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Yesterday, I did something way outside my usual comfort zone. And I completely surprised myself by loving it… What was it, you ask? Well, I ran in and finished my very first Tough Mudder race. Yup. I did. For those of you who haven't heard of the Tough Mudder race, here's how they describe it on their site: 
Now here's the thing you should know: I didn't really know much about the race and only signed up two weeks ago on a whim. Jesse had been signed up for it and anticipating it for months. He and his brother, Stephen, were planning to run it together and his parents were coming into town to cheer them on. He and I have always wanted to run a race together, but we've never been able to work out childcare to make it happen. As I was thinking about the race two weeks ago, I realized that since his parents would be here, our childcare issues would be solved. And I knew Jesse would love, love, love for me to run the race with him So I got rather spontaneous and out-of-the-blue asked him if he thought I could run the race. He gave me a rather shocked expression, but said he thought I could. So I blew him away by saying, "Well, I was thinking of signing up for it and running it with you." I wish you could have seen his face. HE WAS ECSTATIC and he literally immediately got online and signed me up (maybe he wanted to do it before I changed my mind?!) 
I didn't have much time to train except to mentally prepare for it to be one of the hardest things I've ever done. I decided to approach it like childbirth and I figured that if I had naturally birthed three kids without any pain killers taking one contraction at a time, this would be how I would approach this race, too. I didn't spend a lot of time researching the obstacles - I figured that would just scare me more. Instead, I researched what would be best to wear. I found out that good, lightweight shoes, leggings (not shorts - your legs would get really scraped up), rubber gloves with good grip with the ends cut off (so water wouldn't get lodged inside of them), and a really strong hairband were the most important things. 
So I prepped by making sure I had the best outfit for the race, getting good sleep every night for the few nights before, and eating extra carbs the day before, and. It was the best I could do in that short amount of time - and I ended up being so glad that I had done so. 
We got up early yesterday morning to drive to a farm that was about an hour and a half away. The whole drive there, I wondered if I had made a big mistake in signing up. I wondered if I'd be able to actually complete the race. I wondered if I'd be the last person to come in. I wondered if I would keel over halfway through. I second guessed my on-a-whim decision a lot, but I kept reminding myself: You're committed now. Just go do your best. Pace yourself. Don't let doubt get in your head. Don't worry about the few miles ahead of you, just take the next step. 
As we stood at the starting line, Stephen, Jesse and I discussed our goals for the race and why we were doing this race. I said, "I'm doing this for my husband because I know that doing this with him means the world to him. My goal is just to finish. I don't care about my time. I just want to finish." We talked about how we'd stay together, work as a team, encourage one another, pace ourselves, and just take one mile and one obstacle at a time. And that's exactly what we did. The first mile was uphill almost all the way and it was brutal. I wondered what I had gotten myself into and how on earth I was going to survive 9 more miles plus a bunch of obstacles. Then we came to the first obstacle - the Mud Mile - where you have to jump into multiple 8-10 foot deep mud pits that are filled with about 2-3 feet of mud at the bottom and then you have to figure out a way to get out. I stood at the beginning of it and saw all of the people completely covered in mud and thought, "This is INSANE!" But then I jumped in and started slowly working my way through the obstacle - with lots of help from the group. I quickly found it wasn't all that bad. I got into a rhythm of sliding down the muddy side into the mud pit and then getting help with hoisting myself up to the other side and then doing it again. It was at this first obstacle that I began to realize what the Tough Mudder is all about. There's no way you can do this race without the help of your teammates. You just can't - unless you are superhuman or something. You need a hand (or multiple hands) to help pull you up out of the pits. And you need people around you encouraging you as you do these seemingly impossible tasks. As I watched everyone in our group - most whom we'd never even talked to before starting the obstacle - work together and encourage one another, I fell in love with the Tough Mudder. To see people come together, work together, encourage one another, to see big muscular guys needing help just as much as small women like me, to experience the instant camaraderie, to witness how helpful and selfless everyone was, to see how committed everyone was to making sure no one was left behind and that everyone got through the obstacle… it was incredible, inspiring, and infectious. 
When I finished this obstacle, I was covered in mud, but I didn't care because not only had I gotten through the first obstacle, I'd actually had fun doing it! And right then and there, I realized I just might actually end up liking this whole Tough Mudder thing - instead of being miserable like I thought I'd be. Over the next 4 hours, we faced 9 more miles of terrain - about half of which was uphill at a pretty steep incline. And we faced lots of obstacles, including the following: It was hard, but not as bad as I'd expected. Jesse and Stephen stayed with me the whole time and were incredibly encouraging to me - pushing me on and motivating me to keep going even when I was tired. I did things I never would have thought I was capable of (like the Cry Baby - where you had to crawl through a maze with blinding tear gas, Everest 2.0 - I made it to the top in one try!!, the Arctic Enema which was intense and freezing, and King of the Swingers - where you had to leap off a tall platform, grab a bar, and swing out into a lake of mud). There were many times when I'd think, "There's no way I can do that, but I'm just going to go out there and try." And I did. 
I didn't complete all of the obstacles perfectly, but I gave them my best shot. The only one that I completely bypassed was Funky Monkey - because I have never been able to monkey bars and I had already told myself I got a pass on that one lest I kill my shoulders and have to bow out of the race before it was over with. But for all the rest of the obstacles, I made myself at least give them my best shot. And, I totally surprised myself when there were only two other obstacles that I couldn't fully complete. I jumped into, slid through, walked through, climbed on hands and knees through more mud than I've ever seen in my life. You should know that I don't like mud or being dirty at ALL, but I got over the ick factor quickly and just focused on the task ahead. One step at a time, one mile at a time, one obstacle at a time, we got through it and had so much fun in the process. 
And let me tell you, when we crossed under the finish line and got our finisher headbands, I felt completely exhilarated - WE DID IT!!! Truthfully, I thought I would probably be miserable the whole race. My goal had just been to go out there and have a good attitude, give it my best shot, hopefully finish, and make a memory with my husband. Instead, I completely shocked myself by loving almost everything about the race. In fact, I was already talking about signing up for another race before I was even to the finish line of this one! It might sound crazy, but it's true. 
{The girls (and Jesse's youngest brother, Jon) did a Mini Mudder - I'll share pictures of that tomorrow. We were SO proud of them!} This race challenged me as a person and finishing it will give me courage and motivation for years to come to keep putting myself out there, doing hard things, not letting fear of failure hold me back. We are often so much stronger than we believe ourselves to be. I am sore today. Like Can-Barely-Walk-Up-The-Stairs sore. But it was oh so worth it! | 
