Tough Mudder 2014

Hubby ran his 2nd Tough Mudder on Saturday. 

We stopped for gas & my 2nd favorite coffee. While walking up to the store, I looked at what I had thought was a piece of wood that fell off of someone's truck. It's that season where people are stocking their wood piles for the winter so you can find fallen wood chunks anywhere. Totally normal.

But no, it wasn't wood.  I turned around to hubby as I was walking, "Hey, babe, need a soup bone?"  Totally not normal. 

I realize that it doesn't look that big from where I took the picture, but trust me, it was the size of my foot. And I have big size 9 1/2 feet. I didn't run back to it to get a picture because apparently there is a whole lotta traffic at that gas station at 5 in the morning. I was too glassy eyed and spaced out from my brain thinking it was still in bed to be able to navigate vehicles a second time just to get a better picture. The first time I did it just to walk in to get my coffee was rough enough.

Someone lost a piece
of their cow. How
does that happen?

I love road trips with hubby. We can have more in-depth conversations than we can normally have. It's just unfortunate it doesn't happen too often. Usually there is a certain 12 year old child who likes to think he has to know everything we are talking about or a teenager asking for money or a red head that has to ask me something right now...Road trip conversations contain actual complete thoughts! And they're not rushed! So strange & unfamiliar.

I narrowed the many, many pictures & videos down for this post, which was not easy. I really wanted to just post everything because I am so proud of him. I dare say narrowing them down was more difficult than doing the Tough Mudder course (please don't tell hubby I said that...even though I know he would agree with that...) but I Tough Mudder Wifed through it. Booyah!

I wish we could have watched all of the obstacles on the course but the spectator routes were set up to view only some of them. It'd be great to have a GoPro on his head so I could see what I missed. Next year.

2-hour car ride + lots of
coffee & protein
bars = Ready! 

You need to warm up more than
your thumbs, buddy boy.

The entire 11+ mile course, in Polly Pocket size. 

I met a lady in the spectator line who had no idea what she was doing there. Literally. I started talking about different obstacles on the course and she was so confused. She told me that her friends asked her to be their photographer for the day but wouldn't tell her what it was for until that morning. On the way there. She had no time to look it up. Girly was in for a treat. 

When people started pushing out of line to get our spot because they just didn't want to wait in the mile-long line that we had just waited our turns in, she turned to me, "Please be my sister for the day? Don't leave me!" I looked down at this girl, 6 inches shorter than me, with no clue what kind of day she was in for, and became her warrior guardian. It helped that she was a fellow red head and funny. I instantly liked her. 

I pushed back against the people and used all my 5'10" red head fiery power to let all those stupid people know that they could not budge in our line. They were quite mad at me, but everyone around me cheered as we suddenly didn't have 15 people pushing us into a ball of bodies slammed in inapprorpriate positions into other unfamiliar bodies. Yeah, that's right, girlfried, I got your back. 

We stuck together at the beginning but her friends were faster than hubby so she ended up going ahead of me to obstacles so I lost my little sister-friend. I will think of her always. 

I did get to have awesome company with me as Dad2 joined me for the day. I had such a blast with him; talking, walking, watching hubby. I was the proud wife, he was the proud father. It was pretty cool to share the experience with him. 

So here's hubby in the Arctic Enema. The name says it all, really. It's a big pool of water that has ice continuously poured into it so that it is as cold as it could possibly be. At around 3 seconds on the video you can hear him "whooo" as he pops up on the other side of the wall in the middle of the pool, right into all ice. 

After:

This has got to be one of my
favroitest pictures of hubby
ever.

A man said, "Don't 
worry, man, they'll
drop again in 2 days."
Ow. They should rename 
it Testicle Hide & Seek.

Walk the Plank. Hubby has a fear of heights that matches my fear of wings and feet. I'm super proud of him for going through with this one, especially. It looks like fun to me but I know if there were birds or crickets at the top of that thing, you'd never get me even close to the steps to get to the top. That's about how he felt having to jump down.  

Mid-air action shot.

Someone looks
awfully proud of himself.

I keep calling this one Fire in Your Butt. Close enough...

Comin' down!

Blast off!

I had already been ahead of the course to see what was next but the way the course was set up, the runners wouldn't be able to actually see it until they were a couple feet in front of it. The awesome power of hilly turrain. 

Me: "You ready for the next one?" 

Hubby: "What is it?" 

Me: "You're gonna love it. Really love it."

He didn't believe me.

Rightfully so. 

Welcome back to boot camp, sir.

This was a special course for Tough Mudder Legionnaires, containing 2 obstacles that only the  idiots Tough Mudders who had done the course at least once before got to  injure themselves patake in. 

Barbed wire...
not my idea of a fun day.

You can do it!

Made it!

And the last obstacle of the day for the Legionnaires...

Giggidy!
Get my Family Guy reference here?

A hard-earned beer handed out at the
finish line. 

With all 3 headbands.

That's MY 2x Tough Mudder!

You can't run this course without some mud and owies. 

A medic had to wrap
his foot halfway in.

Dirt under a bandage.
Yum.

Surprisingly,
this is the worst of his
battle scars from the day.

Not to be left out, I received my own mud and owies. My sunscreen decided it did not like doing its job. No reason. It just said, "Ha ha, see-through Irish girl, we will make you pay for enjoying this day!"

Very ow.
P.S. the unburnt part is
actually my deeper shade
of pale/tan from the summer.

I can't show you where I had mud but that was an odd little surprise when I undressed & mud came out of my bra. My bra. I was a spectator. How did I get mud in my bra?? 

Oh, I also walked 5 miles. My spine isn't quite ready for that walk, as I learned that night and yesterday, but hey, I did it. 

We celebrated our muddiness & my
Tough Mudder man with pizza & beer
& TV in bed. We even got the beer
that sponsors the event.