave 10 seconds of silence for those who have given their lives for us in the military, as well as those that were lost in Fort Hood. Then, we were off.

I made it out front very quickly, but then came up on the first obstacle: Soggy Bottom. It looks pretty benign to start with, but I took a quick step into the middle of what looked like shallow mud. I found myself calf deep in mud, so I quickly made my way to the side (but still on course). 

We turned a corner and ran through some light underbrush. The spectators were a little annoying and were walking straight through and on the course, so we had to yell out in front of us to get some space, but that wasn’t all that bad. It comes with the territory of being first out on the course.

Relatively quickly, we came up on Tube Mile. This is a mild version of mud mile. They lined up 5 or 6 tubes with mud/water between them. The tubes are the same that we crawl through at other events. They told us to go over them. As being the first out there, the mud wasn’t that deep, so it was mostly just swinging my legs over the tubes and taking a big steps between.

As I was running towards the next obstacle, which was about a quarter mile forward, the guy behind me caught up to me and we started talking. His name is PJ and he also ran in Tough Mudder LA the week before, so it was awesome to run with him. I quickly realized that he was pushing the pace around what I estimated to be 7:30 minutes per mile, if not faster than that. We hit mile marker 1 at 9 minutes, which told me that the mile markers were vastly off.

Looking behind me, I saw that someone was close behind me. It looked like he knew what he was doing and like I had someone to run with, so I got excited and kept my pace. I made it to the Kiss of Mud, which had pile of mud in front of it. It wasn’t steep or hard to get over, so I just took it in stride then rolled under the barbed wire. There was water there, which was refreshing and cooled me off a little.

We had a good flat after that and made it around to the Glory Blades. They initially looked higher than before, but when I jumped up for them, it felt like old hat. I used the side support to get a hold as I swung my leg around, which was quickly followed by the rest of my body. Rinse and repeat one more time and then we’re off running at that good pace again. 

We ran for a good distance, making some small talk and then made it to the Warrior Carry. We did it piggy back, which I think is the easiest way. As we went through the first half, we noticed another guy carrying a volunteer blaze by us. He was at least 5 inches taller than me and a reasonably built guy. I learned later that he’s 200 to 215 lbs.

After we finished the warrior carry, PJ and I caught up to the guy and learned that his name is Gan. He pushed the pace even faster. We learned that Gan also ran in LA the week before. His brother actually talked to both my parents on Saturday and my girlfriend on Sunday. We had a good run between there, getting to know people and feeling out the very flat course.

We quickly made it to Balls to the Wall and we all quickly went over. I grab the rope and pull myself up, placing my feet on each level of wood. There are foot holds so all you have to do is pull hard and make a big step. Do that a couple times and you can reach the top of the wall. Swing yourself over and climb down the other side, ignoring that rope.

We came around, running a reasonable way to get to the next obstacle. On this course, the obstacles were separated a good distance, so it was important to get through quickly and get back up to running. After each obstacle, a different person of the three of us went through fastest, so the others ran a little faster to catch up. That made everyone go a little faster than we were expecting to go.

Soon, we made it past mile 4. It seemed like it came so fast. Soon after, we hit Arctic Enema. I gave them some pointers on how to get through easily (jump through and under the barrier in one fell swoop, then take a few strides and you’re out). When we came upon the obstacle, we saw that the water had at least 2 layers of ice on it. I shrugged and jumped into it.

When I swung my way out of it, we kept on running. Happily, there was shade on the other side from a row of bushes. Now usually that would be great to take us out of the sun. This time, we still had cold water all over us, so the sun would have been appreciated to make it all evaporate off. The solution to that little problem: run faster. Relatively soon, we made it out and into the sun, which felt great.

After another run of just short of a mile (you sense the theme of spread out obstacles), we made it to Lube Tubes. This is like a simple version of twinkle toes. Instead of having a pit of water and a small wood plank to walk across, they told us to climb up on the same tubes that we crawl through and walk across. It was quite simple and without much ado, we were off.

Soon after, we hit mile 5. I looked at my watch and saw 39 minutes. That was faster than I had been running in the LA Tough mudder at mile 5 by a good amount. This time, I had two friendly people making me go faster than I had expected even though I knew I was planning on 3 laps. 

We made it quickly through the other side of the same bushes that shaded us from the sun after the Arctic Enema. When we came out, we saw a happy and familiar obstacle from last week: Dirty Ballerina. This time, the pits were perfectly placed so you could make it over the pits in one slightly larger stride and had space for one good stride to jump off to get over the next pit. Rinse and repeat 8 to 10 times and you’re through. It was easy and fun.

Next came the longer run. We ran out and hit Prairie Dog. This was different from last week in a great way and revealed the hard part of this course. We went into the tubes and slid through. On the other side, we found ourselves in a deep pit. When I got to the other side, I realized that it was at least shoulder height. I made my way to the corner and jumped my way up, which was challenging. We then turned around and climbed up a pretty reasonable mud hill, only to slide down the other side into an equally deep hole. I tried to jump up again, only to find that my feet were in water and I couldn’t actually make it over, but I saw Gan use the corner to get out. So I made my way over to the corner and got out.

We ran a good distance back to where the Dirty Ballerina was, and found ourselves at Funky Monkey. It was the same as in LA, with metal ladders to provide the bars. We made it through quickly and made it towards the next obstacle: Hold your Wood. We all grabbed wood and PJ proceeded to run with the wood. I advised him that that wasn’t a good idea, so he started walking. Gan, being substantially larger than both of us, had no problem with the wood and made good distance on us. We put down our wood and turned around to see Pitfall. This looked like a big pool of water that we needed to wade through. We quickly found that it is the new version of Jesus Walk. That means that the bottom is very irregular, causing me to almost fall entirely into the water. We climbed out and saw PJ round a corner.

We hit mile 8 in exactly one hour, which is an awesome pace. Soon after, PJ and I caught up to Gan. The three of us kept on pushing the pace, causing us to go faster and harder than we could have alone. That was absolutely necessary for the Mud Mile. This was by far the hardest Mud Mile that I’ve ever done. It started with a relatively higher mud hill, consider the rest of the course is absolutely flat. We slid down the hill and found ourselves about waist deep in water. Instead of seeing a steeply sloped mud hill in front of me, I saw a flat ledge that went straight up. It was at least shoulder height for me. I tried to jump up, but the water sucked me down and I couldn’t just pull myself out. I made it to the corner and found Gan behind me. He lifted me at the hip to get up the hill and then turned around to pull him up. We rinsed at repeated that 8 or so times to get through it. There was no way that I could have gotten over those walls without Gan. It was just impossible to do alone, which I thought was awesome.

Soon after that, we made it to a nice and simple Devil’s Beard. I tried to use the same technique that I found last week, but it didn’t work. The rope mesh was too tight on top of us, so the three of us just worked on it together. PJ and I led, because we’re shorter and smaller so we did most of the work in front and Gan held up the mesh between us. Together, we made quick work of it and just kept on running.

Soon we made it to Walk the Plank, which is my least favorite obstacle. I don’t like heights and there’s no way to make it easier or better. So it’s just walk out and jump off. I swam to the other side and kept on going.

We soon made our way to Just the Tip. Besides being a great name, this obstacle was so much better than it’s Spartan Race equivalent. Instead of just being one plank of wood on the wall, there was a second larger plank attached. This gave me enough to grab onto, but not too much to make it easy. The hard part was that after a bit, there were no foot holds. I made sure to swing, like I was on the monkey bars. When there was a spit in the holds, I swung side ways and reached out for the next ledge. It wasn’t far for me, but it was hard to get my second hand onto the next ledge so that I could continue swinging. That was just fun.

Next, we turned and came upon mile 10. To our left, we saw Everest, but we had a reasonable distance to run. We ran to the water station and kept on going, turning around expecting to not see much. We came over a small ridge and saw Berlin Walls. I did my usual strategy of stopping, getting a foot on the ledge and doing a muscle up. I repeated and got over. 

We soon made it around and to Everest. For such a characteristic obstacle, they had a great twist: they put a shallow pit of water in front of the run up. That means the run up was quite short. I walked through the water and made my strides up. It was definitely hard to do, but totally doable. 

Next was the split for the Legion loop. Happily, PJ, Gan and I were all Mudder Legion, so we went together. The first secret obstacle was Sacked Up. We picked up a sand bag, and then found ourselves at three chest height hay-bails that we needed to get over. We put the sack on the hay-bail and jumped over, only to repeat again. We walked through with the sandbag and found ourselves at tubes that we needed to crawl through. Gan, who was a bit ahead at this point, asked if throwing the sack over is acceptable behavior. We agreed and all took that route. After that, it was just walk up a little hill with the sack and off to running again.

We came upon a Quagmire, which is basically another mud pit. We made our way through quickly and found ourselves at a familiar tunnel of wires with black sheets on either side, to make it darker. We looked at each other and said, “It’s got to a be a fake again.” Gan said, “No batteries around,” so we all just ran straight through.

We made it to the last obstacle, Electroshock. I immediately ran through, putting my arms forward and trying to stay in the air the whole time, or in obstacles. I got shocked a few times, but I didn’t get knocked down or phased. I turned and ran towards the finish, just a little in front of the others.

Final time: 1 hour and 35 minutes. That’s far faster than last week, thanks to those two. They were right behind me, so I hesitate to call myself first. It was really a group effort. There’s no way that I could have done it without them.

Lap 2: Keeping it up

After drinking some water at the finish, I made my way to my car and took 2 salt pills, a couple Gatorades and ate a bite or two of rice. I made my way to the finish and saw Sean there. He recognized me from earlier and we talked a bit. I also met the DJ volunteer and had some good times when I was waiting for the next wave to start. Sean asked my name and gave me props for coming back for a second lap.

We went through the pump up speech and we were off without much ado. For this lap, there didn’t seem to be many people that were going at a decent pace. I felt like that I got ahead quick and stayed there. I came upon the people from the previous heat soon and just kept running through. I tried to help others where I could, but there was so much running and the obstacles weren’t that cooperative, until I got to Mud Mile #2. Since people had gone through, the slopes were more slick. There was no way that I could get over myself, but there were guys at the top helping people through. I’d push at least one person up and then get up myself, only to pull someone else up. I’d slide down and rinse and repeat. Together with a bunch of other people, we pulled up lots of people that had trouble. I kept on trudging through and keeping my pace up as much as I thought reasonable. 

When I made it to Electroshock #2, I noticed that there was significant space between the bottom of the wires and the mud. I had seen some great guys crawl through electroshock last week, so I got down and slithered through without getting hit from the wires. I made it through my second lap in 1 hour and 56 minutes. Anything under 2 hours is good time for Tough Mudder. Either way, I was happy for my second lap.

Lap 3: The Struggle

I made it to the start line about 10 minutes before the penultimate wave. I decided that I wanted more break, so I took a longer break and talked to Sean and the volunteers more. Sean gave me props for finishing 2 and coming back for more. People seemed impressed, so I smiled and talked to people. I let them go off and waited for the next wave. There weren’t all that many people at this Tough Mudder, so the last wave had only about 40 to 60 people in it. We had a great pump up speech and went off. I ate rice and drank my Gatorade. Overall, I felt tired but okay.

Interestingly, when my body becomes more physically tired, my emotions fluctuate more. I found myself being moved by the national anthem. When we raised our hand and said the Mudder pledge, I almost teared up. I was surprised by it, but the dedication to great causes like the Wounded Warrior Project, F*ck Cancer, and just helping each other achieve great things that we couldn’t do on our own, is commendable and means a lot to me.

Within the first few strides, my right knee had a shot of pain. My body suddenly started feeling the pain of having pushed through 23 miles already. I tired to push myself forward, running when I could and making sure to walk forward at all times. With each successive mile, I got more and more tired. My body was just reaching it’s end. By around mile 8, I barely had anything in me. After that point, I mostly just walked and tried to get through it.

After a long, hard process of completing that third lap, I really felt similar to how I felt when I completed my first lap. After crawling through Electroshock again, the beer tasted so good. There’s nothing like going through 34.5 miles and then having a well earned beer. It made me think of the first time I completed a Tough Mudder. I was relatively out of shape and hadn’t been running for years. I signed up because it seemed cool, but it kicked my butt. I made it to the end and told my wonderful girlfriend (same wonderful woman that I’m with today, all of 3 years later) that was the most work I had done for a beer ever.

After washing off, I made my way over to the showers and then over to my uncle’s, which is where I stayed the night. It was great seeing them and their newborn, who had just been born this week.

Sunday Lap 4: Always Coming Back for More

On Sunday morning, I had no problems waking up or finding the event. I showed up about 15 minutes before registration opened. This time, someone from TMHQ walked up to me and made friendly conversation. It was nice to get to know people while waiting in line and getting my mind in gear for another morning of running. I quickly saw familiar faces from the World’s Toughest Mudder Community. When I got to the start line and looked around, I saw so many veterans and got to meet people that I had been corresponding with online for a couple years. I also met Lou Fisher, who was wearing his 75 mile bib from World’s Toughest Mudder last year. That in itself is impressive. Michael told me that he was fast, so I could have someone good and fast to run with that morning. I quickly told him that my legs were quite tired from Saturday, so I had no dreams of running faster than yesterday. Throughout the lap, I let people pass me and just kept on running my pace and enjoying myself on the course.

After Sean’s pump up speech, which was quite awesome, considering there were so many 10+ Mudders wearing their new fancy black headbands. Without much ado past that, we went off. Within about 5 steps, I saw Lou speeding off at a pace that I was certain was faster than I had run the day before. He also had a good guy wearing a yellow (4-6x TM) headband that was looking to give him a partner. That solidified my decision to let them go off and have their fun: I was going to try to run my event, considering I had already run 3 laps the day before.

Afterall, my legs didn’t feel that bad. The clay that made the later laps harder on Saturday by encasing me in mud had settled. There was just water that had yet to be churned up into clay. As I ran though, the miles flew by. I kept on worrying about the obstacles that I couldn’t do myself, like the Prairie Dog and Mud Mile. This time when I got there, the water levels were slightly lower, so getting over the mounds was hard, but possible to do by myself.

By the time that I had got around to mile 10, I looked at my watch and saw it was 1 hour and 29 minutes since we started. I called over to the volunteers on Everest and asked if the leaders had gone through. They said they had a while ago, and I smiled. I was happy that they had kept up that blazing pace all the way through (their time: 1 hour 27 minutes). That was just impressive.

I kept on pushing through and made it to my final Electroshock of the weekend. I looked at the haybales and the mud, or at least what used to be mud. Instead of the mud being clay, which has high electric resistance, had settled into wet mud topped by water. Water has very low electrical resistance. I knew that I was going to get shocked, and get shocked hard. As my last time through, I wanted to run straight through, none of that crawling nonsense from Saturday. So I just ran through, aiming for the shallow water and trying to leap through the air. Unfortunately (or fortunately), my foot got submerged in water, which didn’t tug me down. Instead, I got shocked in the back and immediately fell to the ground, causing a great splash. I crawled through the rest of Electroshock and ran towards the finish, proudly holding up 4 fingers for 4 laps. Apparently, I was the 5th finisher of the day as of the Legion loop split. Final time: 1 hour 46 minutes. That’s not too shabby.

Afterwards, I hung around the finish and fist pumped everyone who came across for around 45 minutes. That beer and company felt good, especially because I was there alone.  I talked to Sean and Carl (photographer) a bit. Eventually, Michael Drueen came across and I said hello and congrats. That peaked off the end of an epic and great weekend.

Wrap up

For those of you that read regularly, sorry for the delay. I got food poisoning on Monday from lunch, so I got knocked out for a couple days. I spent Monday night hoping that I could fall asleep on my bathroom floor (I didn’t succeed). As of writing now (Wednesday evening), the only solid food that I’ve eaten since Monday is rice and cottage cheese.

Between Race Workouts

Monday/Tuesday: 60 minutes of light ultimate each day (UCLA Grad Games)

Wednesday: 23:36/2.95 mi, plus 2 hours of UCLA ultimate

Thursday/Friday: Rest

Saturday: 11.5 mi TM Lap splits: 1:35, 1:56, 2:37

Sunday: 11.5 mi TM Lap: 1:46

Weight: I came back from TM hovering around 173.8 lbs (BMI 25.8), which is making slow progress down. The huge mileage from TM LA helped a lot for weight loss, even though I glycogen loaded for a couple days.

 

Sickness Delay

In case you’re wondering what’s up, I got really sick last night and wasn’t able to sit down and write. Let’s hope that I feel better today. I might even go for some PediaLyte to see if that helps.