In 3 months and 3 days I will embark on an incredibly frightening but exhilarating journey, Tough Mudder.  On April 19, 2014, my boyfriend, myself and our team of adventurists will attempt to conquer one of the most difficult obstacle courses known to man (or woman). A few months ago we made this bold decision but only recently decided to shell out the dreaded $155 entry fee and sign a waiver indicating our awareness of these physically, emotionally and mentally demanding 10-12 mile obstacle course. As I was reading the waiver,  I started to fear for my life. I read through the entire waiver and came across the paragraph of inherent risks:

I understand and acknowledge that the inherent risks include, but are not limited to: 1) contact or collision with persons or objects (e.g., collision with spectators or course personnel), contact with other participants, contact or collision with motor vehicles or machinery, and contact with natural or man-made fixed objects or obstacles); 2) encounter with obstacles (e.g., natural and man-made water, road and surface hazards, close proximity and/or contact with thick smoke and open flames, barbed wire, pipes, and electric shocks); 3) equipment related hazards (e.g., broken, defective or inadequate competition equipment, unexpected equipment failure, imperfect course conditions); 4) weather-related hazards (e.g., extreme heat, extreme cold, humidity, ice, rain, fog); 5) inadequate first aid and/or emergency measures; 6) judgment- and/or behavior-related problems (e.g., erratic or inappropriate co-participant behavior, erratic or inappropriate behavior by the participant, errors in judgment by personnel working the event; and 7) natural hazards (e.g. uneven terrain, rock falls, lightning strikes, earthquakes, wildlife attacks, contact with poisonous plants, marine life
and/or ticks).

Um….what? Contact with open flames? Electric shocks? What in the hell am I signing up for? My boyfriend and I just looked at each other before clicking submit, really contemplating if this was a good idea. After REALLY thinking it through, we made the decision to sign up.

We printed out our workout to get us prepared for the big day which includes burpees, walking lunges, pull-ups (my favorite- not really), butt kicks, pushups, squats and more- pretty much the Insanity Workout, times 10. We have successfully completed Insanity two times when we were in college (before the hype) so we really thought it would be cake or at least a little easier. Not that we aren’t in good shape but this workout was intense. We were dripping sweat and dreaded the 2 minutes of burpees and dirty ballerinas (frog jumps-but dirty ballerina sounds more fun). I anticipate that this will get easier over time as our stamina and endurance improves. My two month hiatus from the gym really did not help either (thank you concussion, you will not be missed). Luckily, I workout everyday doing yoga, walking, Jillian Michael’s DVD’s (her Yoga Meltdown DVD is BOMB- in case you were wondering) and am slowly getting back into Zumba and running or else this would seem completely unrealistic.

Even though I am fearful for my life (I really do not want to be subjected to electric shocks or run through fire) I know that having a great team, training and eventually letting go of my fear will make this a fun experience (progress pics will be posted throughout my bootcamp training since I anticipate some sexy abs from this).

Pray for me as I embark on this ridiculously insane but amazing adventure!

As a Tough Mudder I Pledge That: 

1. I understand Tough Mudder is not a race but a challenge
2. I put teamwork and camaraderie before my course time
3. I do not whine-kids whine (waaah) 
4. I help my fellow mudders complete the course
5. I overcome all fears! 

Peace, love and NO beef!

Guramrit