A few months back my brother Topher asked Jason if he wanted to do the "Tough Mudder" with him and some friends, "It will be fun" he says to Jason! Jason didn't know too much about it, but he agreed to do it with them. They signed up early enough to get a discount, yes you pay to get tortured. All proceeds go to the Utah Wounded Warrior Foundation, so it's for a good cause. Jason had to sign a waiver. In fact all spectators had to pay $20 to watch, and also sign a waiver. It's pretty intense. Tough Mudder is put on by Special Forces designed to kick your trash. It was a 12 mile course with 21 obstacles. Jason refused to look online and get familiar with all the obstacles. He just said he would rather not know. He knew of two of them: Jumping in ice water, and another obstacle going through electricity. I never pulled up the website either until the day we were leaving to Salt Lake. When I get really stressed out my mouth breaks out in canker sores. As I type this, my mouth is still recovering from the sores. I didn't want to watch my hubby get tortured. When I would talk to Jason about it, he could tell how much I was stressing, and he would just keep reassuring me that he really was excited, and it will be fun!
The team consisted of my husband, my brother Topher, his father in law Scott, Scott's friend Ray, Scott's daughter Kaylee, and Kaylee's friend Olivia. Team name was "The 1%er's"
Toph and Kaylee were both going to the gym once or twice a day preparing for this event. After the race Toph and Kalyee said no amount of gym could have prepared you for this.
The event was on October 13, 2012 at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele Utah.
The race started at 8am, and each team was assigned their start time every 20 minutes. I am guessing at least 100 people started every 20 minutes, and the last team started at noon. The place was packed!! Jason and the group started at 10:00am.
The 1%er's
Left to Right
Olivia, Kaylee, Scott, Ray, Jason, & Topher
This was the 10am start time ready to go. Music was blasting pumping them up, they had a guy talking to pump them up, repeat the Tough Mudder pledge, and then sing the National Anthem before they could begin.
They had to jump a fence just to get in the starting line up area!
Topher jumping the fence...
Kaylee jumping the fence...
Jason jumping the fence
Walking through the Starting line
As a spectator, we are not able to see every obstacle. So they went through obstacle #1- Kiss of Mud, then on to #2 Arctic Enema, where we waited for them to come through.
Arctic Enema was a trash dumpster filled with ice and water, and in the middle of the dumpster is a piece of wood in with barb wire on top so that you have to go under the water to get out of the dumpster. Start to finish they were each in there less than 5 seconds, but still it's Ice Cold Water!!
Jason coming out...
He was so happy to get this obstacle out of the way!
Ray coming out...
Topher is about to go in...
Olivia coming out...
Topher... I am so mad this is such a blurry picture.
So after the Arctic Enema, the team completed the following Obstacles:
Berlin Walls #1, Bale Bonds, Hold Your Wood, Kiss of Mud#2, King Of The Mountain, Trench Warfare, Dirty Ballerina, Lumber Jacked, and we were waiting for them at the Electric Eel.
My sister in law Whitney, her Mom Nancy and I were here at this obstacle for over an hour waiting. Of course the sun went away and it got cold. We were freezing but we kept thinking of how cold our team has got to be.
There were golf carts running around with sirens for the ambulances, and whenever you would hear one we would just be sick hoping it was no one on our team.
Watching this event we got covered in mud, but it was all part of the experience.
I had to try really hard to stay positive here. I didn't like watching people come through this and getting shocked. You could hear them getting shocked. You heard every word in the books here. Which makes perfect sense... In this obstacle you have to army crawl in water and try not to get shocked by the wires hanging down, because they will shock you.
This was one of the funniest moments watching though. Some guy gets in, and he yells, "This is water, water is a conductor!!" And army crawls so freaking fast.
Finally our team arrives, and Jason is actually skipping up to this obstacle, which put me at ease knowing he was at least having fun. At this point they were about 7 miles into the race.
Jason starting...
Jason again...
Topher
Scott and Kaylee
Yay! They completed the Electric Eel, and everyone lived!
They continued on and did Balls To The Wall, and then we met up with them again at the Mud Mile. This was a little over 8 miles in.
By this time the sun was finally coming out and warming us up. They completed the Boa Constrictor, Berlin Walls #2, and Cliffhanger. We met up with them again at the Funky Monkey. They were down to 5 more obstacles, which were some of the hardest ones to come!!
This is them walking up to the Funky Monkey...
After the Funky Monkey, they completed Just The Tip, Walk the Plank, Everest (Where Scott banged up his knee really bad) and we met them at the last and final obstacle!! The Electroshock Therapy. This one you had to run through electricity with bales to jump or crawl over. We were hearing of guys just face planting it to the ground going through this one, so I was freaking out.
Jason going in...
12 miles, and 21 obstacles later! You freaking rock honey!!!
Some Tough Mudders right here!!!
Topher
Kaylee and Olivia trying to stay warm after all was said and done...
This was such an accomplishment for all of them. At least it's checked off the bucket list. Jason said he had a BLAST but probably won't do one again.
This was the actual course for that day:
