Excuses
There is a framed poster commemorating the 20th year of the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon on my bathroom wall. It has pictures of all the winners from 1978-1998, most of whom I got to meet and have autograph for me at the event in 1999. The 6 Time champion Dave Scott scribbled his name in black sharpie and wrote “No Excuses!” It was a profound statement from this elite athlete that didn’t know me but knew only to well how some people are. We often make excuses whether they are valid or not. They are mini confessions, apologies and testimonies wrapped into one message of needed validation. “I didn’t train,” “I’m injured,” “I didn’t have the right gear;” those were some of my excuses from last weekend at Europe's Tougher and Toughest Mudder. Providing an excuse I suppose is an escape from the truth. It is really meant as a way of saying you weren’t at your %100 best and it almost gets you off the hook. And that’s ok. The trick is having the ability to bite your tongue when you feel the need to come up with one and just simply congratulate the other person for their race and tell your story without using an excuse for a less than desired performance...even if those excuses really did happen. Always honor the other person's successes and recognize your own failures and laugh and learn from them. Also always take the excuses of others with a grain of salt. I've been bested by more people that tell me they haven't trained, are sick or are injured prior to a race than those that tell me they are ready to race!
Mea Culpa
I didn’t train enough
Coaches
Running Coaches weekly mileage recommendations vary depending on the abilities and type of runners they are training but most will agree the three main weekly staples of a good running program are speed-work, long slow distance (over an hour of continuous running) and hill repeats or at least running on hills. My longest run this year was 13 miles and a broken 13 at that doing two laps at the College Station Tough Mudder in April with the Tougher champ Evan Perperis. Nope, not nearly enough to have the stamina to go non-stop for 2 hours and then another 12 hours in the evening. Muscle memory only gets one so far. Stubborn persistence gets you just a little bit further. Laziness and opting to play hours of Fortnite and drink wine instead of train does have consequences.
Fitness trainers will recommend that you do various push/pull sets and lifts that focus on grip and core strength. The perfect Tough Mudder workout of course is having your own Tough Mudder obstacles in your back yard or at least a pull-up bar, rings, climbing rope and weights to lift/carry. While I do have access to a military style obstacle course at work I admit the rings, bar and weights at home sat idle the past couple months with the lame excuse that they were in our courtyard where it had been unusually wet--as in the perfect time to train with them. If you can’t do Funky Monkey or Gauntlet because you can't handle a wet or muddy bar or ring expect to take a penalty which will be more running (as if you weren’t already doing enough of that). Build a relationship with things that you know you have to do but hate. I hate pull-ups and eggplant and am desperately trying to change this thinking. I’ll start tomorrow. The pull-ups, not eggplant!
I’m injured
I didn’t start the Tougher race last weekend injured but as soon as I took my first few steps in the thick grass after the start line I suddenly felt like someone had driven an ice pick through my calf. Dehydration perhaps? Not stretching enough? God punishing me? I dunno. The rest of that race I was limping and in stupid pain. Also my breathing was rapid, my hear rate was way too fast and I was overheating Not a great start! My buddy 2018 Holy Grail Champ Charlie Boher hung back with me like a good sport and offered words of encouragement. I’d spent the past few days with him after flying over from the States and we had the same common goal of knocking out the morning Tougher and evening Toughest race with 50 or more miles in mind. Ironically Charlie slipped off the end of Funky Monkey and knocked the wind out of himself so bad we had to stop for about 5 minutes. The new concern was he had possibly broken a rib or two. Now we were both pathetically hurting but finished the Tougher wave as best we could. Charlie went straight to medical and they evaluated him and sent him off with pain killers. We spent the rest of the day trying to recoup and stay mentally focused for the 12 hour Toughest that night.
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| Working that Blockness with Charlie |
Toughest Sages
Between Charlie and I we have done 18 Toughest Mudder races and 6 Worlds Toughests. With such experience one would think we were experts but I admit I’m still learning all the time what works and what does not. Equipment, nutrition and gear depends on the distance, time and weather. In the past the Toughest venues were 8 hours (with :30 extra to finish a lap). Now they are 12 hours which in my opinion is three times more difficult. In the past we could put our gear in a communal tent but this year we could bring tents like at Worlds. Also we could have Pitt Crews and be on 2 or 4 person Teams. Since I had arrived from the States I traveled light but Charlie had a tent connection. That plan backfired when the tent that we were given actually turned out to be a fold-up bed making the mallet that came with it equally useless. On our side was good weather meaning no rain. We would be starting at 8 pm in about 50 degree temps so I could leave my gear out in the open. Coincidentally I staged my stuff right next to Jessica Hanes who would (spoiler alert) go on to claim the Green Sprint Jersey and Champion Yellow Jersey with 45 miles.
In that next hour I was pretty nervous and changed clothes three times from shorty wet suit to windbreaker to just race bib and compression arms. I have a bad habit of overheating and tearing off wetsuits on the first mile (as women’s 2nd place ETM finisher Jessica Morris can attest, an ongoing joke between us). My damn calf was throbbing and I was wondering if one 5 Mile lap was even possible. As luck would have it I ran into another over 50 Champ and legend James Brown who offered his expertise on fixing my calf as he is a personal trainer. With magic hands and tape he patched me up in five minutes and by the grace of God my calf did not bother me the rest of the evening.
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| Brit over 50 Champ and my "Doc" James Brown |
Gear choice
I opted not to bring a wetsuit for a variety of reasons: Number one being I wanted to travel light and not check bags on Norwegian airlines which I love and hate for their cheap prices but tacking on of fees. I figured a compression T-shirt,tights socks and sleeves would be fine at first and that it couldn’t possibly be colder than it was at Worlds last year in Atlanta. Funny thing about temperatures though: 28 degrees is really cold and 38 degrees (3.5c) is also really cold. For shoes I foolishly opted for a used pair of well-worn ASIC Kayanos I’d bought on EBay. Very comfortable but with zero grip which made each mud traverse terrifying and stupid. I took no less than 6 complete wipe outs running in the mud. After the first lap I made a game of rewarding myself with an extra article of clothing each Pitt stop until I wore all the gear I brought.
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| Jim Campbell, Giles, Kyles, Me, Chris and Sonya |
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| 1st Jessica Haney, 2nd Jessica Morris, 3rd Sarah Drees |
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| 1st Lukas Abrhan, 2nd Oliver Sterne, 3rd James Laffar |
Nutrition
I firmly believe the perfect hamburger I had in Mudder village two hours prior got me through the race as that was the only real food I ate for 20 hours besides the two bananas, one quart of water, two packs of Cliff shots, Blueberry apple sauce, Lucozade (like Gatorade) and a small bottle of Coke. I often find it funny how much food people pack to these events. Granted I would have paid good money for some warm broth at 2 am when the temps dipped again and was ravenous at 9am. Always experiment with food in training not on race day.
The Race Course
I’d already done 70 TM events (4 at this same location) and by the end of the night it would be become cemented as my all time favorite race site. The greenery of the magnificent Bevoir Castle (pronounced Beaver) includes winding dirt paths, bridges, creek crossings and meadows. Since we started at 8 in the evening we could actually see for almost two hours and then when a full moon appeared it captured the spectacular land scape of hills and trees. A spooky mist would appear along with the many sheep wondering what us idiots were all doing. In the background I could hear hounds howling in the night and several times I was alone with not a person in front or behind me and then magically a volunteer would appear at a station in the woods or at an obstacle and to tell me if it was closed or open. And there was this sporadic opening of obstacles throughout the night. Hero Walls were open and then closed and then opened again. Same with Funky and Gauntlet and Hangtime. Arctic and Augustus opened around 3am. Blockness was awful because the blocks wouldn’t spin enough and there were no helpers at the top of a very muddy Everest with no rope assists like years past so most took the penalty run.
Like all Toughests (with the exception of the day race at NorCal) the obstacles were closed on the first hour except the mud pits, Creek Crusde and Mud Mile. Mud Mile wasn’t as bad as the 100 meters that followed it especially in my slick ASICS.
The top guy was sub 37 minutes on his first lap but I was closer to 52. I know by now pacing and staying out of the Pitts is the key to these Toughests. That being said, I did Pitt after each lap to put another piece of gear on until I was wearing everything I had brought. The shorty wetsuit, 1:5m top, compression tights and socks, windbreaker and neoprene combo was the trick. I had mobility in my legs and warmth in you fork head and chest. This would be my first race with the BleggMitts which kept my hands surprisingly warm. The clock at each start lap would also cruelly display temperature and although I saw 4 degrees Celsius it sure felt more like two degrees warmer in the first half and 2 degrees colder in the back half. Arctic may have had something to do with it.
As the night went on I found myself shuffling which was better than walking. I didn’t feel on top of my game and I didn’t have the fitness to go any faster. I really focused on one lap at a time and not thinking about what I had just done or how many laps I was going to do. I began to enjoy some obstacles like Creek Crusade and Hang Time and hate others like the European Funky Monkey and Devils Beard which was uphill and 5x longer than any other I’ve done. My wrists are still sore from crawling under that God awful tight net. On my 5th lap I lost my headlamp in Arctic and actually spent a minute looking for it. I had to run near blind the next 3 miles without one but luckily had another headlight at the Pitt. Next time I’ll lanyard it to my wetsuit or bib. On my next lap I lost my timing chip which was comprised of a flimsy neoprene band with tape that I knew would not last long. I should have taped mine on like I saw others do. Fortunately just before I finished I noticed it missing and went straight to the timing tent. I had my Garmin running the whole time but it was concerning that I wouldn’t get mileage credit.
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| Tougher and Toughest Mileage |
Finish line
I thought that surpassing my best ETM mark of 25 miles would be great and then when I did that I went for 30 and then finally 35 when “loser math” kicked in and I realized I would need at least 1:30 on the clock to go another lap so at 6:40 I stopped. Stupid move. I’d gone for it before and made it within seconds but not today. If one doesn't complete the lap before 8am they don’t get any credit for that lap and my hands and feet had swollen up. Also I’d forgotten to take my wedding band off and my finger was throbbing and turning purple.
My crossing at the finish was bitter sweet. I was pleased I had gone as far as I did but then wished I had done just one more lap. I was happy for those that reached or surpassed their expectations and sad for those that didn’t. Charlie and I opted out of doing the Sunday Classic race while at least 3 brave souls I know did: Chris James, Jack Riley and Kevin Calder: Good on ya! Overall it was an incredible experience and well... no excuses!
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| Hardware is always nice |
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