I did my first Toughmudder last year in Germany. It was held at Wassertrüdingen , a small town about a couple of hours drive south of Munich. It all started when I was making plans for a holiday in Europe. One of my best friend lives in Munich and hence I thought I would visit her and do Oktoberfest in Munich. As I was planning for the trip, one day my friend asked me if I would like to participate in Toughmudder. I have tried doing a marathon the previous year and play sport regularly, so getting fit for Toughmudder was a challenge rather than a worry. So I decided to do it!
I planned my trip so that I get Toughmudder out of the way first. So my trip started with
Munich. I landed in Munich a couple of days before the Toughmudder to make sure I get rid of jetlag before the event. I rested well and had couple of Paulaner beers the day before with my friends to get into the mood.
We left for Wassertrudingen the evening before the event and stayed at a lovely countryside
motel. The food was awesome there. And we were a group of eight people. We went to bed early. I woke up next morning and it was cold. Looked out through my window to a beautiful
countryside view of Bavaria. We had breakfast and put on our Toughmudder gear. We had printed a t-shirt for our team. We took a taxi down to the event location. And got the registrations done and did some warm up along with other mudders. I couldn't hear a single word in English around me except when my friends spoke to me. I was deeply immersed in culture, language and food of Bavaria. I enjoyed every second of it.
Then the event started. We started running and going through obstacles. It was more tough
that I had imagined it to be. I started cramping up towards half way mark. But my friends
helped me to stretch and motivated me to keep going. I kept going. Every fellow mudder at the event helped each other out through out the course. It was an awesome feeling of comradery and togetherness.
Two of the obstacles that I was really scared of was the electric shock and cage crawl. Cage
crawl is where you enter a cage filled with water. you lie down face up on the water and hold
on to the cage grill and crawl for about 20 metres. it is tough if you are claustrophobic.
With water entering your eyes and mouth. I learned half way through that obstacle that I
shouldn't panic if I get water on my eyes or into my nose. By not panicking I was gently able
to get the water out of my eyes and nose and still keep going towards the exit.
The electric shock was the last obstacle of the event. That was the obstacle between me and the victory beer that was served once you complete the course. We all took a deep breath and started our dash through a field of wires. We all got zapped. I fell to my knees and crawled my way to the finish line.
What do you get out of Toughmudder? you overcome your fears. you learn that you can do anything in life if you try and persevere without giving up. you realise that teamwork can
achieve anything. And working with your peers can make any journey enjoyable and achievable ! And the other best thing that I did after completing Toughmudder was Oktoberfest !
