World's Toughest Mudder 2019

Race: World's Toughest Mudder 2019

Date: November 16th, 2019

80 Miles

AG Place: 5/121

Males: 11/643

Overall: 12/789

Pre-Race Conditions:

Calm. Mindful. Ready.

Last year I got cold and made the mistake of going into my tent for 3.5 hours and trying to warm up instead of grinding. This year will be 8-10 degrees warmer and I’m ready with better socks and the motto Hypothermia is a Lie.

The course is going to be a lot different than last. The new CEO of Tough Mudder has been incredibly involved in the community and has said he has plans to mess with us all night and we all can’t wait. A lot of the classic obstacles have been changed to be harder or given added twists that we won’t know until during a lap.

I’m feeling great. Had a good training block prior to this race and after a long travel day on Wednesday my shakeout today was smooth and I was having trouble staying reserved. I want to run. I have my plan for the first 6 hours of the race before everything gets settled and then we wing it. To paraphrase Lindsey Webster from last year “any plan goes to shit anyway so might as well be prepared and problem solve on the fly”. The only thing now is to go to the race and see how I do.

Race Recap:

The whole weekend was a blur. Friday pit load in was slightly rainy and wet but the promise of clear warm weather for the race made it ok. We got set up and organized pretty fast Friday and then just had a nice relax day.

Saturday race day we got to the venue about 9:30, 2.5 hours before the race. All the last minute prep, gear tweaks, bathroom stops and chats in the pit make it fly by. In true WTM fashion we were in the corral at 11:30 for the prerace briefing, trolling from the new CEO and pep speech from Sean Corvelle.

World’s Toughest Mudder is Tough Mudders championship event. We start at noon on Saturday and run 5 mile. 21 obstacle loops until the start line closes at noon on Sunday. They do allow you a 90 minute grace period after the start line closes so you can complete an active lap. The event always starts with the sprint lap in which no obstacles are open and we get to spread out on the course to reduce any lines. This all plays into the strategy of how hard to go out off the start and take advantage of the pure run time.

It was a warm start with a lot of us in shorts and regretting anything warm we had on. I made a last minute decision to forego the hydration vest my first lap and instead get it at quick pit after lap one. The tall wool socks were toasty but worth it because early lap 3 we were able to get wet. We went out on lap one fast putting some distance between us and the pack. A quick pee break off the side of the trail about half mile in (I hate being in that corrall that early) and I found myself pacing with Javier and Trevor (Last years 2nd place) feeling pretty good. About mile 4 I pulled back slightly to maintain some control. I hit the finish line on lap 1 in 40 minutes. 5 minutes ahead of plan, grabbed my hydration vest and headed out for lap 2. Keeping the same pace to get by as many possible obstacles before the end of the sprint lap. Lap 2 was another fast lap that I got through without hitting a single obstacle. It put me in a really good spot to get that silver bib.

The next few laps were fun as obstacles started opening and we started getting into the flow of the race. We were able to try a level up lane at funky monkey and earn some Golden carabiners that would allow you to bypass sections of the course later. I successfully got the level up twice and on my third time through the wheels were wet so I decided to take a normal lane and slipped on the last bar and twisted weird and got a muscle pain in my abs that lasted a few hours. It was slightly concerning but luckily nothing major.

At lap 4 or 5 I was going through hydrophobia and curled my leg to get into the tube and my right hamstring cramped on me. That and the strained abdominal muscle had me worried for a few hours of the race but luckily they evened out and were never a big problem.

I got into my shorty wetsuit after lap 4 and got in another lap before I got my headlamp and then in lap 6 got a little cold so I decided to get ahead of it and go to my full warm gear with a fresh pair of shoes. The Lone Peaks do better in the sloppy mud. The injinji wool socks worked great at keeping my feet warm in the mid 30s. For some reason only my middle toe on my right foot was getting cold and numb. Some warm water poured on it in the pit and the water obstacles kept it ok.

The next laps were in fun cruise control mode. Running good, completing obstacles, eating and telling jokes. Electric avenue (Electroshock Therapy, electric eel and operation) opened about 10PM which meant bypassing Everest and a long hill up to the overwalls and inverted wall. Also Statue of Liberty opened about the same time so we got a fun water crossing with a tiki torch that had to stay lit or you had to repeat it.

Everyone was so excited to get the king of swingers obstacle back this year but I’ll never understand why. It was a platform about 15’ high that you had to jump to a T bar and swing to hit a bell. It was another required time to get wet. Not hitting the bell cost a ¼ mile log carry penalty until about midnight where we were given the opportunity to bounce a ping pong ball on a paddle 50 consecutive times instead of the penalty. After 3 log carries I was more than happy to play some ping pong. Nailed that 3 times so it only cost me a quick swim.

Through the night the course got scarce of people running. The volunteers out on course were amazing and gave me something to look forward to when getting to obstacles. I just kept grinding laps and was running good. It was fun. Every once and a while I’d catch up to a small group and we’d run for a bit together, see how everyone was feeling and tell a couple jokes before we would split up again. Thanks to everyone who would just push me to keep my pace and keep going.

About 5AM it was dark and cold but I knew that’s the coldest point and that sunrise was coming along with everyone waking from their tents and headed back out on the course. When we did get sunrise I knew I had my 15 laps easily with 8 carabiners and 3 bypass bands and could head out for a 16th. What I didn’t figure was having enough time for the possible 17th so my strategy didn’t include that. When I ran across the finish line at 11:30 there was a group there asking me if I really wanted to stop and saying I would regret not trying for 85. And they were right. I wish they would have just said go and I would have most likely went. I still hit my goal and then some with lots of time to spare. Now the goal is going to be to get that orange jacket next year.

The Course:

The course was amazing. From the start line we had a ¾ mile easy trail run before the first obstacle, the Devil’s Ta*nt. This was a mud pit with a heavy cargo net and a water pit in the middle. It was rough to do with a few people and really sucked alone. Thanks Carlo! Next was a short run to a muddy barbed wire crawl and right over to the slip wall. Kyle, TM CEO, was nice enough to leave a lot of vegetable oil there for the volunteer to get the wall nice and slick. Up until midnight the ropes were short and it had to be a team effort. After that we got a ¼ ish run to spread eagle, slack lines that you had to crawl or plank across.

Now the first decision point of the course came in early in you were forced to do the half pipe, inverted wall and 10’ wall. Thanks to Abhi, Francis, Ashely and crew for being there all night to help people up the Everest half pipe. Due to some complaining from the community TMHQ decided to make Everest a penalty obstacle. The penalty was the mini mudder ¼ mile course complete with mini mudder headband. It was a fun thing to do. To make it worse they had a sound system playing baby shark, the chipmunks Christmas song and the barney theme song with others on repeat. After about 10PM we had the option of taking electric avenue. Dangline live wires to run through, dangling wires to crawl under like barbed wire and finally operation. Operation is just like the game an electrified ring with a metal pole you have to get a ring with to move on. Once I learned there were carabiners there I started taking that route.

Next up at about 2 miles was the black widow slacklines for you feet and hands to walk across. Not bad but at 5’10” it was a stretch for me. Then at the midway point Coach had his DJ booth and part setup. We could get food from our crew here and Maddi and Nick met me a couple times to hand stuff off. Next year we are going to start a go fund me to get him a speaker system with some power behind it.

The back of the course is where we really got wet and muddy. We did the 7 mud mounds, mudder press which was a muddy low crawl tunnel then one of my favorites. The blockness monster. In Blockness, they added about 1800 rubber duckies with some marked that could be redeemed for a carabeiner at race central. Tha meant carrying a duckie for 2 miles. After Blockness and a short run was Funky Monkey. Monkey bars, wheels and pipes. Its pretty easy when dry but sucks when wet and had a penalty that included 20 jump rope jumps, 400M run and 100M mat carry. About 6-10 minutes of fun!

Next was the 3 mile marker saying we had 2 miles of fun left. Started by statue of liberty. You had to light a tiki torch and carry it across this pond without letting it go out or you did it again. From there we hit hydrophobia, basically a tube full of water to slide through with the promise of tear gas in there the really didn’t work right at all. After that was the gauntlet combo rig. A 16’ balance beam, plank walk and rings. Easy and fun! The next obstacle was King of swingers. A nice swing out to try to hit a bell before a little swim and if you didn’t hit the bell a 400M log carry with a nice downhill. Later you could bypass the penalty by 50 consecutive ping pong ball bounces.

Then we got to go over to a modified Agustus gloop that was a rope climb with water spraying down on you. And yes we were not hallucinating the guy refilling the generator with gas was smoking. Now we got another nice run next to the horse pens to the cage crawl, the lumber jacked hurdles, arctic enema and the mudder horn before hitting the finish line and the pit. The cage crawl you float on your back with about 6” of space between you and the fence to breathe. Arctic enema is a dunk wall with ice water to make it more fun and the mudderhorn is a 40’ cargo net climb. It was a great sequence of obstacles to end the lap with.

The Bad:

I can’t really say anything bad about this race because I hit my goal of the silver bib and an extra lap. The only regret I have is that I didn’t head out for lap 17. With 2 hours left and one bypass band I could have easily completed another full lap. Someone just needed to kick me in the butt and get me over the start line.

Some things to work on for next year though is better wetsuit gloves. The ones I had on have amazing grip on the rings and probably funky monkey (will test this theory in Michigan). The only time I failed the gauntlet is because the gloves were thick neoprene and I ended up snagging both gloves when I tried to make the transition and lost my momentum. Another thing to practice would be the chicken wing technique. I’ve never tried it before so it will be some fun in the gym this off season.

For next year I really need to cut back on my time in the pit. Stopping for so long started to cool me down and made me have my crew change out the hot packs in my neptune shirt. It cost me some time. It wasn’t a big issue this year but next year when every minute counts it will.

The Good:

Finally after 3 years I finally made it through and got my silver bib. I was running strong for all 23.5 hours I was on course. I felt good and was having a lot of fun. Everything just seemed to click. I never was in the pain cave or a deep dark place all event. There was only a slight time in middle of the night where I got cold toward the end of a lap. Some mashed potatoes fixed that really quick.

My fueling strategy of tailwind and FitAid along with bananas, mashed potatoes and brownies with the lunchable in there was on point. I was slightly cold when not moving but fine when I was running so I was in the right gear for that temp.

Moral of the Story:

This year felt so good. After that run I’m setting up my season and schedule to go after that 100 mile orange jacket next year. Being in a new location is going to be a wild card but I think I should be easily able to get 90 and if the stars align complete lap 20. I need to make some gear tweaks and work on some grip strength. I’ll be ready.

Ain’t Nothin’ to it but to do it

Gear/Nutrition: