This weekend I had the privilege of hanging out with the 4 funniest dudes I know, who also happen to be some pretty beastly athletes who conquered the Tough Mudder adventure race.
I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't all that confident they could finish the race.
(Especially after a few beers the night before all in the name of carbo loading + 5 hours of sleep)
We left Dallas to make the 1.5-2 hour drive to who-knows-where-Texas to attend Tough Mudder Dallas, which makes lots of sense, right?
Thank you Jesus that the race was delayed due to parking issues, because we were also delayed due to boy's brain's issues.
Weird how that happens.
Disclaimer: Please excuse the picture overload. I had an extremely hard time selecting pictures to be included in this post, partly because I think America needs to know how awesome/brave/stupid these boys are, but also because some of their faces are just hilarious. Thats all! Enjoy!
They had to scale this wall just to line up at the starting line.
I guess it was a test to see if you could even survive 1/10 of the race.
I would have failed before I reached the starting line, without a doubt.
I like the "probably" they threw in there.
Taking the Tough Mudder pledge that they won't cry like little babies.
Mikey.
I'm so confused, Michael took his shirt off?
What's going on here?
Mile 1.
Of 12.
The birthday boy!
This was REALLY fun for me to watch.
The arctic enema.
. . . and then after Bart and I grabbed a not so free beer (due to a "miscommunication" on the Tough Mudder website) we caught back up with the muddy dudes at mile 10.
Just in time to watch them attempt Mt. Everest
(side note: Bart and I had spent most of the day watching people fail miserably at this obstacle, we had high hopes for the boys . . . but not really)
Mikey and Josh made it!
. . . and so did Marsh!
. . . and Taylor became a mud pancake
Electric eel!
See those little yellow strings?
Electroschock therapy, lots of volts of pain pulsing through those wires, and I loved every second of it.
The final obstacle!
Electroshock therapy.
I got a pretty entertaining video of this part, because you have to see it in action to enjoy it appropriately.
Pictures wouldn't do it justice.
We watched multiple people have to get carried out from this obstacle alone.
Did I mention we saw the helicopter airlift multiple people out throughout the day?
Success!
We're not related, I swear.
Lots of leftover shoes heading off to get cleaned and shipped to Africa!
I couldn't be more proud of the boys for finishing, and for finishing together at that.
I know for a fact I could never have done it, but I think I enjoyed watching/laughing at other people almost as much as they enjoyed completing the course.
Currently, Columbia's Muddy Buddy race in Dallas is topping my to-do list.
It's a 4 mile partner race where you alternate riding bikes and doing obstacles.
I'd say it's a good starter mud run for little pansy girls like me.
