Lil Spill

April 14, 2013

Omg!! We did it. Kevin, Mac, Lee and myself are offially Tough Mudders! 12 miles in Death Valley up and down canyons . The water obstacles were the worst. They keep the water at 36 degrees . There were between 10-12 water based obstacles . Horrible . Your legs would start to seize up. The obstacle called Artic Enema is where you submerge and swim under a wall. After I came up I felt panic . The water is murky and you cant tell if you have cleared the wall. The body starts to hyperventilate from the cold very quickly. Kevin, who was definitely the strongest competitor in our group had a horrible time with this one. After each water centered obstacle we would start running . My feet would cramp up for about a half of a mile until they would warm back up. Everyone was cramping from the intensely cold water. We all did so well and definitely persevered over fears. While climbing over a tall log Mac separated cartridge from his rib. He was in excruciating pain. Lee could barely walk after mile 7 because of knee issues. I rolled my ankle around mile 5 but I kept running . Kevin didn’t hurt himself but he was losing steam toward the end. Lee and Kevin did every obstacle. Mac missed one I think because he couldnt lift his arm at the obstacle where you dangle and shimmy using your hands to go across yet another pool of freezing water. I decided to avoid the obstacle that you swim under 3 barrels in a lake. While it may sound easy, we had done 2/3 water based obstacles back to back and in the 88 degree heat of the desert I felt like I had hyperthermia. I went into the lake with full intentions of doing the obstacle . Fear and cold got me. I simply couldn’t stay in that freezing water for one more minute. If I can toot my own horn, I was one of the better runners. Kevin is much faster then I am but I ran the most Without walking. But again everyone had their strengths and weaknesses.
Can’t wait to see the video. Both Lee and Kevin wore go pros to video the event. ( Kevin mounted his on a motorcycle helmet. He was miserable most of the day with this on.
By the way , there was cow pooh in every mud and water event. Mac definitely took in the most cow pooh. Lol oh and yes we had to belly crawl under electric wires.
What a great day . We all felt very accomplished.
Woke up in the middle of the night, my left ankle being twice the size of my right and my broken foot hurting. Won’t be working out for a few days. Another cool note. We were in the last starting line as the very last team to compete. We finished the event quicker then probably half the other teams! We rock

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Mary French

WTG! Great job! Just hoping that anyone who had even a tiny cut or scrape and was in that "cow poo water", keeps CLOSE eye on those cuts. As someone who has raised livestock, I know how quickly even a small, insignificant wound can become a major infected mess, sometimes requiring hospitalization and IV antibiotics. Just want to give you a heads up on that. Can't believe they would have you going into potentially very harmful water. Again...congrats!

Rod Henman

Congratulations to you all! All winners, Lil, Kevin, Mac and Lee.