Previews and Thank you - race day

Well, 10 hours until Tough Mudder Arizona. I thought I would do a little preview of a few of the obstacles and a few shout outs...

Shout outs first.
I am not big on accepting any type of favors- ever. However, I've been working on it...I know, I know people keep telling me that's what friends are for :)
Favor 1: my dogs - I will be out of town for 5 days and kenneling two of them was going to be spendy. Enter Debbie! Last week Deb randomly offered to take the dogs to her house! Wow, thank you SO much Deb! You're in for an adventure!

Favor 1

Favor 2: Once again, gone for 5 days - leaving my car at the airport would also be a pretty penny. Enter Max! Thank you so much Max for the ride to the airport!! Very appreciative. Max gets bonus points too because I ran out of time while getting packed this morning so he stopped by the post office and Redbox for me! Definitely owe you!

Favor 3

Favor 3: Last time I borrowed my neighbor's GoPro for the race; well, Chad is out of town, still. Boo. Enter Payden. This time I am renting one from a past player that I coached. Thank you so much!! I won't lose this one, I have experience now...I will surpass my "go amateur" status (see previous post).
Favor 4: I enjoyed racing alone in Vegas when I was working on qualifying for World's, but I'm always posting for people to come join me, come race with me, come have fun - never any takers. Enter Chris. I am racing with someone I met at the airport earlier this year. We've never hung out, until today. Should make for an awesome adventure! Oh, and also, thank you for picking me up and the airport! I'll drive tomorrow!

Favor 5

Favor 5: TSA thank you for not taking my protein powder that looks like I am traveling with a few months supply of cocaine. However, thank you for groping my butt because of my "fancy" jeans and for checking my hands for explosive residue. 
Favor 6: Thank you to my mom who is letting me use her car all day Saturday to get to the race!

Now for the race preview...
They no longer post a map prior to the race showing where each obstacle will be. I think people were getting annoyed if they were "out of order" so now they leave it a mystery. Here is a photo of the course from Arizona 2012. I'm betting tomorrow is similar, with a few new intriguing road blocks, hopefully not the rings and rock wall, I sucked at those.

Here are some obstacles that I feel were the most demanding and exciting. We will see which ones make an appearance tomorrow (most of these are their classic obstacles and they WILL be there tomorrow).

Arctic Enema - the culprit of the GoPro accident. Arctic Enema is a giant ice bath that you swim in, underwater. The pictures sum up the cold. Temporarily unable to breathe.


*** Shrinker - Wish this one had a more appropriate name considering I have students that might read this blog- hope the asterisks helped. This one is a strain on the shoulders. You pull yourself across a small rope over a freezing pond of water.

The classic Berlin Walls - These are just walls you climb over - 8ft then 10ft then 12 ft. In Vegas I powered over the 10ft wall without help, I felt pretty good about it. I had a boost from a kind stranger for the 12ft though.


Everest - now, Everest is a quarter pipe greased down. After both of my past races I watched people tackle Everest over and over. There were a lot of failures. I am yet to have any difficulty with it. I've managed to run up it on my first try both races, most likely I just jinxed myself.














Hangin' Tough - My funky monkey of Arizona. In Arizona I was horrible at the inclined, greased monkey bars. I slid off after about 3 bars - pathetic. My goal at Vegas was to make it further on them. Goal accomplished, I didn't fall. Enter Hangin' Tough - after feeling confident about obtaining that goal Tough Mudder threw in another set of dangling apparatuses that you swing from- the rings. Ohhh, I was terrible at this. I made it two rings... If there are rings tomorrow I will conquer them! I hope.

Underwater Tunnels and Walk the Plank (and Arctic Enema) all involve water where holding onto the GoPro will be required. This will be a new challenge. Also, other events that involve falling into water if you do not successfully complete the task should prove interesting. If I start to fall I will need to grab the GoPro. Last time it just didn't stay on my head. Wish me luck, really don't want to purchase a new one for Payden.

Electroshock Therapy - The culminating, I signed a death waiver, event. 10,000 volts dangling everywhere. My first race I avoided all shocks, impressive, I know. I swam under them barely avoiding shocks to my scalp (water + voltage = hmmm). During my second race in Vegas I wasn't as lucky. I got shocked multiple times, I lost count as I was blasted to the ground due to the voltage running through my body. At least I know what to expect tomorrow.

There will be a few new obstacles I'm sure, and I'll do a play by play recap sometime after the race with video footage.


Final thoughts...
I am anxious and nervous.. I am not nervous that I haven't ran in a few weeks and that I haven't ran over 5 miles since October - nope. Instead, I am nervous about the temperature. In the past two races I wore cold gear leggings. This time I opted for shorts or legging capris (brought both) and a tank top. Turns out that the early morning will only be in the upper 50's. All I can say now is bring on the World's training, I guess.

Time to get some sleep. It's just about race day!