48 into 37

Well I survived

not only did I survive but I came in first place!

just kidding

that's been a running joke this whole weekend

actually, I would hate to meet the person that did finish first for this thing

and on that note, I'd like to take this time to salute all of the badasses out there in the world that does this kind of thing all the time

it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do

the guy at the start gate told us not everyone finishes this event

so let's get down to it

I only have a few stories

I don't think I can put into words what I went through

so to start off with I did not sleep the night before as I said

I bought some beer and hung out with the fellas

that night during a beer buzz it was discused that I should wear a Bret Hart shirt during the event

I'm a man of my word so I did

I finished up there and started the drive to Austin

I was actually running late

I'm always late

my start time was 9 AM and occording to the email if you miss your start time u were SOL

I arrive at 8 AM and to my horror there was a massive line to get into the event from the highway

so It's now 8:30 and I'm in line

8:45 still in line

8:50 getting closer

8:55 closer

9:00 I'm just pulling in

I decide that I'm racing this thing come hell or high water

I worked too hard for this and you think I'm gonna be stopped by a simple little thing like rules?

so I walk up and register

sign the death waver

get my racing bib

get the number marked on my forehead and my right arm in the event they need to identify my body

I see my 9 o clock heat time racing away

so i wait and watch how they get the heats together

so they call out the 9:30 group to the starting line

the people just line up and there's no one enforcing anything

so I get in with the 9:45 group

so it was on

I was humbled by the event

although I was proud of myself for all the crazy obsticles I went through (with realtive ease) there is still much room for improvement

I do plan on doing this thing again

the other racers we very cool

sometimes I would get stuck in the mud

or I couldn't pull myself out of a pit because I kept slipping

but there was always a hand reaching out to pull you out or lift you up

this was an amazing group of humans

it restored some of my faith in humanity

but I def want to share this experience with some of my friends

because it's def cool but on top of that I want to share the pride of pulling something off they didn't think they could do

or at least being tested and pushed to limits beyond

so let me tell you about one event that kinda freaked me out just a little

throughout the whole event you were going through mud

there was one in particular that was a real mother

most of the mud was light brown shit colored mud

but then there was a section with black mud

evil mud I called it

some people were taking off their shoes and socks because they were losing them in this pit of sadness

so I'm barefoot now and heading into this thing

as soon as I get in I'm not sure how to move

at first I walked but there was no bottom to this thing

so then I moved to a swimming type of  style

that was working a little bit

but then I noticed at some point people were stopping in the middle and not advancing

I kept feeling things in the mud so I pulled out the next thing I touched and it was a shoe

I joked that we can use all the shoes to as leverage

so at some point I started to sink and my arms and feet were both under the mud

I couldn't move at all

then I noticed that nobody would move at all

some guy next to me was freaking out a little

nothing was working

I did not know how I was gonna get out

I though this is how I'm going to not finish the mudder

I'm going to go under and leave Atreyu alone to finish his quest

for those of you not in the know here's what I'm talking about

this was all I could picture as I'm sinking


the funny thing was there was about a dozen of these horses going under all at the same time

this is how I got out of it

I had to reach into the mud and pull my left leg up and out

then did the same thing with my right

then I got on my back and arched it

that gave me leverage to move about an inch on my back

then I had to reach in and grab my legs again

then arch my back again

I did this process over and over until I was out

moving like that in that deep of mud was exahusting

and that's putting it mildy

here's a clip from that pit

I stopped recording so I could get myself out

plus the camera became covered with so much mud that I couldn't see out of it

that's one tuff camera

the mic was covered in mud so there's no audio but great video anyway


The Swamp of Sadness from Big V TV on Vimeo.

One last thing, I did not get shocked in the final obstacle

I ran through it clean

I still don't know what that feels like

maybe next time

until then, it's back to training