Just completed my second Tough Mudder in as many weekends. Tough Mudder for those of you not in the know, Is a 10-13 mile obstacle type running event designed with British Special Forces type obstacles. It is not one of the 3 to 6 mile "mud runs" most everyone and their mother is doing. Although there are a LOT of participants doing Tough Mudder events. Mostly the obstacles are not "bleed or die" if you fail to complete them. They are mostly of the "bleed or get wet" variety.
Since this time last year I have completed 3 Tough Mudders. Last years event was staged at Squaw Valley Ski Resort. This years Tahoe event was staged at Northstar at Tahoe Ski Resort. The other Northern California event was staged at / around Diablo Grande Golf Resort near Patterson, in the central valley. I would like to do a short comparison of the two most recent events with a couple sidebars thrown in about last years event.
First off these are not races. They clearly state in all the pre-race literature and speeches these are not timed events. They do have a clock running at the start line as the MC needs to motivate and send off 200 to 500 participants every twenty minutes. But using that same clock you can pretty closely know your finish time and do the math to find out how long you spent completing or avoiding up to 25 obstacles. The time differences between Northstar and Diablo Grande was about an hour and a half. The reason for the vast time difference is mostly twofold. In Northstar I was running with a small team. Actually the team was my two kids, Nate (30), Audrey (29), and Leigh (Marine, Mom, ageless(less than me, more than the kids)). When doing these type of events with a team you tend to wait for the slowest common denominator. Sometimes that's the slow chick running up the hills, sometimes it's the cute boy flirting with the slow chick running up the hills. Sometimes it's convincing the dad that 'he can do it' at one of the shocking obstacles. Our team of 4 was relatively small compared to some of the other teams out there. We caught up to and passed a 'team' of 10-12 friends at one of the first obstacles where they were just getting through a relatively easy obstacle, after having left twenty minutes ahead of us. They were in for a long day....
In Diablo Grande, I was running with my younger brother, Jack. Anybody that has a younger brother, or two, or three, knows that that is one of the best motivators out there. That is what is keeping all of us brothers young. Or at least delaying the aging process. Trying to keep up with the young brothers, or not let the older brother best you, is a training tool that should be marketed. Numbers wise we totaled 101. Jack is not quite 50 yet. I am. Attitude wise we were about 32. We caught up and passed some 20-something marines that had started twenty minutes ahead of us. We caught most of the 200 plus 'athletes' that started ahead of us. That and we were having fun aiding some of the other semi fast athletes and marines at the later obstacles. We didn't have to wait for anybody else to get there, we didn't need to 'show you how'. We just found the shortest line, plunged in and went for it. If someone needed a boost and we were there, we boosted. If someone needed a tug up out of the mud and we were there, we tugged. If someone needed bumping because they were frozen and holding up the line behind them, we bumped. Because that's how we roll. At Squaw the previous year I ran solo. I finished about 5th in my heat of 200+. I could have used a buddy to help me over some walls and through some mud. The other solo mudders provided that if there was one around. At Diablo Grande I believe we finished well inside the top 10 of our heat, and probably well inside of the top 50 of the previous heat.
Another difference between these two recent events was altitude and temperature. Lake Tahoe lays at about 6000 feet. Northstar rises up about 2000 feet over the lake. It makes for some amazing views. It makes for some agonizing hill climbs. Diablo Grande lays along side Hwy 5 in the Central Valley at about 600 feet. There are a number of "foothills" there, but none of them reach over 1000 feet. If you run / jog /slog enough 500 to 600 foot hills in a row it begins to feel like a mountain. But since I live / train at 4000 feet I found I had plenty of lung for these lowland hills, maybe needed more leg toward the end though.
The daytime and night time temperature made a difference also. At 6000 feet the night time temp hovers around 40* this time of year, with highs sometimes reaching 75. Last Sunday it did not hit 73 until well after our event was over. It stayed in the mid 60's all morning, with an overcast, slightly breezy sky. Therefore the water temps were able to maintain their 32 -35 degree temperature overnight. In the Central Valley today it hit 93 before noon. All the ice from Arctic Enigma was melted before we arrived even though it was one of the first obstacles. In comparison, the ice cubes were 5 feet thick in Arctic Enigma in Tahoe. At Diablo Grande it was a welcome sight to see another water obstacle coming up just down the hill.
The obstacles were basically the same at each event. The difference being in where they were placed in the course. They main drag at each event was the Electric Eel and the Electric Shock Therapy obstacle. In Tahoe they were decently spread out by about 5 miles. You crawled through Electric Ell at the summit of Northstar before descending to lower, warmer climes. At Diablo Grande both Electric Eel and Eletcroshock Therapy were within spitting distance from each other at the end of the course. Supposedly they were a crowd favorite. They were definitely not a participant favorite. Still feel them in my back.
Both of these events were run at the same start time. Actually all three were started at 9:20 Sunday morning. There was a reason for that. I am not a huge fan of crowds, I figured there would be less crowds at the obstacles earlier and more opportunity to run unimpeded. I found out I was right. At Northstar last week 15,000 participants went through the course on Saturday, with only about 4-5 thousand running on Sunday. In Diablo Grande I am unsure how many ran on Sunday but there was only 4 heats of 2-400 each, starting every 20 minutes between 9:00 and 10:00. Not great for people watchers, but exceptionally nice for us lonesome, long runners....
Overall Tough Mudder put on an exciting event. The bands at each were top notch, unfortunately they went unnoticed at Diablo Grande. The beer was colder and freer at Northstar. (You got unlimited free cold beer before you left the finish corral. In Diablo Grande you were limited to one semi cool beer period).
The lead up to each event was entirely different also. Last weekend I drove with my son up to El Dorado Hills (Near Sacramento), met my daughter driving up from San Diego with Leigh and her boys, and partied like rockstars for about 6 hours in the hot ub at Keathers new house on Lake Folsum / American River. After a slow, lazy recovery day on the river we made our way up to Northstar the morning of the event. Immediately after the "challenge" both Nate and Auj started feeling ill. Nate's illness turned into 24 hour stomach flu he acquired from his 4 year old daughter. Aujs' turned out to be maybe just nerves. I acquired Nates' 24 hour stomach flu on Tuesday and am still feeling the effects of the flu or a cold, or whatever it was, today. This week dealing with an unsure work future at Bear Valley, stomach ailments, and low fuel, I was more than a match for Jacks hangover he acquired last night at the dinner party he was hosting.
Everyone participating in these Tough Mudder events are looking forward to doing them again. Very challenging, very doable for just about all levels of training.
Finish time at Squaw Valley TM (solo) 2011 3:05 (13+ miles)
Finish time at Northstar TM (4 person team) 3:20 (11+ miles)
Finish time at Diablo Grande TM (Me n Jack) 1:48 (11 + miles)
Happy Trails, Keep Training!
davee7098
A couple of post script notes;
I told my parents I would not relate the spilled paint issue at their house on Friday before heading up. I sort of fell off the scaffolding I had rigged to paint the wall over the landing / stairs at their house. I broke the railing on my fall and sort of scared my parents in to early retirement. (They are already retired) They may have lost a couple years while helping try to clean up spilled paint in such a hurry.
I did not complete the rings obstacle or the cliffhanger obstacle at either event. Was not able to keep the momentum going.
Jack did complete the rings but did not complete the Funkey Monkey Bars... Nate, Auj, Leigh and I all did!
