It's finally done!!!
After signing up last September, and gaining and lose team members, Team Buns & Guns finally ran Tough Mudder!
A couple of my friends and I signed up to run Tough Muddder's inaugural event here in Michigan several months back and then we proceeded to being training for what we anticipated would be one of the most fun, challenging, and badass events we had ever participated in. We had done Warrior Dash the previous year and LOVED it. So we were ready to bring our crazy to a whole new level.
And it was totally worth it.
After signing up last September, and gaining and lose team members, Team Buns & Guns finally ran Tough Mudder!
A couple of my friends and I signed up to run Tough Muddder's inaugural event here in Michigan several months back and then we proceeded to being training for what we anticipated would be one of the most fun, challenging, and badass events we had ever participated in. We had done Warrior Dash the previous year and LOVED it. So we were ready to bring our crazy to a whole new level.
And it was totally worth it.
Nicole (Guns) and I (Buns) drove out the night before the race and stayed in a hotel in Jackson, MI, which is about 30 minutes away from Michigan International Speedway, where the TM was being held. It was a pretty cheap hotel, but it turned out pretty nice with a nice outdoor pool for some swimming the night before and it was FULL of other Mudders.
After dinner in Jackson at some whole in the wall where we ate one of everything off the menu, we ended up back at the hotel bar. We met some nice guys there who have been doing adventure races, include TM, for awhile. They were super helpful and had all sorts of great tips and stories about their other adventures. Nicole still was a little concerned about some of the obstacles but my whole attitude was "You can't prepare for electric shock." Turns out, that was pretty true...
The morning of the race we got there way ahead of our start time and managed to walk through the spectator trails and get a pretty good sense for some of the obstacles.
The whole event was just an amazing spectacle of comraderie and teamwork. About 1 mile in to our race, it started to rain. Correction, the floodgates of hell broke loose and it was a DOWNPOUR. You couldn't look up to see, you had to just stare at the ground in front of your feet and keep moving. Arctic Enema really is as bad as they say (Estimated water temp: 34 degrees). The plus side of all the rain though? We were already cold and wet when we got there, so it wasn't as big an impact as it might have been had we been dry and warm. The rest of the obstacles were pretty straight forward. Nicole and I only managed to make it part way across Funky Monkey before free-falling into the water. But we did make it up Mt. Everest on our first attempts, with some help from the guys at the top. And the electric shocks were just a tickle.
Nicole and I knew pretty much immediately after we finished that we were going to do it again next year. It's an exhilirating feeling to accomplish this race and hopefully with some more training next year, we'll be able to make it across Funky Monkey as well.
I must say, the one downside: We both contracted Norovirus after the race. Something went wonky at this one and a large number of people got sick as a result. There were EPIC amounts of rain, and all the mud and water obstacles... I don't blame anyone and it won't stop me from going again next year. But man, that was the worst 8 hours of my life Sunday night after the race...
Can't wait to do it again next year though! This time, minus norovirus.
Lesson learned? Don't drink the water.
After dinner in Jackson at some whole in the wall where we ate one of everything off the menu, we ended up back at the hotel bar. We met some nice guys there who have been doing adventure races, include TM, for awhile. They were super helpful and had all sorts of great tips and stories about their other adventures. Nicole still was a little concerned about some of the obstacles but my whole attitude was "You can't prepare for electric shock." Turns out, that was pretty true...
The morning of the race we got there way ahead of our start time and managed to walk through the spectator trails and get a pretty good sense for some of the obstacles.
The whole event was just an amazing spectacle of comraderie and teamwork. About 1 mile in to our race, it started to rain. Correction, the floodgates of hell broke loose and it was a DOWNPOUR. You couldn't look up to see, you had to just stare at the ground in front of your feet and keep moving. Arctic Enema really is as bad as they say (Estimated water temp: 34 degrees). The plus side of all the rain though? We were already cold and wet when we got there, so it wasn't as big an impact as it might have been had we been dry and warm. The rest of the obstacles were pretty straight forward. Nicole and I only managed to make it part way across Funky Monkey before free-falling into the water. But we did make it up Mt. Everest on our first attempts, with some help from the guys at the top. And the electric shocks were just a tickle.
Nicole and I knew pretty much immediately after we finished that we were going to do it again next year. It's an exhilirating feeling to accomplish this race and hopefully with some more training next year, we'll be able to make it across Funky Monkey as well.
I must say, the one downside: We both contracted Norovirus after the race. Something went wonky at this one and a large number of people got sick as a result. There were EPIC amounts of rain, and all the mud and water obstacles... I don't blame anyone and it won't stop me from going again next year. But man, that was the worst 8 hours of my life Sunday night after the race...
Can't wait to do it again next year though! This time, minus norovirus.
Lesson learned? Don't drink the water.