Worlds Toughest Mudder 2023

Race: World’s Toughest Mudder 2023

Date: November 4th/5th, 2023

Time: 22:11:23

Place: 55th Overall / 48th Male / 13th AG

Pre-Race Conditions:

Ugh. Another Worlds Toughest Mudder. It’s been a long few days. I’m laying in bed at 8:30 getting ready to pass out before the big day.

Plan is to leave the house, that’s in the weirdest gated community I’ve seen, by 8:30 to get there around 9. We got the tent setup today after some aggressive tree trimming by the TMHQ employee. There was a tree half in my spot. Sherilyn was super awesome and drove my tent and a few chairs down for us. Saved the headache of dealing with it here. I saw a lot of people and did my best to see all the first timers. It was a busy day.

I’ve had a good training block. My cardio is probably the best it’s ever been. My strength is probably close to my 2017 rock climbing levels. I’m hoping so because there are a lot of big grip intensive obstacles that are going to take it’s toll. Lots of penalty opportunities out there. They don’t look like weak penalties either. I have a feeling it is going to be a slugfest for a lot of us out there.

It’s a flatter and easy course. Very runnable. The tipping point is going to be where I start failing obstacles and which ones. To me it’s going to be a race of strategy and I’m going to have to lean on my running to get me through. The second lean is going to be on grinding through.

The quote from Ed Furtaw comes to mind “relentless forward progress”. He was the first finisher of the Barkley when it was only 3 loops and has ran many of them. That’s what it takes to get through these struggles. Just keep moving forward.

I have to admit that my heart isn’t into this race much anymore. I’ve struggled the last couple years and here to mostly enjoy it. I tried not setting goals for myself to reduce the stress. I keep telling myself that anything over 75 is amazing. In the back of my mind I know that 100 is potentially in reach. I’ll have to stay balanced and smart this whole time to get through this and put up some good mileage. The heat of the day is going to slow us down at the point where we want to go out fast and push with no obstacles.

Balance!

I just hopped over to the first timer group and wrote them a post. I felt the need to put it here as a reminder to myself of what Laz said. Let your mind focus on the accomplishments not the limitations.

A couple weeks ago Harvey Lewis set a new world record and proved the new limit of human endurance. He completed 108 yards (each yard is 4.1667 miles) at Bigs Backyard Ultra championship. That’s 450 miles in 108 continuous hours. He may have gotten a 5-15 minute break every hour if he was lucky but had to start running at the top of every hour. The clock was always ticking.

Lazarus Lake, race director for some of the hardest races, had a great quote I want to share:

“When the mind takes over we are capable of the impossible”

It was extremely fitting leading up to this race your first time. You are going to have highs and lows over the entire 24 hours.

Don’t let the voice inside you bring you down. Don’t let it stop you from trying.

Don’t embrace the lows.

Fight for the highs. Keep moving forward.

Maybe showing up at the start seems impossible.

Maybe completing that obstacle seems impossible.

Maybe one more lap seems impossible.

Let yourself know you are able to do the impossible.

Know you are capable right from the start.

Great things will happen all 24 hours. Some good. Some bad.

Focus on the moment and if you have to question anything. Remember what you are doing and how impossible it may have seemed to you a year ago. A month ago. A day ago.

Do the impossible and prove that voice inside you wrong.

Draw energy from the other Mudders and volunteers as they will draw energy from you. You are strong. It’s time to show it and give your best. Look forward to your accomplishing the impossible.

One last closing quote from our Sean Corvelle:

“No one is better than your best. Your best will make you better and that will make us all better”

Hoorah!

Race Recap:

What another fun day. I still wasn’t feeling this race but the community energy was why I was there. I couldn’t get enough of that energy and it’s what keeps me coming back. Race morning went pretty smooth. It was nice only having a 25 minute drive to the venue and 10 minutes of that was getting out of the gated community. Race morning is always hectic. This didn’t feel that way. The weather was slightly chilly and windy. I was getting a little concerned. The course was completely exposed and I was worried about the wet and cool temperatures. After a quick call to Bruce about the weather and what was going on. I thought it was going to get colder and be miserable on course. About half an hour before the start as we were all making our way to the corral the clouds moved out and the weather turned nice and hot. I made my way into the start line and pushed up to the Elite Corral next to the one and only Hannah Carta. I had to be close to her to try to get in the pictures.

This year Sean, for reasons still unknown, wasn’t there to pump us up at the start. It was kind of disappointing but Coach did a good job in his own way. He didn’t try to be Sean. He did his own thing before he headed out to Coaches Corner to DJ and party all 24 hours. I spent most of the race briefing sitting on the side and then once Coach started I laid down on the ground. I was relaxed and calm. That’s uncharacteristic for me at a start line. Normally I’m a mess of nerves and excitement. The last couple minutes before the start Coach had everyone dancing at the start. Josh Fiore has some moves.

Off the start we went fast. Like normal. I tried to pace myself for a 45-48 minute lap. Start easy and then stay consistent. I was really fast through this course. It felt like the running was made for me. I stopped at a bush about mile 2 to pee. I hate that about this race. Being in the corral so early always means a pee break on the first lap. Right about when I was jumping back on course Jack ran by to pee. I slowed down and waited for him. From there we ran the rest of the lap together. We finished lap 1 in about 42 minutes. We talked about how long to pit. We said 90 seconds before we headed back out. I stopped at the quickpit by my tent to get a snack. I had planned to go to my vest but worried about it being too bulky. I grabbed a water bottle and turned to make my way to the start line. Jack and I took back off together out to lap 2. The sprint lap was done and we knew if we hurried we would only get one obstacle this lap.

Jack and I went out together on Lap 2. If we hurried we would be able to get past Ladder to Hell and only have to hit the Berlin Wall. We moved well through that lap and only hit one obstacle. The volunteer at Operation was there yelling pretty loudly at everyone. It was some good energy. We all knew he wasn’t going to last that long. He was quiet by lap 5 or 6.

We finished lap 2 at a more comfortable pace. It was hot and a lot of runners went out fast. I knew big miles were going to the smart runner and to not be stupid.

Lap 3 started and we were finally going to hit a little bit of water on some obstacles. It was a nice reprieve from some of the heat. The headache was that it was so dry that by the time you got to the next obstacle you were already dry. That was great for grip obstacles but a little annoying for staying cool. I run so much better in the cold. We hit the barbed wire crawl this lap. It was brutal. The wire in some spots was only a few inches from the ground and it was a teamwork effort to hold it up while the other runners went under. It slowed us down a lot. Luckily the next lap it got raised. I learned later that it was never intended to be that low. When the Race Director heard about it and saw it he had them raise it to sane levels.

I ran with Jack for the first 5 laps together. After that I hit my groove and started running pretty smoothe. Jack had a little bit longer of a pit after lap 5 and I headed out without him. More obstacles opened with every lap. I was having fun but having trouble mentally finding that extra gear and drive. This race was dragging on for me and I was struggling with my why. It’s hard to drive yourself into the ground if you aren’t having fun.

My imposter syndrome of having that Elite bib on was really kicking in. I just started running laps and decided to make the event fun. This allowed me to run with a bunch of other people I always see at races but never really get to hang out with. I decided to take time and enjoy the event. I kept running to get some miles in and used the Elite bib to cut the line to obstacles so I could stay moving and stay warm as the sun was going down. The weather was nice but overnight being wet and a light wind could be an issue. The laps seemed to be more fun this way.

On lap 8 some fun started. I had completed a few obstacles and was running with Dave Carta. We did Operation together and he finished a little before me and went back on his way. I went running after him over to Swinging Tips. He had gotten there and was on the obstacle when I got there. As I was taking a breath and getting ready to go another couple runner got there and told me to go. I jumped up and started down my lane. Right after I made my first move the other runner jumped onto the other side and started intentionally rocking the bar. I yelled out a instant “What the Fuck?” without much thinking. He dropped off the obstacle and started yelling at me as I was hanging there. It was something about how I thought I was an Elite and thought I was so much better. Apparently he let me cut in front of him at Grappler a couple laps earlier and I didn’t throw the ball back close enough to him. When I did that obstacle the first time in front of him I hit it on the first try. Nick Artis made a comment congratulating me for my first hit. I showboated a little bit by showing my bib off to Nick as thanks as I was running off. This guy didn’t like that and decided to try to mess with my race. I was apologizing because I didn’t know what I did or who this guy even was. I was in race brain mode so I don’t even know what happened until later. Nothing was intentional against the guy. To stop the fight I completed the obstacle and took off running to the guy yelling “Fuck you and I hope you fall”. It was very mature. Later I learned that Hannah knew who the guy was and said he was going through some things. He just had a kid and put on 25lbs. I don’t understand how that is an excuse but I didn’t really let it get to me. I only am writing it here because it was a major thing that happened on lap 8. It was so against what the TM community is about. I just kept running and hanging out with people.

On lap 9 and 10, I was slowing down a bunch to run with people and chat. Enjoying the event and community! On lap 10, I came in with Travis and Joe King. We walked a bit and I was starting to get cold. I decided I wanted a little bit of a break and went to my pit to eat and warm up. My hour long break ended up being 3.5 hours. I still got 50 miles in 12 hours 40 minutes. That’s probably one of my better paces. I was well on pace for 80 miles and could have done it if I wanted. Probably even more. I just didn’t have it in me.

I hung out for a bit and then heard Jack had gone into his tent for a nap. I knew he was going to be headed back out so I got ready thinking maybe we could run together. As I headed out I still had a plan to get my silver bib. 75 miles would be easily doable. I got out there and started having fun with everyone.

I cruised through another 2 laps without much issue. I had 5 bands saved up. All the penalties were mostly running so I didn’t mind doing them that much. I had planned to skip some of the water obstacles my last lap and then be nice to the guys on Everest and give them a break. My first time hitting Everest those guys pulled me up like a rag doll. I wasn’t risking having to do the legos at christmas penalty. My last lap; I was was just over a mile in and I caught up with Christian. He was finishing up his 18th with 2 laps to go for his 100 mile bib. I could tell he was struggling so I decided to pace him a bit and kick him in the ass. I was still in high energy only having completed 60 miles at that point. We went and I led and kept a good pace. I pushed him to get that lap done. About a kilometer left we saw Javier out on course looking to encourage Christian. I told him I had him and he told me Elliot was ready to go out for the last 2 laps with him.

We finished the lap together and he went right to resupply. I went to get my chip removed and do my shot of fireball. It was over for me. Another fun year. I was glad I was there to just be part of the event. Onto new and bigger things next year.

The Bad:

The overall event was pretty fun once I settled on my why for being there this year. It was the people. I didn’t get my gold bib and probably my last year trying for it. In reality I’ve wanted to be done with this race for a few years but kept coming back. There’s a bunch of other events I want to go try. 2024 is going to be a big year with some other than OCR races.

I’m a little bummed out I didn’t get my buckle. I had plenty of time but running with friends was so much more fun.

The bad thing about the race was the lack of obstacle innovation or good twists. There wasn’t an obstacle I really looked forward to every lap. Most of them were pretty generic or some minor tweaks on existing obstacles. It felt very Spartan. They have their standard obstacles and then do some mashups for the big races. This was very much like that.

The Good:

I walked away from this event without major issues. I had fun and enjoyed the community. It’s one reason I may be back next year.

We had a great trip and had some fun in Fort Worth. We had some great BBQ, visited the world's largest honky tonk and then had a great AirBnb on the water. The trip is always a big part of the experience and fun.

Moral of the Story:

Finding your why is important and knowing what you are capable of. The expectations of you are always going to be hard to deal with. In the end no one cares. If you show up and do your best everyone will notice.

Best Moment:

If I had to narrow down the best moment it was after finishing a lap I would stop and give Clinton a hug. Without Sean being there Clinton took his spot and was a good incentive to finish every lap.

After lap 6 or 7 while I was giving him my post lap hug he looked at me and said: “I know I’m not supposed to have favorites but Miko you’re my favorite”. I don’t know if he was telling everyone that. He knows exactly what to say and how to say it to make you feel like the best person in the world. I can’t wait to see him next year. I really hope he is in Michigan.

Worst Moment:

The worst part of the race had to be the guy yelling at me and telling me he hoped I fell while I was running. This community is so amazing and in 6 years of this race and 10 years or OCR I have never seen attitudes like this. I’m normally the one who is joking around and talking some smack. In the end it’s all in good fun. We will be back to being best of friends as soon as we cross the finish line. We have to have that friendly competition. This was just a horrible memorable moment and so uncharacteristic of the community.

Funniest Moment:

Sharkbait shocking me!

We both were running together and got to Operation about 15 minutes after it had opened. We got spots roughly next to each other. At the start they only had the poles. Later they added hooks to make it a little easier. While we were doing it I was really careful to not get shocked. She got shocked and shocked me 4 times. Everytime she apologized and we had a good laugh!

Map: