One: We made a whole weekend out of it. We rented a cabin in New Jersey for the weekend. We had 13 of us sleeping in, essentially, a glorified mobile home. That's all right, there was plenty of space. Also, we got to use the hot tub, grill, and fire pit, so it was a whole lot of fun.
Birthday party at the cabin!
Two: We brought spectators with us. A few of our classmates (who weren't quite sure if they were up for the challenge of the Mudder) nevertheless came and supported us through it. That's why I have so many great photos from the race. (I didn't take them, obviously.)
Our loyal fans
Three: We had matching "uniforms." Kind of. We all wore our red Einstein scrub tops from anatomy last year, in some shape or form. We figured, why not ruin them with mud? They're already ruined with formaldehyde. No big loss. Plus, we looked awesome all in red together.
Pre-mud
Four: There were twice as many of us this time. The 5 of us from last time, plus 5 more adventurous types, ran the 12-mile, 19-obstacle race. The proportion of crazy people in Einstein's class of 2013 is increasing precipitously.
And yes, I do mean crazy. When Daniel asked to borrow me for a second, I thought he wanted to do partner stretches. I was wrong.
Five: We stayed together as a team. Now, we could have split up and gone at our own, individual paces, but we made the decision to stay together. We helped each other out, cheered each other on, tackled each other in the mud, and intimidated the competition. (Actually, that's a lie. Pretty much everyone who was running the race was running it for pure fun.)
Teamwork was a great decision.
Six: It was COLD. For November, I suppose, it was actually quite warm - high 40s/low 50s, sunny, but a bit breezy. Sure, that's fine running weather normally, but for this race...no. The minute we got wet, the comfort was over, and that was within the first 2 miles.
Trying to stay warm, pre-race
Seven: We were in the water and mud MUCH longer than last time, and the water, if you hadn't guessed, was COLD. The first 15-foot plunge knocked the wind out of me; my lungs were not prepared for the freezing lake below, which we then had to wade across in shoulder-level water. My skin was so cold that it felt as if it were burning. Bobbing under the barrels gave me the worst ice-cream headache of my life. After getting out for a minute, we had to get right back in and swim across again. Shoes don't propel well, so I had to rely on my arms, which, by the time I was almost across, were hardly working because the muscles were so cold. I had never been that cold in my life.
That's not a warm lake that we had to swim across.
Eight: There was SO much more mud than last time, which was great! We tackled each other in it, threw it at each other, tripped in it, were covered in it. Unfortunately, it was only marginally warmer than the lake, and we were never really dry after that first plunge. While waiting to attempt to sprint up the impossibly slick mud mountain, we were standing still in the open breeze for close to 10 mud-soaked minutes, and THAT was then the coldest I had ever been in my life.
The coldest I've ever been was at this moment.
Nine: The race itself was more intense. It was nearly twice as long (12 miles vs. 7 miles last May), and the obstacles were similar but harder, and there was actually a mystery obstacle this time: running through dangling, electrified wires. Don't worry, the sign before the wires warned people with pacemakers or epilepsy to skip it. I only received a few small shocks, but my taller classmates were tripping over themselves as the unexpected electricity coursed through them. Afterwards, we couldn't breathe from laughing so hard.
In sight of the finish line
Ten: We finished together, triumphantly and as a team. We felt as though we'd never be warm again, but within a few hours of fires, car heaters, blankets, showers, and hot tubs, we had warded off the hypothermia.
Muddy, freezing, and happy
Miserable? Parts. Particularly the parts when we were in the water, or wet and standing still in the breeze. Challenging? Without a doubt. Before Saturday, I had never run 12 consecutive miles. My knees and hips took a beating, and I'm still sore even 3 days later, but I feel proud of all of us for running the race. Fun? Not even a question. The entire weekend - even, arguably, those miserable moments - was an incredibly enjoyable experience with my friends. When's the next Tough Mudder? Sign me up!
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