Our coffee mug collection just got Awesome (Tough Mudder recap)

You've already seen this photo

so you know we survived. The best part is that not only did we make it through our second Tough Mudder, but both of us felt better prepared, completed more obstacles successfully, and were less sore afterwards.

Backing up:

Friday night, Tim's friend and his wife came down to stay- they were also doing the Mudder, and as first-timers, were more anxious than excited.

We cooked hotdogs over a fire in our fire pit (since there's a burn ban, it had to be contained), and had a few adult beverages, and then we found a snake, so I had to catch it:

My brother pointed out that there is an uncanny resemblance to a photo of me at age 5 holding a frog- same pose, just a 22 year difference.

Mudder morning: I, the human alarm clock, woke everyone at 4:30, and we were off by 5:20.

We had to stop in Lafayette for small bladders and empty stomachs.

 See what Tim's outfit looked like when we started? His friend's is similar, while we girls just had a theme of BRIGHT clothes.

We starte out running in the Mudder, but it was clear by the 3rd mile that we would be walking most of it in order to get the whole team through (Which is ok, people- Mudders are about finishing, not time! Teamwork over self!). But, I'm happy to say that I required much less help with the 8', 9', and 11' Berlin walls than last time, and I made it over Twinkle Toes (a balance beam that I fell off last time and was sooooo mad since I normally have awesome balance), and I jumped in the quarry without any hesitation this time, and can honestly say I smiled through the whole 12 miles (2 more! Yay!).

But a warning: if you bring small children to spectate, electricity causes uncontrollable cursing... sorry. Which means I swore heavily getting shocked in the Electric Eel (mud crawl under barbed wire spaced with live wires) and Electroshock Therapy (25 feet of hay bales to jump over through dangling live wires at the finish.... where I actually yelled "Little kids might want earmuffs" before I ran through).

The other amazing part of this Mudder was being able to get Ryan and Claire through it. Ryan needed very little help beyond encouragement that he could go the distance (the furthest he'd previously ever ran was 6 miles), but Claire's more of a fitness newbie. She needed a lot of help, but you have to give her credit! She FINISHED! That's the beauty of a Mudder: finishing is the achievement. I hope she learned as much about herself as I did during my first one. And I really hope it inspires her to keep pushing, keep running, and stay active.

 We bought coffee mugs this time. We both agreed that we'd get the giant beer steins in October in honor of Mudder #3 (and when we'll be prepared for their higher price point). How awesome is my coffee mug, though?

And I just had to share this photo from last night- the big baby, Matt Lauer, decided he needed to be in my husband's lap. All 100+ pounds of him. Such a giant baby.

Our next event is the Ta Ta Trot 15k in 10 days. And then, I'm going to have to figure out this solo long run business- so far, I've had a race or other event to get mine in, but starting in July, I'll be exploring parts unknown on the trail.

Enjoy the rest of the week!