TM Philly Infinity 2023

 Race: Philly Infinity 2023

Date: May 20, 2023

Time:  65k, 8:29:23

Place: Maybe 4th

Pre-Race Conditions:

On the plane taxiing away from the terminal. This is an early flight for us. 7AM out of detroit to Philly. Gives us some nice time to relax and prep before the race tomorrow. 

Tomorrow at 7:45AM maybe, I’ll believe it when I see it, start for Tough Mudder Infinity. An 8 hour obstacle race. We must do a 15k lap first and then get to choose between 15k or 5k for the remaining time. There is also a grace period of 1 hour to finish an active lap. It’s going to be a blast. The weather has changed from fun to more ideal running conditions. Last year in Chicago I hit the 65k mark to qualify as Elite for WTM. This year they upped the distance to 70k to qualify. I’m hoping that I can hit that mark and then I don’t need to go race Chicago later in August. I know I could hit 70k mark there. Especially after how much DCarta and I walked last year. 

My run training for this has been great. I’ve been knocking some of Bruce’s speed workouts out of the park. He’s thrown some real fun ones at me the last couple months. A couple weeks ago I had some decent intervals at a sub 7 pace. I did them without too much struggle. Recently I’ve been really focused on my yoga practice and spending a bunch of time in Flow and a few extra yin classes. I really haven’t done any grip strength in the last 3 weeks. I’m a little worried about that but at most that would mean maybe 8 penalties. I should be able to hammer them out fast if needed then make up the time running. Traditionally there have been penalties that are faster and less taxing than the obstacle itself. This is where strategy comes in. 

My first WTM I quickly learned that the Kong infinity obstacle was brutal and then once completed you had to do a river crossing. The penalty was about a 200-300 meter run. Much faster and easier than the obstacle. On top of that staying dry a little longer in the cooling desert at night was a big plus. 

Im going into this one with the push for that 70k. I know by the end of the first lap and seeing the course I will know if it’s possible for me or not. I'm sticking to one quote this weekend from my Monday yoga class. 

“Courage is fear hanging on one moment longer” -Patton

I know I can do this and going to just have to show up and execute. 

We leave Philly at 6AM Sunday. This is another quick weekend trip. We had to plan it that way so I can get back to Detroit to get to Clarkston for Perfect PR. If I timed it right I should be able to get to the race on time for them to finish the 24th yard and watch them start onto day 2. 

Race Recap:

The race started late as predicted. Luckily we had no trouble getting there or the shuttle. That’s one of the nice things that didn’t go Tough Mudder sideways. We got to the transition area and found a good spot. I saw a few friends including Alanna and The Joe Perry. After a few porta potty trips and last minute prep we went to the start line. It was weird that there wasn’t a big push to get us there and moving like normal. The whole morning seemed very relaxed. 

Once in the corral I worked my way to the front. While stopping for a few hugs on the way. I got there right as Sean was getting ready to get in the dreaded knee. I was talking to Joe Perry and he was telling me about his crazy travel arrangements and he mentioned that Juls was driving him somewhere on Sunday. That got me excited because I have talked with her in a while. Almost on cue, Juls and Sherilyn walked up. The energy and excitement went through the roof. It was a really good surprise to see them. I wouldn’t see them again until my last loop. 

We got started and as always went out hot to put some distance on some of the other runners and spread out. About 400m in we settled a little bit into more of a race pace. I was pacing off of Evan. I knew I didn’t want to be ahead of him so I just hung back a little and let everyone do their thing. I knew I would have plenty of time to kill myself later in the day if I needed to. We hit the first couple obstacles. 

Pitfall wasn’t too bad. I picked the far left and only had 2 drops and they were early. Made it easy to move through pretty quick. After that was an uphill devils beard. It wasn’t too bad. I was setting up a group to tag team it. We got in and realized we didn’t need much group effort. Berlin Walls was only a single wall. That was easy. After that was kiss of mud. The barbed wire crawl. The lived up to the promise of making it harder. Those wires were only inches from the water and the water was shallow. We had to be pretty much face down to get by. Luckily later they did raise them up a bit. 

After the crawl we got to the swamp stomp. There was a little river running that was good to rinse off our faces. The first lap swamp wasn’t bad. That was the only time. That turned soupy real fast and only got worse through the day. With some creative footwork you could navigate with only a few knee deep spots. Some spots in the middle were thigh or waist deep. That would really slow you down. 

After that we had a nice little hike up to the hurdles, the sandbag carry which done right you could have picked a light bag, ladder to hell and the first grip obstacle hanging though. Hanging Tough is the Tough Mudder version of a rig. It’s the same obstacle that hurt me at WTM in Pensacola. I came off that in the night and racked my head and shoulder good. Then just to add insult to injury my headlamp cracked me in the nose and I still have that scar. This time I cleared no problem. Except I didn’t get to do my wrecking ball impression. 

Right after that we had a nice runable section. I caught up to Evan and decided to just pace off of him and have someone to laugh (or make fun of) my bad jokes. We hit the trenches together then the  cage crawl. I went for the green side because obviously green means go. They had the mop heads in there again. Early on then the water is high it’s not that bad. Definitely a tighter squeeze but doable. Later on when the water is lower those mop heads have a great way of shooting water up your nose into your sinuses. Unknown to us next was actually mud mile. This time it was deep with no good slope to the walls. You needed help to get up. I boosted Evan and then he pulled me over through the 6-7 pits. We moved to tight squeeze which was still just water at this point. Later it became soupy thick mud then later almost no mud at all. We did that and headed up the hill at a quick power hike. And right back down the hill on the other side to do Mud Mile again the other way! We looked at each other and knew this was a tougher course than we were expecting. 

Out of that covered in mud we climbed another hill and got a short jog to the Blockness Monster. It’s one of my favorite obstacles of all time. This time they did it right. We could barely do it alone so had to team up and get the block spinning. At those point one of the TMHQ employees told us we were top 10. Not like it mattered. We had over 8 hours of race to go. Our pack split up heading to a nice gradual downhill to Mudderhorn. That was easy up and down. I learned a new trick to make the down faster and easier. After that was Son of a Ditch and it was a Son of a Bitch. We could barely get out of that mud pit. It took a combined effort for us to move through there. Next loop they added some ropes for people to pull you up with. Those runners who helped were my heros all day. 

This was right about where the 5k would split off and head back to the village. W the way the race works is the first lap has to be a 15k then after you can decide between 15k or 5k loops. This is where strategy comes into play. You need to know the loops and your times. You cannot start another 15k after 6 hours into the race and then have to start your last 5k before the 8 hour start line cutoff. You have to be aware too your pacing and time. You have to make decisions based on what you see because you don’t get a good preview of either route until you are on that first 15k. We didn’t get to head back. Instead we got to climb a long couple hundred foot climb with a downhill run to the trail section. They had a sign on the course that said to watch out for the velociraptor. This became the jurassic park section of the course to me. Easy and fun trail run with a nice bombing downhill technical finish right to a slick steep climb. I remember that climb well from Toughest. It was always right before the finish. Today is was more mid course. 

Next we got a little run up to a water station and got to see Tipping point. It looked fun but was a big struggle to do alone. That tube was slick and there wasn’t a good way to slide through. Evan and I had some fun in there and then went up to Walk this Way together. This was basically the penalty from WTM where you had to walk with 2x4s strapped to your feet. This time it was designed for pairs. After a few steps Evan and I had our flow down. We made it to the end. Immediately turned around and flew back. It was actually a nice break and active recovery. 

After that I considered this the back half of the course. We maybe only had 5k left but the hrd stuff seemed to be over. A little job got us over to Augustus Gloop. I thought this was a version of an obstacle from WTM where you jump and swing across. Nope. It was a new design where you climbed up a cargo net tube with water spraying down over you. That net was annoying to traverse up.  The water was nice though. For all TJ and Eddie’s whining about it being cold I was fighting not to overheat. They brought lots of race gear for cold. I didn’t even bring a shirt to the race. At start it was 58 degrees. Below 40 I start considering full tights before a shirt. Now that we were nice and refreshed we were on our way to Cry Baby. And baby did we cry on this one this time. We could see the smoke from a ways away and someone made the comment about it being a brush fire. I knew exactly what it was. The menthol, sinus clearing fog that you have no choice but to enjoy. Being one of the first ones there they had it loaded for us. I crawled out coughing hard with my eyes watering. It hit us all good. I highly suggest this obstacle for anyone with sinus issues. You breathe clear for a while. I knew this was going to be less intense later on as more racers went through and pulled some fresh air in. They did not go easy on the infinity runners. It’s about time!

From here it was a focus on getting to the end. Maybe 2k left at this point. We had just the tip which had rock climbing holds this time.  3 jugs and one crimp.  Not the normal trailer balls that suck. But wait! Just for us one of the 4 rock climbing holds were turned to make it just a little more fun. To quote Woody Harlson in Zombieland “enjoy the little things”. Next up was a fast downhill run to mineshafted. This was similar to son of a ditch normally is but covered with a tarp forcing you to low crawl. I’m my case really hit your head on a 2x6 loud enough that the volunteer outside the obstacle asked it I was ok. I made a comment about if I was using my head I would t have been doing what we were doing and headed on out to electric eel. Dangling live wires above a water pit. Even chest to the ground I only have a few inch clearance from them. Avoiding them isn’t too difficult. Hitting them isn’t bad either. It’s the fear and anxiety that will get to me. You always hear the crack of electricity when someone gets hit just a millisecond before you feel the shock. If one person gets shocked everyone feels it. I know someone got hit behind me and I felt it in my legs. It didn’t bother me much until we got up and started power hiking back up the hill. It felt like I got hit in the balls. That went away after about 10 minutes. At that point what’s another thing hurting. 

Right after Electric Eel we got a nice power hike up a long uphill. All that nice downhill to mineshafted we got to undo. I could see Funky Monkey coming up around the corner so I started grabbing some straw to dry my hands. It seemed to have worked because I got there and even though the bars were a little damp I cruised through no problem. It was the first confidence builder in my strength. We could hear the music from the festival. They were playing “the boys are back in town”. It fit perfectly for the first endurance race of the season as we hit on of the hardest obstacles. From Funky it was about 1k back to the finish. A nice little field run, crossing the road with the dancing volunteer, over the fence, though the stream and then the last 2 obstacles were in sight. 

First was Arctic Enema. It was really refreshing as the temperature was starting to climb. After 15k I was starting to get warm. Right out of Arctic was EST. The one and only Clinton Jackson was there. I stopped to give him a quick hug and say hi. Four of us went into EST together all taking the safe route of crawling in and avoiding the shocks. The first half wasn’t too challenging. We got to a tube in middle that I think we were supposed to go over but instead we went under staying low and avoiding the wires as best we could. They were lower on this side and it was a challenge. At one point I got a nice mouthful of mud and spit it out and yelled to Clinton that I didn’t like the flavor. I think he almost wet himself laughing so hard and I made a comment to everyone about the flavor of the mud. 

From there we headed back to the transition area. I held up my wrist showing that I had all 6 of my obstacle bands as I ran by the race center and to my drop area. I got there and instantly swapped my bottle of tailwind. Evan cruised right though. I yelled out that I was 1 minute behind him to hit some of the obstacles together. I peeked at my watch and kept going on refueling and supplying. 60 seconds later I was walking out shooting an applesauce packet and headed back towards the start. There was a wave in the corral ready to go out. I cruised by and was out on lap 2. 

Lap 2 was more comfortable. Lap 1 is always an unknown so there is a bit of anxiety and worry about making sure you are doing everything right. The next laps I get to focus more on whats next instead of wondering. I know when to run hard because a break is coming up, what the next obstacle is, how much it’s going to drain me or when we can get some energy from the spectators. My plan for lap to was to run at a comfortably hard pace to see how long it would take. 

Lap 2 cruised by very comfortably. There was a bunch of people in Son of a Ditch with a rope this time. The infinity runners went right to the front of the line. They would throw rope down to us, count to three and then pull us up. It made it a lot easier to get in and out. The other nice spot was at Tipping Point. There was a group of people there that were letting people into the tubes then to help out they would lift the low side and you would shoot through with very little effort. It was so helpful. I managed not to hit my head in Mineshafted. Then completed Just the Tip and Funky Monkey again without issues. That lap took 1 hour and 50 minutes. Right about the same as the first lap. I did some quick math and realized I would need to pick up about 10 minutes in each of the next 2 laps to be able to hammer a hard 5k to start the last 5k in under the 8 hour cut off. 

Nick S was in the transition area. He said he got his 20k done and asked if I needed anything. I asked him to refill my empty bottle with Fitaid for my next lap to save me a bit of time. Knowing I needed to make up some time I popped 2 salt stick caffeines in hopes that would give me a boost. Lap 3 started and I was hopeful to make up some time. This lap was going to make or break that 70k goal. I hammered as hard as I could and finished this loop in about 1 hour and 50 minutes. I didn’t make up any of the time I needed. My only thinking now was to see if I could get my 65k done in right about the 8 hour cutoff and maybe head out for an unofficial last 5k loop. I hit another 2 salt stick caffeines and grabbed my bottle with the fitaid and went back out. 

Despite me pushing and some cramping on my hip flexors I wasn’t able to make up anytime on this lap either. I was still running and in good spirits thanking the volunteers knowing it was my last time I would see them. I again didn’t make up much time this lap. 

I knew I wouldn’t have time for 2x 5ks and went back to my goal of finishing 65k as fast as I could. I took yet another salt stick caffeine and grabbed a fitaid and started walking to the start line. I started this tap at about 7:45. 75 minutes on the clock to finish my 5k. No worries there and I knew that I was one of the top runners at this point. I wondered for an instant how many others would make the cut off to start a last 5k. 

The 5k was really runable and from some beta from some of the other Infinity runners I knew it was long. Typical of a Tough Mudder 5k. I hammered still without completely destroying myself and managed to finish in just under 8.5 hours. Right at the end I got passed by another runner who I thought was someone finishing his 55k lap. I didn’t worry about it too much because I was 2 laps up. In reality, he was another guy out on his 65k and knew he was going to be able to get ahead of me. He dunked through Arctic Enema and sprinted through EST taking a few shocks. I took my time and took it easy though EST stopping to give Clinton one final hug before crossing the finish line. 

Now is where the typical Tough Mudder unprofessionalism came in. We were doing our final check in and getting our medals when they announced that the 5k was actually 6k and they were going to count it as that. This is the first that most of us had heard this and it was a shock. We were out there fighting for every kilometer towards our goals based on the knowledge that the loops were 15k and 5k. The change to 6k may have been an equalizer and made running them a better strategy. I did some quick estimations this week and I think it may have made the 70k possible if I would have done 1x 15k and swapped back to the 5k, or in reality 6k, loops. That extra kilometer of running would have been faster than the back of the course with the harder obstacles. What I don’t know is how much longer the transition gap would have added. In the end, there’s nothing I could have done differently with what I knew. It was the best run I had in a while. I crushed that incredibly difficult course without any issues other than some bumps, bruises and scrapes. I’m happy with the results despite not hitting my 70k goal. 

The Bad:

The bad part of this race wasn’t on me. It was the standard Tough Mudder unprofessionalism. The 5k laps are typically long which makes the 15k the smarter idea. In this case they changed the official distance of the 5k to 6k after the start and never announced it. If I would have known that I may have moved to 6k laps and tried for the 70k. The 6k ha some decently long runnable sections that could have made up for the extra transition time. 

The Good:

The good of this one is easy. My legs and training carried me through without much concern. It had been a while since I’ve done a dedicated obstacle workout. My strength must have still been there enough because I didn’t fail an obstacle. I crushed a hard course and didn’t crush myself doing it. 

Moral of the Story:

It was great to get back on a race course and do so well. I have a little bit of work to do to get ready for some races later in the year. It was a good start but there’s still some strength to build to be ready for November. 

Best Moment:

The best moment was about midway through lap 2. I was settling in to the race and the pace. My legs were moving good and I realized I was having fun. I haven’t raced since WTM in November. It felt really good to be back on course and comfortable being uncomfortable. 

Worst Moment:

There wasn’t a lot of bad that I can think of. I nailed my race plan and nutrition. My legs did what I wanted them to and my strength held up for an 8 hour event. The worst part of this one was the prerace stress and anxiety. I constantly deal with this before every race. It’s never good and completely unfounded because I normally do well. Someday I’ll learn to cope with it better. 

Funniest Moment:

By far the winner of the funniest moment was on loop 1 when I was crawling through EST I got a big mouthful of mud and yelled back to Clinton that I didn’t like the flavor this time. I think he almost wet himself laughing so hard at me which made me laugh even harder. It was a great way to end lap 1. 

The second funniest in my mind was after loop 3 in transition thinking of that quote “Courage is Fear hanging on one minute longer” as I was taking 2 caffeine salt tabs chased by a coke. I was going all in and wondering if that’s what he meant by it. Or if I’m just totally crazy for that one. 

Map:

Results: 

Gear:

• Altra Superior 4.5

• 2XU 3/4th tights

• Salomon Adv Skin 5 vest - red 

• Spare bottles

• Injinji compression socks

• Swim goggles

• Gurney Goo

• Trail Toes

Nutrition:

• Tailwind

• Tailwind caffeine 

• Fitaid

• Applesauce 

• Maple syrup 

• Salt stick caffeine (like a lot of these)

• Girl Scout cookies

• Water