A Little Southern Charm: Tough Mountain

I love competition, which can come in all sorts of forms. Over the winter, while looking at things to do this summer, I found a Tough Mudder type of race called the Tough Mountain. It was being held at Sunday River Ski Resort in Maine and would take the 5K and obstacles of a Tough Mudder Race and put it on a ski mountain, to add a little flare.

You would think, running up hills, going through mud pits, getting hit with snow guns as you run up a hill... exactly what I want to do.. right? Well obviously I did so Rich and I completed in last weekend. When we got there, we did not know really what to expect. As we pulled up, we were looking at the ski trails to see if we saw anything that let us know how high we were going to be going. Heats started at 10 AM and we were supposed to go in the 11:30 heat, so we had some time to look around and see what was going on.

After we got our Bibs and then our numbers written on our arm and leg, I felt like I was in a triathlon or something. We walked out to the starting area and were taken away. Hundreds of people were hanging around, with a DJ playing, and an announcer who is letting us know what is going on. It almost kind of got me pumped up like some old Swimming or Rowing days. I was ready to get going even though it was not my heat time yet.

When Rich and I were ready to get going, we had decided we would run together and just enjoy the whole experience. As the announcer counted down the last 10 seconds before we went, it was just pure adrenaline.. and hoping to not get hurt. Haha. The 3.1 miles and 16 obstacles were all that was between me and partying afterwards.

It didn't take us long to get our feet wet, literally. Obstacle 1 was going through like a water mud pit within the first 30 seconds of the race. Then we continued up and up while snow guns blasted on us. If you thought skiing through those things is bad, try going through it running, it is pretty unbearable. We kept going up and up, and then had to walk across some pipes over a pond of muddy water. Good thing I could keep my balance, at least for a little bit of time. From there we did get to run down a big but then crawl under a long area of muddy barb wire. Lets say that, ponytails are not something that help girls get through there easily. Finally on the other side, I had a good number of battle scars already. We weren't even half way done yet.

From there, it was a lot of going up with some smaller obstacles in the way. The last obstacle up was called WTF and it was pretty much running, if you could run, up the steep part of a ski lift area. There was a rope to help if you needed it, but it was pretty much a climbing on all four just hoping to not slip and slide down the amount you have already worked your way up. At the top, there was music playing and it felt like an accomplishment thinking, alright it is just going downhill from now on.

Downhill was actually worse at times since there was a lot of watery, muddy grass that was slippery and it seemed like you had to slow yourself down all the time to make it down safely. One of the obstacles I was looking forward to the most was called the leap frog... going across a pond on little lilly pads that they had made. Sadly when we got there, they had informed us it was partially broken so we were not able to do the whole obstacle. All I know, is it better be there next year too. Then we were almost to the end, up and over some walls with a mud pit in between. Needless to say, my feet did get stuck and I lost a shoe but made it through with Rich's help. From there, it was just a last minute slide, literally, down a huge slip and slide to the finish line.

It was a great time, we finished with a decent time of 1 hour 6 minutes. Not winning, but we were in the first 1/3 of people, which isn't bad for over 1000 participants. More people should def. do it next year with us. It is pretty much a great workout and awesome time. We enjoyed the next couple of hours watching other heats, having some food and some brews and just enjoying the amazing weather and time together. Here are some photos of other heats and some of the obstacles. Enjoy!