Yupp...I Drank the Cool-Aid! Completed My First OCR!

I have been running for almost 15 months, starting in June 2014. I primarily either do small-distance running or I do heavy lifting when I work out. I have only had a few races under my belt as this point before I signed up for this obstacle race (two 5Ks and a 8K race). Yesterday's race was called the Titan MOB!

Saturday, I had signed up for one of the non-competitive heats. Mine was one that was supposed to start at 10 AM. Out of all five total heats yesterday morning, everything got pushed back a good 20-30 minutes. By 10, only heat #2 was sent out and I was in heat #4. I decided to go out with the group that went at 10:20 AM, mostly because I was impatient...but also, I had actually gotten into a fight with my SO right as we got to the event, due to a bad start to our morning, and I knew he didn't want to be there. I was a mix of sad and really ticked off, because it made me feel bad for being there, but it also hurt that he up and left me there without the support I thought I'd have. I ended up being at the start line alone, which was different, but I tried to stay strong while I was there.

The race started on a downhill descent. The entire course was filled with technical hills, uneven terrain and mud everywhere. Very early on, I was made aware of my weaknesses. It felt like one giant trail run. Coming from a straight high-way runner, or someone who goes around my low-elevation neighborhood, this all was new to me! There were a few mud pits we had to climb down into & out of before hitting the first obstacle. We had to balance ourselves and cross over these unsturdy ladders to get to the other side of the trail. My ladder was the most wobbly, and if I slipped off, my descent would be over 30 feet down & I would have broken a limb! Made it somehow, though! I know there were reverse walls we went over, walls to attempt to scale, a tire flip in there, a random pitch-black tunnel, plenty of creeks to cross and rivers to wade through.

Pretty much almost all of the obstacles that required slippery, muddy robe and my weak upper body equaled penalties! I got ten push-ups, ten jumping jacks and 30 or 40 burpees (four failed obstacles out of the 26 total).

I tagged along with a huge group for the first two miles, then completed my next three miles with two middle-aged women who were much smaller and conditioned than me. They were aspiring Tough Mudders as well, so that was nice to connect with them on that!

There was a part of the course that eventually splits up: go right for the 5K route, go left for the 10K route. Before we got to that fork in the road, we had to get through our next obstacle of monkey bars. I remember a good 60 of us being stuck in this huge line for these monkey bars. The wait would have easily been 40+ minutes for that particular obstacle. The event volunteers told us we could either take a penalty and skip the monkey bars so we could continue down the 5K fast route. I didn't want to take a penalty, so I stayed in line. Eventually, those same volunteers mentioned that we could skip the monkey bars and the penalty as long we took a left and do the 10K route (since there would be another set of monkey bars later on). My aspiring Mudder friends and I convinced ourselves to take the 10K route, obviously! I struggled off and on for the next few miles to keep up with them. All of that weight lifting this summer came to bite me in the butt because I slacked off on cardio, grrr!

Random note: Sometime around mile four, I realized that the event people gave me the wrong person's wrist time chip...some guy named Brian, haha!

There were quite a few obstacles, and it all feels like a blur, so forgive me for not remembering all of them. I remember one obstacle was carrying this huge piece of lumber across my shoulders around this huge hill. I felt like I was carrying a wooden cross! Then we had to pull these 30 lb cinder blocks attached to these thick metal chains across 400 meters before heading on. My forearms are still feeling that one! Hmmm...another obstacle included army crawling into these tiny black tubes, then going through two long mud trenches on all fours. Eventually, we had to attempt to scale this quarter pipe (I failed after two attempts) and we got to finish the race by going down this super long water slide and land into a huge, muddy pond at the bottom!

Around mile six, my boyfriend came back to the event site to cheer me on through the last 3-4 obstacles, which was a really nice surprise!

I felt so in tune with nature. The skies were overcast, the scenery was nice, the air was cool. I met a diverse group of people and I ran into a handful of people I actually knew (one of my old history teachers, a girl from high school, three guys from my company and a guy from my church).

I was beat beyond belief! But I completed it! I felt all of my anger, pain, frustration, energies and everything just escape me! It was very therapeutic and fun! This was the hardest physical challenge I have ever done, but it was very rewarding! Now I'm just dealing with major DOMs, limited mobility and a few battle wounds. I finished at 249 out of 320 people, at 2:39---slow, slow, slow, but sure not dead last! There were some tough, buff guys around 6'3 who chickened out and chose the 5K routes, so it made me feel like a bad@$$, knowing that I chose the harder course, hahaha.
My new friends even told me that this course was "surprisingly, pleasantly harder than a Warrior Dash"! I guess I'll take their word for it!