# Tough Mudder - Mount Snow - May 7,8 TR



## drjeff (May 10, 2011)

I could probably have posted this in either the snow or hiking TR sections since both apply, but that wouldn't be the entire story!

*Resort:* Mount Snow

*Dates:* May 7(my competition day) and May 8

*Conditions:*  Mud, cold water, mud, fire, mud, maple syrup + vinegar, mud, snow, mud, electricity and more mud

*Report:*  So the course was designed by a couple of former British Special Forces members with some "help" from some Mount Snow employees(who I now know need some SERIOUS psychological help!) and by the time race day rolled around it ended up being about 10 miles long, with 5 distinct LONG climbs and 28 obstacles designed to test you both mentally and physically, and boy did it do both for me!

Me and my teammate went out in the 1st wave of starters (they started in waves of 500 people every 20 minutes) at 9AM on Saturday AM.  About 12:45PM we crossed the finish line completed exhausted, cut up, bruised, muddied, and feeling elated all at the same time.

The course started out with a quick run down/up the beginner area, and then about 3 minutes after you started you got to run through the 1st series of fan guns they had spraying water on you, so you started off the course as you spent much of it, WET.  The 1st 2 1/2 miles were lots of climbing up/down muddy, snowy, rocky terrain that some of which was ski trails, some mountain bike trails, and some portions of Mount Snow that I hadn't skied/hiked/biked in my over 25 years of going there!

About 2.5 miles in, you hit the obstacle known as "The Boa Constrictor"







This was the 1st time you were going atleast most of the way underwater.  Down an about 24" diameter, rough pipe, you hit the cold muddy water about 2/3rds of the way down, climbed across the water, and then back up and out the other side.  

The next 1/2 mile was some climbing up, through a field of tires, and then up the woods next to the expert Yardsale trail all to arrrive at the feature known as "the ball shrinker"  The argueably the "worst" obtsacle on the course since you got to spend a good minute plus in the around 40 degree water   The bottom "rope" was actually firehose and the top rope was just that, rope.  What the picture doesn't do justice to is how much play was in the top rope, so depending on which way the other people on your ropes were leaning, one minute you were leaning to one side maybe about 30 degrees off vertical and then the next moment you could quickly be swung back to 30 degrees or so past vertical to the other side.  And the firehoses spraying you down didn't exactly help matters either!






I emerged from this, and tried to run a bit, but couldn't feel my feet for the 1st few steps.  But the team came together and got us moving again, just to get sprayed down by another couple fan guns about 2 minutes later.  Then another LONG climb back upto the top of canyon quad(you got to crawl through the mud under some barbed wire for a prtion of this one) for the 2nd time in less than 4 miles, where you got to pick up a log and climb it up and down another few hundred yards in the "carry your wood" feature 






This wasn't fun, but atleast you had then hit the highest point on the course (but as we'd soon find out, the climbing wasn't close to being done yet)  A quick descent back down about 500 vertical feet, up and over a 15 or so foot high 1/4 pipe like obtsacle, and then a tough, tiring climb back up about 500 vertical feet of the Ego Alley trail(this was the 1st time when I really questioned if I'd make it to the finish).  Back down what you just climbed up and then you headed over towards the Carinthia side of the mountain, where you knew that many features and lots of cold water were still ahead of you.

The 1st thing you hit after getting over to Carinthia via a muddy streambead climb and then some climbing on snow, was the mystery obstacle. It looked like a small maple sugar shack, and under it was a pool about 18" deep of maple syrup, vinegar and some water and mud and then as soon as you got out of the liquid you crawled under a cargo net that was ontop of a pile of wood chips/saw dust - YUP stuck to you!

Then, your stick, saw dust/wooodchip covered self went about 50 yards over to the mid mountain snowmaking pond at Carinthia, where you got to climb up a 15 foot hile platform and then jump into that 40is degree water in the "walk the plank" feature






As soon as I hit the water, my breath was taken away! And all that my brain was thinking was "SWIM!" as I made my way as quick as possible to the exit ramp from the pond. I was probably in the water for no more than 30 seconds,  but it was one of those things where time seemed to be moooving slower than it likely really was.

Once that was done, you were back into argueably the nastiest water on the course in less than 2 minutes in the "underwater tunnels" obstacle






This "water" was more like liquid mud, and smelled like manure!   You had 4 of the bars that you see in the picture that you had to go under and the mud at the bottom of the pon was variable - 1 step it was pretty firm and you only sunk in an inch or two and then the next one you sunk in well over a foot.  Just a nasty obstacle.  You then ran down what is the Inferno park for most of the winter, and most of this run was on snow - made for some sliding opportunities if/when you slipped.  A quick trip through the woods to the Iron Run ski trail and then back onto the bottom of Inferno to where they had piled up what was the last massive hits during ski season into the "Glacier" feature. 






Teamwork was needed to get up this almost 15 fooot high vertical wall of snow followed by a run/walk/slide down what almost turned into a mini, muddy bobsled run down the back to the Carinthia base area.  By this piont, you were about 8 miles into the course, and then you got to turn right around and head back up through the 1/2 pipe (the "gauntlet" feature for TM)which had a few fan guns running to spray you down and then at the top was a guy known as "the executioner" who would spray you down with a firehose! 






Then the last major climb, right up the lower Nitro Headwall.  Not too long, but steep and at this point of the course, most peoples legs were toast and it hurt! Then back down to the Carinthis base area to two more back to back cold water features.  The 1st one was called "blood bath" It was basically 3 side by side 15 yard dumpsters filled with about 4 feet deep of water/slush that was dyed to look like either fruit punch, grape or lemonlime gatorade (I chose lemonlime  ) and about every 20 or so minutes just to keep the water cold, they'd dump a Bobcat scoop of shaved ice into each dumpster!  Below is myself less than a minute after I emerged from the "gatorade" and if you look just below my knees you can see some of it still dripping off!






Right after that you got to tackle the "funky monkey" - think about 40 feet of greased monkey bars that angled dirst up and then back down suspended over another pool of COLD water.  I made it 5 or 6 rungs out before I hit what to me felt like the coldest water of the whole course.  I got out of there and then got as close as I've ever been to having my body shut down!  I hit the wall hard!  Left hamgstring cramps/spasms + right quads cramps + spasms.  I had all i could to keep going and just kept telling myself at this point (along with tons of other spectators, competitors and my teammate) "1 more mile"

Next up was the "Berlin Walls" feature - basically a series of 4 12 foot high walls to get over. Below is me and my teammate (who at age 25 just missed qualifying for the PSIA East demo team this spring, and she can really rip it up on the hill) trying to figure out how the heck we were going to get over these things (and yes we may very well have had the largest height discrepency of any team the entire weekend! :lol: ) 






After about 5 minutes, and with the help of people from other teams, we had made it over and were onto the home stretch (with a few more shortish climbs thrown in for good measure)

We got to climb over all 30+ chairlift towers that had been taekn down a few weeks ago from the summit local, and then run through about a 10 foot wide, 100 or so foot long trail between burning bales of hay, across a suspended cargo net. down an adult slip and slide into cold water for the last time and then through some electrical wires that zapped you to make it to the finish and an awesome sense of accomplishment!

This last one was taken of me and my kids about 30 minutes after I had finished (and received my orange headband that all finishers earn) and had rinsed off and put on head to toe warm, dry clothes.






Soon there after the proper rehydration in the form of a bunch of beers :beer: and just plain and simple taking it easy and reflecting on what an incredible event we had just completed began.  

If you're in GOOD shape, and want to push yourself,  try a Tough Mudder some day.  If you've done a warrior dash/spartan race before, put it this way, there was a banner that we ran under about 1/3 of the way through the course that read "if you were doing a warrior dash, you'd be done now!"


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## gmcunni (May 10, 2011)

nice job Doc! congratz


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## ski stef (May 10, 2011)

awesome tr and pics! I knew a couple of friends that drove up from CT that did this as well I 'll have to ask them how they did! looks like a lot of fun/hard work!!!


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## Glenn (May 10, 2011)

We watched the event over at Carinthia. We saw Jeff as he came over the giant pile of snow. He did not look amused when he saw he had to hike up the halfpipe....and even further after that. This event looked tough. We were towards the end of the course and people were just wiped out; you could see it on their faces. The fact that Jeff and Erika finished was a major accomplishment. 

Watching the race was a lot of fun. Maybe it was because we were dry, warm and drinking champagne and beer. :lol:


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## drjeff (May 10, 2011)

Ski Stef said:


> awesome tr and pics! I knew a couple of friends that drove up from CT that did this as well I 'll have to ask them how they did! looks like a lot of fun/hard work!!!



Ask them how it feels to walk DOWN things now.  You don't realize how much tougher on the body long streches of going downhill are on your legs as you're generally leaning back the entire descent to help decrease the chances of going "over the bars" if your in your usual straight up/down posture position.

I'm already thinking about training for next years and have identified a good section of road near my house that traverses a valley with about a mile of descending/climbing on each side that will be a good training run to try and work on those groups of muscles that I had no clue would get so abused by this course!


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## TheBEast (May 10, 2011)

Way to go Dr. Jeff!!  And to think you were the first wave of people.  Imagine what it was like for the last group on Sunday to go!  HOLY COW!


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## Warp Daddy (May 10, 2011)

Outstanding performance Doc !!!   Way 2 go   :beer:

-- u can now tell your patients you've ENDURED and SURVIVED more pain than you'll ever inflict on them


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## wa-loaf (May 10, 2011)

Damn doc, you're making me feel wimpy about doing the Warrior Dash in June.


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## HD333 (May 10, 2011)

Nice work. Sounds like an event I would like to watch or do if it was 1/10th of what you did.


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## drjeff (May 10, 2011)

wa-loaf said:


> Damn doc, you're making me feel wimpy about doing the Warrior Dash in June.



I'm actually thinking about doing the Warrior Dash at Windham in August with some friends of mine.  I found that I had a really cool time sloshing through the mud last weekend, and the prospects of doing that again with a bunch of people, but only over about a 5K course seem pretty appealing! Plus the water at Windham will more than likely be much warmer than it was at Mount Snow this past weekend! Lol!

I'm pretty sure that I'll do Tough Mudder again next year if it comes back to Mount Snow (and there's already been some strong rumblings that it will).  And as such right now while its still fresh in my brain (both the pain the course induced and the awesome feeling that finishing brought) I'm already thinking about ways that I can better prep myself both physically and mentally for it.

And on an aside, it was pretty cool to see that I was probably a good 10 years older than the average age of the majority of the competitors, and still beat a bunch of them to the finish


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## RootDKJ (May 10, 2011)

sickbird! :beer:


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## St. Bear (May 10, 2011)

Since you were in the first wave, you probably didn't have the bottlenecking problem that I had in PA.  There were multiple obstacles with 10+ minute waits, really made it hard on the muscles to stand around after jumping in 35* water.

I'm thinking of getting a Seasons Pass for 2012 and doing PA, VT, and NJ.


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## wa-loaf (May 18, 2011)

Your next step: http://www.youmaydie.com/


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## drjeff (May 18, 2011)

wa-loaf said:


> Your next step: http://www.youmaydie.com/



No thanks!  They actually have a 30 minute special on _The Outdoor Network_ where they filmed one of these.  Totally nuts.  Tons of mileage, tons of climbs, and some of the challenges may at first seem mundane (such as peeling and eating a bunch of onions) but when you're 18, 24, 36+ hours into the race, i'm sure that it's far from mundane!

I'll stick to Tough Mudder (already pre-registered for next years at Mount Snow  ).  I'd sign up for the Tough Mudder in New Jersey in mid November,  BUT that will hopefully be during ski season, and one has to have priorities afterall!  :lol:

My next mud/adventure race will either be Warrior Dash at Windham in August or Rugged Maniac in Southwick, MA in September (i've actually convinced 4 or 5 of my office staff to all sign up as a team for Rugged Maniac!)


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## bvibert (May 18, 2011)

wa-loaf said:


> Your next step: http://www.youmaydie.com/





			
				youmaydie.com said:
			
		

> Please only consider this adventure style race if you have lived a full life to date.



Awesome! :lol:


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## St. Bear (May 18, 2011)

drjeff said:


> No thanks!  They actually have a 30 minute special on _The Outdoor Network_ where they filmed one of these.  Totally nuts.  Tons of mileage, tons of climbs, and some of the challenges may at first seem mundane (such as peeling and eating a bunch of onions) but when you're 18, 24, 36+ hours into the race, i'm sure that it's far from mundane!



http://outsideonline.com/adventure/travel-ga-201011-death-race-mark-jenkins-sidwcmdev_152043.html


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## Nick (May 18, 2011)

Awesome pics! I've always wanted to try one of these. I didn't realize they were supposed to be harder than the Warrior Dash. Looks very , very cool!


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## drjeff (May 18, 2011)

Nick said:


> Awesome pics! I've always wanted to try one of these. I didn't realize they were supposed to be harder than the Warrior Dash. Looks very , very cool!



Nick, they had a sign on the course at TM that you went under just after the mile 3 marker of the 10 muile course.  It read "If you were doing a Warrior Dash, you'd be done now"   There was almost 14,000 of total elevation change in the Mount Snow course, and frankly in the days after it was the descents that took a much greater toll on my body than the ascents!


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## St. Bear (May 23, 2011)




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## bigbog (May 24, 2011)

Congrats on finishing Doc....


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