The Tough Mudder Mid-Atlantic was held in West Virginia this year. We decided to board the Sasha Bear at the breeder to make sure that she had lots of loving and so we could go over to WV Friday night and wake up at a semi normal time on Saturday for the run.
I ran this mudder with Brennan and 3 of his co-workers. We all met in WV after work and after a small debacle with getting a hotel room we decided to head to Applebees for a pre-race dinner. I have not been to Applebees in years!!
I ordered the Oriental Chicken Salad with grilled chicken and it was delicious. I used to go to Applebees a few times a year and would always order either that salad or the quesadilla burger, I decided to try to go with the slightly healthier version of the two this time around in fear of pissing off my stomach and being uncomfortable in the race the next day.
We all went to bed around 10pm and before we knew it the 5am alarm went off. It was about 45 degrees out and we all quickly began regretting our decision to run this race. By 6am we were at the designated parking, catching the bus to the event, and arrived at 6:45 for registration that did not open until 7am. The directors started calling us to the start and thankfully they kept the pep talk short because it was FREEZING out and we were all miserable with out our warm layers. At 7:55am we were off. My memory for the order of obstacles is horrendous so I will spare you my attempt. All in all it was a good a run, we all thought we would lose some finger and toes and some points but in the long run we made it through. One of the guys has a bad knee and it flared up for him early on so we were doing a bit of running and waiting, which slowed our time down a bit. By mile 9 he finally gave in to his knee and walked to the finish line to meet us. We all ran through the final obstacle (electric shock, bah) together and finished in just under 3 hours. That is a 30 minute improvement from the first one I ran!! If you remember my shoes ATE my feet alive in that one and I could feel my feet getting sore in the same spots as that time so I stopped at a medical tent and got some gauze taped to my arches and it was perfect! I was also in the first 10 females to cross the finish line! BADASSSSS.
I escaped this run with out too many cuts but I am definitely more bruised than any of the other runs. I can tell that I am a bit older than the first one because my knees are just achy and everything hurts. What the hell mid 20s this shit is not cool.
On Sunday morning I was up at 6am (what is it with this weekend?!?!) to head to Burke lake with Pam, my new trail running BFF, for a Boston Memorial run. The run was hosted by Potomac River Runners (local shoe store / training group / awesome) and was held at Burke Lake. I was a terrible blogger and took one picture… I hear that PR has a great tumblr page that they post pictures to so I will work on hunting some down.
The loop around Burke lake was beautiful!! It was a trail run but it was still comfortably flat, no insane vertical inclines like some of my other trail runs. Pam and I ran for 5 miles and then walked a 2.15. I am so happy that I did this run. For starters PR started to advertise it on Tuesday and there were at least a few hundred people who showed up. The race was free but they were collecting donations in exchange for shirts for the Boston One fund. Every one was decked out in blue and yellow and we recieved little blue and yellow ribbons too! I wore my Boston bib again and was happy as a clam. One we finished I was quite happy with myself, the mudder was 11.2 miles so that plus the 7.15 at Burke lake, my weekend total was 18.25 miles!! Holy shnitzel that is A LOT of miles.
Q: Did you run this weekend?
Q: Have you found your local Boston memorial run?
Q: Have you ever done a mudder? (links: mudder 1 and mudder 2)
Q: What is the most mileage you ever run in one weekend?
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Categories: Half Marathon Trail Training, Tough Mudder Progress
Food & Fitness 
Congrats on being in the top 10 females!! That is amazing!!
I think I need to clarify that I was one of the first 10 women to cross the finish line, if I had to guess other ladies who started after I did may have finished in a faster time, nonetheless I think it is awesome! Thank you!!
SO BADASS! Love it! I am kicking off my foray back into running with a Boston memorial run tonight, I’m so excited and nothing better hurt afterwards so I can finally carry on to a 1/2 marathon sometime this year!!!
Way to go Raych!! You will totally be able to check off a half on your to do list this year!
Awesome runs…not so awesome about the bruises! haha
Thanks! I wore heels to work the next day and it was a TERRIBLE mistake haha
Holy smokes you are insane!! Way to go on the top 10 females, heck ya you rocked that! Tough Mudder looks so freaking intense, I get nervous just looking at some of the pics online. WOWZA!! Seriously hope you can sleep in a bit next weekend.. even though you had 2 really awesome reasons to be up at 5-6am!!!!
I am racing Saturday and have a trail run with friends on Sunday, I think I need to just get comfortable with the idea of napping, I’m just such a terrible napper!! Thank you!!
Awesome! I did Tough Mudder last year and I wanted to do it again this year but I will be traveling out the country. Instead, my boyfriend is going to do a bro-team. Our time was a lot longer then yours, but we didn’t run the whole course. Congrats on being one of the top 10 women finishers!
The bro teams are so fun to watch, there is always the jacked muscle head who is all “IM GOING TO DEMOLISH THIS RACE” then realizes he doesn’t run and ends up walking, those are def my favs : )
You are amazing!
Mary
Shucks, thanks mom, and welcome to the world of blog commenting!
so cool, you always kill it in your races 🙂
Thanks!
YOU ARE A BEEEEEAST! YOu are so brave… I have seen/heard of these races but never participated b/c I have a fear of getting injured and then not being able to train. So basically, you are A BEAST! And you have battle scars to prove it. AMAZING job on getting top 10! THat is awesome!
THe most I ran in one weekend was friday 10, saturday 18, sunday 12. What is that? 40? I don’t recommend it. It was at the highest point of marathon training and I was a zombie and consumed 16,598,365 calories.
And slept a lot.
The end.
That literally sounds like the worst weekend in the entire world. The most mileage I have ever run in a week is 35 miles hahah! I know that will change once I start marathon training but 3 back to back double digits mile days would probably kill me and land me in a wheel chair, you my friend are the beast.
WOWZA BOWZAA!! Awesome job on this race, I would lovee to do the mudder..but I am scared of it for some reason hahaha. I need a team, so far it’s just me and the man..hmm.
I would recommend at least 2 guys, they come in handy when it comes to throwing you over walls.
#1 – Thank you for supporting my city. It means a lot to us! #2 – I’m totally jealous of your Tough Mudder. Once I fully rebound from my most recent pregnancy, I’m absolutely doing one.
Of course!! They are a ton of fun with the right group of people! I would recommend unless you want to feel like death have at least one person slower than you. It’s nice to blame walk breaks on other people : )