You can chalk this obstacle up to something that is in a Tough Mudder event to test your mental grit/toughness. While other obstacles test your stamina and physical strength, there are also obstacles like this one that do something that may, or may not, push you out of your comfort zone.
I will admit that I am not a big fan of heights, so the jump looked much higher once I actually got up onto this platform. However, as said previously, this is something that is there to test my mental toughness and I felt proud when I just went ahead and jumped.
Once you're in the water, you will have a swim ahead of yourself, the length of which will be entirely dependent on the event you are at. The pool created for Tough Mudder Toronto's Walk the Plank was man-made, so there was a not a long swim whatsoever. If you check out photos from various Tough Mudder events, however, you will see that a lengthier swim may be required.
The Trench Warfare at Tough Mudder Toronto was dry. I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Good because you don't have to crawl through mud. Bad because my knees got pretty scraped during this crawl. I will admit that I am a tiny bit claustrophobic, so when I reached the start of these tunnels and looked inside, only to see nothing but black, it stopped me in my tracks for a few seconds. But, that is the whole point of doing an event like this, you put your fears aside and just go for it!
I am 5'11" tall, around 175lbs, and I found the tunnels to be pretty cramped. I would say I was able to crawl on my hands and knees for 80% of the tunnel, then the other 20% was an army crawl. For those guys/girls out there who are larger than me, this may be a tight fit.
Similar to Kiss of Mud, you are going to want to work on your plank work so that you can move quite well while being close to the ground. Other than that, there is not a whole lot to this obstacle, just dive in and enjoy!
Quote of the day:
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Have you ever climbed a cargo net/rope ladder/climbing rope that hasn't been attached to the ground? If you have, you know that it is a completely different ballgame than if it is attached. That is the focus of Spider's Web.
By the time I reached this obstacle at Tough Mudder Toronto, I was the only one there. There was a few people who were out ahead of me, yet I had distanced myself a fair ways from runners behind me, so I was attacking this obstacle all on my own.
As the description above explains, the cargo net is hung from a big thick cable at the top, but loose at the bottom. Since there is a lack of tension throughout the net, it makes climbing it a much bigger challenge!
I would have to admit that I am glad I had some good total-body strength here, as you will need to a lot of it to coordinate yourself up and over this cargo net. What I found helpful going up, was that I tried to keep my body hugged as close to the net as possible. I used my legs to drive my momentum upwards, while using my arms, back, and core strength to keep my body upright, and close to the net.
Once I was able to reach the main cable at the top, I grabbed it and used it as a focal point to get myself over. Again, this is when my upper body strength helped by pulling myself up and over the upper cable. I basically hung on to the cable as tight as I could as I got my body up and over, as you can't really rely on support coming down the other side of the net since it is swinging free.
Climbing down the other side of the net was quite simple. The toughest part was definitely getting your body over the top of the net as it swings free. Once I reached the bottom, there were a couple women approaching the obstacle, so I helped them the best I could by pulling down on the net, creating tension and coaching them over. After all, a lot of the Tough Mudder philosophy is teamwork, HOO-RAH!
Quote of the day:
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
Well, it sure is funny how things change within a few days. Just the other day, I posted about the "World's Toughest Mudder" event, and how I was not going to be able to make it. Well, a few things have happened over the last couple of days, which is making the event seem that much more likely.
For those of you who do not know, I competed in the Tough Mudder Toronto event (pictured above), and I finished in 2 hours, 15 minutes. That was good enough for top 5%. Tough Mudder holds a year-end event in New Jersey where they invite all of their "top 5%'ers" to fight it out to see who will be crowned "World's Toughest Mudder!"
Here's how things have gone and will go over the following weeks...
First of all, my wonderful sister has decided to contact the local newspaper. She knows a guy who works there, and contacted him expressing her interest in running an article on my success at Tough Mudder Toronto, and more importantly, how I am looking to compete in the World's Toughest Mudder. The newspaper loves the idea and are going to run with the story on Tuesday I believe.
Here's the deal, however. This is going to take a pretty good commitment, money-wise, to participate in. From my flight down to New Jersey, a couple night's hotel stay, a car rental, food, gear to wear (wetsuit for one), etc. I am going to need some help in getting there to compete.
My amazing family have already all jumped on board to want to pitch in and help. Also, the article in the newspaper is apparently going to mention the need for sponsorship money. I am trying to contact as many folks as I know to pitch in what they can to help me pay for this thing to happen.
My wife has already said to me, "You just have to commit!" That is exactly true. We both agreed that I have to just commit to the event, and then we can worry about raising some funds to get there later on.
If any of my wonderful readers (I am kissing butt, I know!) out there wish to help me out in any way possible, please contact me so we can discuss ways that you may be able to help.
*UPDATE* I have added a Paypal "Donate" button on the upper right side of this page. Any and all donations are welcome as every little bit helps! I thank you for your support!
As with the better part of this year already, I am going to spend countless hours training for this event. What that means for you, if interested, is that I am also going to document my progress - all my trials and tribulations along the way - here on my blog as well as on my youtube channel.
This is a great opportunity, and I am extremely excited to give this the best shot that I can! Stay tuned for more details in the coming days/weeks on how I plan to prepare for this event!
Quote of the day: “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”
Not sure if I have posted this one before, but even if I have, it's worth another viewing. Good timing too since football season is just around the corner! Go get it!
Quote of the day: “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
There seems to be a slight discrepancy in what obstacle I actually competed in at Tough Mudder Toronto. The differences? Not a whole lot, but allow me to explain. The obstacle on the Tough Mudder course map, not to mention the sign leading up to the obstacle on the course had it titled as "Mud Mile".
So again, what is the big difference? Not a whole lot, either way, you are trudging through mud. To be honest, I have a bit of a fear for sinking sand, or in this case, sinking mud, so I was glad to see that the obstacle as actually more similar to "Dirty Ballerina".
As you see in the description, there are 4-foot wide 'trenches' dug out, and your goal is to leap over a series of them. However, I ran the 9:30am heat on Sunday morning, so there was already 14k+ people who clamoured through this obstacle the day before. So, instead of nice, square, dug-out trenches, the obstacle was more of a series of muddy mounds that had been worn down and rounded off from all of the folks the day before.
This made it essentially impossible to leap over each trench. Instead, I climbed up and over each mound separating the trenches. The trenches were full of water and mud, so I ended up getting quite muddy by the end of this obstacle.
Because this turned into more of a climbing event, rather than a 'leaping' event for me, total-body strength was definitely required to get in and out of multiple trenches. Each trench, I would say ended up being well over 7-8 feet wide at the widest points, and at least 4 or 5 feet deep. It took a bit of patience and coordination (and strength) to climb out of each trench, as they trenches were deep, and the slopes were muddy.
In summary, you may want to change your strategy on this obstacle depending on when you are timed to run the course. If you are one of the first heats on the first day of competition, you may be able to get away with 'leaping' over each trench. If, however, you race later in the day on day 1, or race at all on day 2, this may become more of a climbing obstacle rather than trying to jump over each trench.
Quote of the day: “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
- Pablo Picasso
