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Monday, August 20, 2012

Day 121 - Tough Mudder Toronto/Barrie Synopsis


Well, I am back from my first ever Tough Mudder, and I have to admit that it was a blast!

I ran in the 9:30am heat on Sunday (first heat of the day), so I was able to get out at the front of the main pack and literally had zero wait time for any obstacle - I have heard this can be a complaint of many Mudders.

I finished in the top 30 in my heat, at a 2 hour, 15 minute clocking. My wife (who was timing me) said that the 2 lead guys came in at around 2 hours 6 minutes. I am very happy with my time considering I overheard the course average this weekend was 3 hours, 30 minutes.

This Tough Mudder was held at Mount St. Louis Moonstone ski resort, just north of Barrie, Ontario. This event was titled as 'Toronto', although Barrie is actually a good 90 minute drive north of Toronto.

Since the event was held at a ski resort, there were hills...LOTS of hills. I am sure anyone who competed in this event this weekend will comment on just how tough this change in elevation was. Slightly shorter course, measured at just over 16km (just over 10 miles), but the hills definitely made up for the slightly shorter distance (when comparing to other Tough Mudder events).

In fact, on the bus ride back to my car, I overheard a couple of guys talking about the course. They had run the Tough Mudder in Cleveland, and although the course was a bit longer, they both felt that the Toronto event was head and shoulders above Cleveland in the difficulty department...because of the hills. So, Toronto Tough Mudders, feel proud to know that you completed this ridiculously tough course!

I will spend more time this week blogging about my training, what I felt worked, what I would have changed/improved, as well as other things like tips/tricks on the obstacles, and what equipment I would recommend.

Having said that, I will post a few overall thoughts/impressions from the tremendous event today:

- A gentleman on my youtube channel commented on my training video the other day saying that these types of 'mud runs' are a joke, and not worth my time. All I would like to say, is that this course was certainly no joke! I am not an Olympic athlete, but I train hard and found it to be very challenging. Some of the obstacles were fairly easy for me, but I trained my upper body just as much as my lower body. Not only that, but I feel as though no matter what event you enter, it is entirely what you make of it. Sure, you are not 'officially' timed in Tough Mudder, but if you have a desire and a will to compete, you can make nearly any event challenging and a worthwhile endeavour!

- The MC that runs the starting gate was awesome. For those of you who have watched any of the Tough Mudder videos on the internet, you may have seen him pumping up the crowd before each race. It is the same guy who travels around MC'ing each TM event, which is great, because this guy is passionate and gets the adrenaline pumping!

- The obstacles can be very challenging for most people. As I said, I will spend some time this week detailing all of the obstacles I completed, as well as what tips/tricks I found useful to complete them - yes, I did EVERY single obstacle, and did not fall on any of them (Funky Monkey, Hangin' Tough, etc.)

- Getting electrocuted is a son of a bitch. I had a very small inkling of what it may be like based solely on getting 'shocked' from static or accidentally sticking my finger too close to an electrical socket, but I swear to you, this was NOTHING like what I thought I was prepared for...WOW

- Ice water is ice water. Move quick! Again, more on that later this week.

If you have any questions/comments/concerns regarding Tough Mudder, please do not hesitate to e-mail me or write on my Facebook wall.

Quote of the day:
"Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
~Oliver Goldsmith

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