Tough Mudder - Toughest Phily 2024
Race: Philly Toughest 2024
Date: 5/18/2024 - 5/19/2024
Time: 55 Miles / 11:03:30
Place: 1st Place
Pre-Race Conditions:
“Whatever you do, always give 100%. Unless you're donating blood.” - Bill Murray
I spent some time trying to find a good quote for this weekend. It had to be something about 100. I liked both of those. Maybe the second one better because it’s “Bill Fucking Murray”. I just got to dinner outside of Philly for Toughest tomorrow night. I swore I would never come back to this venue a couple years ago. The load in is absolutely brutal and the TMHQ race directors don’t care that the racers have to deal with it. It’s a long uphill walk that just sucks. This race is only costing me travel. And I’m here for a good reason. It was an easy 9 hour drive to get here. South to Toledo and then due east on the turnpike.
I’m here for Evan’s 100th podium attempt. He asked me a few weeks before I ran the 50 miler. I had considered it and committed the week after it. I wanted to wait to see how beat up I was after the 50. Didn’t want to have to back out because I was too beat up. He built a powerhouse team. It should be a great time as we get him to his 100th podium. That’s a lot of racing and consistent results. Especially for someone who does a lot of ultra distances. I’m hoping that we get him to a first place finish too. I haven’t looked to see how many other teams are here or who might be our competition. We should be in a good spot. This course is actually fun. Lots of elevation and terrain. I was here last year for infinity. That’s only 9 hours. To get through the hills and trying to hit my mileage I did somewhere near a gram of caffeine. Not healthy. It did keep me awake enough for a red eye flight back to detroit to get to Perfect PR. I’m sad I’m missing that race this year. I was registered and actually thought it was next weekend and I could do both. Calendars are hard.
The last month and a half have been amazingly insane for me. I’m completely exhausted and need a vacation. Memorial Day next weekend will be that rest. I’ll still be able to hammer miles this weekend. Weather is looking favorable except some rain. The key is going to be staying warm and comfortable in the pit. I have also never went into a race weekend so unprepared. I only booked my hotel room for tonight about an hour ago. I still don’t know what I’m doing for after the race. That will get figured out after. I’m half planning on just driving right home. That’s something to worry another later.
I was walking out of my house to leave earlier. I had everything packed and was ready to jump in my Jeep and go I realized I didn’t get the mail yesterday. I stopped and opened my mailbox to find only a small letter with no return address. Curious, I took it inside and opened it. It was a note from Kelli, Derek’s wife. She mentioned how happy he was to pace me at the ultra and how much that experience meant to him. It was the best of both his worlds. Running and helping. It was very fitting for me as I headed out to do the same thing this weekend. Run and help.
Race Recap:
This was a fun one. Except the walk to the pit. That always blows. This year I saw Anke on my walk up. I haven’t seen her since 2019. It was a surprise that hyped me up even more. I was already a little nervous because we were getting there a little closer to the start than I would have liked. We had plenty of time. It just never seems to be enough.
After being a complete hot mess in the pit, my normal, we made our way to the start line. I was of course one of the last in and had to fight my way to the front. I think the rest of the team was a little worried about me. Once I got to course I’m solid. It’s just the pit that I freak out in.
I had the team timing chip so they had to wait for me anyway. I volunteered for the first 2 laps. The relay format changed slightly this year. Instead of 50% of your team on course it was single man relay with the first and last lap as your full team. I think I am a little stronger of a pure runner than the rest. And I haven’t done any strength work in the 6 weeks leading up to the race. My goal was to limit obstacles so I didn’t risk penalties.
Sean was there to start us off. Another welcome sight back at these races. The new RD didn’t give a lot of confidence. He almost just read the rule book to us. It was almost like he didn’t know it. He wouldn’t tell us the penalties. That was a little upsetting for a competition.
After Sean’s speech we were off. It was a quick pace. No one was really dragging us back which was good. I kept moving from the front lead position back to the middle to try to set the pace. Since I was doing the double I didn’t want to blow up. It was a good lap. 5 miles, ~600’ of gain, 2 creek runs, 1 swamp and Mudderhorn completed in about 48 minutes. The creek and the swamp were fast walk/hikes and Mudderhorn was the normal 1.5-2 minute time suck. That’s blazing fast and a completely unsustainable pace.
We came over Mudderhorn and while I was waiting I shot a maple syrup to get the boost for lap 2. The humidity and pace were hitting me. My stomach was a little uneasy. We ran by the last 4 obstacles and crossed the finish line.
As a team we jogged back to the pit. Instead of going to the tent with the team I picked up the pace and moved toward the start line. On the first little section I could feel myself redlining. It was too early to be feeling that. I pulled back a little bit. The goal was to flirt with that line and then push the last half to full mile. My other goal that lap was to get past the barbed wire crawl before it opened at 9. I made it with 8 minutes left. From there I pushed as hard as I could. There were 2 steep inclines that I power hiked up this lap. That early it wouldn’t cost me much time.
About mile 2 I found a solo runner, Ed, and we started chatting. There was only about 250 racers. The course was super sparse. It was nice to have someone to talk to. I think Christian and Evan were happy to not have to listen to me all night. We got to do devils beard together and then split off with about half a mile left. He was maintaining pace and I was picking up with the end in sight. The last obstacle I had to do was mud mile. It was tough. I had to use the corners. There were a couple mudders in there struggling. They were making progress so I cruised by.
I finished the lap pretty clean and ran back to the pit to hand off to Christian. The order was me, Christian, Ryan then Evan. I hit the tent and got cleaned up and changed. Instead of the normal ~1 hour break we got a 3 hour break. It had is advantages and disadvantages. You got to fully recover and see your team. The downside was 3 hours of trying not to get too comfortable. Since I had so much time I went over to Mudderhorn to chat with Anke. I spent a lot of time there all night. It was here where I realized how distracted and overwhelmed I’ve been the last 2 months. I saw Dave and realized I completely forgot s’mores. Our running joke for the last couple years. That bothered me. It was a sign I needed some rest both mentally and physically after this one. I did give him some of my moms brownies as a substitute. He appreciated them.
I was there waiting for Ryan to come by. I completely missed him. He never yelled either. After I while I wandered back to the pit and no one was there. I was worried that he got caught out there or something happened. No one was there so I checked by the fire pits where I found Christian and Ryan. Actually I just missed Ryan and Evan was out on course about 3 miles in. They said they were starting to wonder where I was at. I had about 20 minutes to be ready. Back to the pit to put socks and shoes on. I was ready just in time. While I was getting ready I got to mess with Nick S. He kept yelling about me doing nothing and me yelling at him for not being on course. His crew supported my heckling.
It had started getting pretty misty with a light rain during my break. I was a little worried about the grip obstacles being slippery. I had pulled out a pair of gorilla gloves and completely forgot to tuck them in my pocket. I figured I’d just make up for it in speed. Fully recovered I started just shy of a dead sprint. I got through the barbed wire crawl. My goal of this lap was go fast and catch Nick who had about a 20 minute head start on me. He didn’t know how far back I’d be. I caught him about mile 1. Right after the crawl. He was not happy.
This would be my first full lap with all the obstacles. Normally with the team rules we get another lap with partial obstacles. I’m not a fan of the new rules. I was moving quick. Thanks caffeine! I made it to ladder to hell that they had modified to have a wall wand rope. First attempt I jumped and slid right down the rope. No grip. I moved over to one with a knot and was able to get up it. The volunteers were a little shocked. They said I was moving so fast with my headlamp that they thought I was an UTV the race guys drive until I got over the obstacle. Right after that was a nice long run section. I peeked at my watch and saw it showing a 6:15/mile pace. Too fast but I knew I could hold a little slower until I got to the creek and would be forced to slow down. That’s what I did. From there it was cruise control. Move at a breakneck speed and hold on for dear life. It worked for me. I made it through all the obstacles. Only taking a couple breaks to power hike the 2 steeper sections.
On the back of the course, right after cage crawl was lumberjacked. AJ refused to give me a hug. Something about being wet. What a whiny girl. 😂 the next obstacle was blockness. I could easily do it myself but there was a guy who couldn’t get over the first block. I told him I’d help. We waited in the water for one more guy to get there and helped him over. Then got him over the second before we picked up the pace and sit away. I found out later it was his first tough Mudder and he managed 3 laps. Great for a first timer in the humidity on that course.
After that was a decent run section with some up and down. I picked it up and hoped I would get to the devils beard with someone. No luck. I got to do that fun by myself. Then ran to Mudderhorn, followed by Everest (even with the ropes thank you Francis), arctic, mud mile and EST. Arctic was cold. Normally I don’t have a problem with it. This time the last section had about 4” of ice to push through in your way out. The cold hit me hard with an instant headache. I took about 15 seconds to right myself and then jumped into mud mile. That water was warm by comparison and a welcome respite from the ice bath. I instantly felt better. Only thing left was EST. We had scouted before the race and saw there was no way through without getting zapped. Luckily the penalty was only 20 sandbag squats. That's probably actually faster than the obstacle. I opted for that. I was going to finish pretty clean and would get a 3 hour break. I crossed the finished line to Evan there waiting. He helped me get the carabiner with the timing chip off and took off to run it to Christian. I started running with him. Then after a few strides decided to walk. Why run?
I had no rush to be anywhere. And was now warmed up after the ice. The only issue I was having was a little bit of nipple chafing. Sometimes those bibs rub. Unfortunately the rest of the race I forgot to do anything about it.
I had another 3 laps off. Similar to the first break I changed fueled and then hung out. This time I spent some time chatting with Sean. It was good to catch up a little bit. I definitely missed him at Worlds. After a little while Evan headed out and we knew we were in first place but second was still close. One mistake could change the lead. We had the debate if I was going then Christian then the group for our final lap or me then the team for the final lap. After looking at we figure out that it would be safest for me to double again. Evan was trying to open up our lead and we would have been pushing the cut off time if we would have tried to squeeze in another lap. I went back to the tent to prep for my double lap. I figured I had about 3 minutes before Evan would be back at the earliest. That prediction was off by about 2 minutes. He hammered that lap and opened up the lead a lot more. I scrambled to get my bib on then headed to the start.
Evan came in yelling and screaming for me. Normally really quiet I think I broke him. He was really excited and happy.
My lap 4 / team lap 10 was another fast one. I was pretty much fully recovered. All I needed to do was to be conservative enough to keep up on the next lap. Caffeine and stimulants really help with that. I remembered my gloves this time. Not sure that I really needed them but I put them on just to be sure I didn’t fail anything. Those gorilla gloves do wonders for gripping wet obstacles. No failures and fast. I got done with almost the whole lap when I got to devils beard and saw the girls, Sherilyn, Juls and Elise, we all went through it together. Faster together ok that one for sure. Only issue was the net had snagged on the team timing chip and pulled the key ring apart. It wasn’t at risk of falling off. Every stride the pointy end now exposed kept stabbing me in the right pec. I felt like a race horse getting whipped to run faster. I tried to make it better with no luck. So I just held it when I could and dealt with it. Between that and the other nipple chafing I was feeling a little bit.
I skipped arctic this lap with my bypass band. No need to deal with that and then did my 20 squats for EST. Lap complete. ~55 minutes. Not bad. I went to the race center to grab my next bypass band I earned and had them fix the timing chip. The sun was now up and they confirmed no more headlamps. I’ve learned that night ops always ends early and to ask if we can ditch the lights.
Back at the tent I went to resupply as quick as I could. Those guys were telling me that we had time. I wasn’t waiting. Apparently second place had slowed way down and had started their lap 10 about 25 minutes before I finished. There was no way for them to complete lap 11. We would have almost 2 hours to do it.
Resupply done. We headed to the start full of energy. Might have been the smelling salt I had hit. Who knows. We crossed the start line and picked up from a light jog to a run. At this moment I realized I’d forgot nipple tape again. Only one more lap though. We kept a good pace with me lagging a few steps behind everyone. I was a little tired yet still able to keep pace. This was our victory lap. All we had to do was finish. Through the lap Evan kept calling out the paces. We only need to run a 30 minute mile pace to finish. Then later a 40 minute mile as we kept pace.
We got to funky monkey and Ryan had dropped off. Christian may have too. I can’t remember. While we were waiting on him to complete the penalty the second place team emerged from the penalty. Evan knew their captain so we chatted for a minute. He was struggling with some stomach issues and falling apart. That humidity is sneaky. Ryan finished the penalty and we took back off. Evan wanted to open up more of a gap just to crush the rest of the teams. We happily went with him.
The back of the lap was a nice smooth run. We talked about what we were using our bypass bands on. We each had one left. I suggested arctic. They talked me into doing arctic and shipping mud mile so we would finish clean. I accepted the team decision with some protest. I definitely waited as long as I could before jumping into the ice cold water. I knew I was going to do it. I knew it would hurt. I knew it wasn’t that bad. Yet I still hesitated for a bit and then jumped in and did it. We flung our bands at the volunteer for mud mile as we ran by. Victory was ours. After 20 sandbag squats. We finished those pretty quick and crossed the finish line just after 7AM. No teams could start another lap. It was over
At Evan’s insistence we ran from the finish line over to the race center as a group. Fatigue and exhaustion was trumped by excitement over the win. Maybe some simulants and the sun too. Who knows. We got some congratulations from some runners checking out and went back to the tent to clean up. We had successfully got Evan his 100th podium and a first place finish for it as well.
It was a great event and I was happy to be there for him. This event is all about community and teamwork. I’ve met some of the best people and athletes in the world doing these. I will miss them all as I’m stepping away more and more from OCR. I know I won’t be running WTM this year due to some other events I have lined up. I’ll still be at some local races and may come back for some other team events. I’m pretty sure I’m done doing the long solo OCR suffering alone events. I would have wished I got my 100 miles at WTM. I made some good attempts and it wasn’t it the cards due to mistakes on my part. It’s time to move on and chase some of the other events I want to do. Long endurance races and adventure racing here I come.
The Bad:
Holy Cold. Arctic hurt. I have never had an issue with that obstacle before. It’s been uncomfortable sometimes. Other times it's been a welcome reprieve from the heat. This obstacle just hurt. I may have to up the cold showers. I would have never thought I would ever use a bypass band for it. They found a good weakness in us all with that obstacle this weekend.
The only other issue was my damned hip flexors. I need to get back into doing the lunges and squats. Going up Mudderhorn the last time I felt the right lock up. Not a good thing only 5 laps in. Something to work on and build stronger.
The Good:
I had a clean race. No obstacle failures. I haven’t done a strength workout in what feels like forever so going into this I worried about taking penalties. My running fitness was there and great after the 50.
Great confidence builder
Moral of the Story:
Pretty simple: Racing with friends is fun.
We had a great team and a fun time all night, It couldn’t have been a better way to get Evan to his 100th podium.
Best Moment:
Finishing out the last laps and taking Evan to 100 with a first place finish. He was so happy and it was so great to be part of that. It is a lot of races and a lot of time for him.
Glad it went his way.
Worst Moment:
I have this recurring theme over the last year or so of getting into my head during races. It's a bad place to be and I got there early in my second lap. Luckily I was able to get through it. The trick I’m learning is to acknowledge it and then don’t let it get to me. This time I was getting to the back of the course. This was a harder run section and I was red lining hard. I just thought of Derek and why I was there. To run and help. After that I was settled in and started having a good time.
It always takes a while to warm up.
Funniest Moment:
Before my 3rd Solo lap I was getting ready. I was prepping for another double. I expected Evan in about 5 minutes and said I wanted to be ready in 3. Just as I stood up to put my bib on here came Evan running up yelling for me to go. Quiet Evan sounded like me on course. Screaming at the top of his lungs and joking around. I think I may be a bad influence on him.
Map:
Results:
Gear:
Altra Superiors
Altra Lone Peak
2XU ¾ Compression tights
Woloco Compression Shorts
Virus ¾ Compression tights
Smart Wool crew socks x 3
Black Diamond Storm headlamp
Blinker
Gorilla Gloves
Nutrition:
Kion EAAs
Applesauce
Maple Syrup
Bing Energy drinks
Coke
Salt stick caffeine
Tylenol -- Damn Hip
Nicotine gum
Bananas
Brownies
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