The Mudder-A-Month project is my effort to challenge myself, stay fit, and raise donations for the Wounded Warrior project.
In order to really understand my motivations for this project, you have to first understand what brought me to this point. About 3 years ago I left a job that required me to live in one city from Monday to Friday and then fly home for the weekends. During the week, I didn't eat well. Mostly I lived off of delivery pizza and buffet lunches. Like I said, this wasn't the healthiest way to live, and by the end of my two year contract I had ballooned from 195 to 235 lbs.
It was the heaviest I'd ever weighed, but also was easily the worst I'd ever felt. I'd lose my breath climbing a set of stairs. I was having knee and back problems. I was approaching middle-age, and could feel my carefree youth slipping away one soda at a time, so I decided to do something about it. I didn't want to be the guy with the beer gut and jowls any more than I wanted to admit that I couldn't play 4 hours of pickup basketball anymore. I joined a gym where I decided I was going to work out one hour a day (half hour on weights and half hour on the elliptical machines). I decided I wasn't going to do anything too crazy or "fad-ish". I didn't diet or track my exercise regime in a little book. Aside from working out, I gave up fast food and I stopped taking second helpings of what I ate at home. The weight came off. I blew right past 195 and eventually hit 180 (although that was unsustainable and I've leveled off around 185).
All of that is nice, I know, but what does any of that have to do with the Mudder-A-Month project? The answer to that question lies in my need to stay motivated, and an hour a day at the gym can get pretty repetitive. I started to look for physical challenges that I could train for. I'm not a huge fan of running for running's sake, so I couldn't see myself being a marathoner or a half-marathoner, so those kinds of things were out. Then I read an ESPN article about the Tough Mudder, an approximately 12-mile obstacle course based on British Special Forces training. The thing that was most appealing was that it wasn't a competitive race, rather, it focused on collaboration - helping others and being helped by others. Additionally, the Tough Mudder organization is dedicated to raising money for the Wounded Warrior program. All of these elements were very appealing to me, and as someone who will always see himself as a 16-year old boy at heart, the thought of running around in the mud all day sounded like great fun.
I decided I was going to run my first Tough Mudder at Wintergreen in October of 2011. I talked a friend into doing it with me, and he talked another friend into doing it with us. None of us really knew what to expect, but we were all willing to give it a shot. We arrived at the course on a supremely cold morning, prepared for the worst. Adjectives are difficult to find to describe what we went through that day. The course was challenging. The mud, water and ice was teeth-chatteringly frigid. The hills were hellacious. And I loved every muddy, cold, sweaty minute of it. As soon as I finished, I knew that I was hooked. I ran my second Tough Mudder in March of 2012 at Pocono PA, and my third will be in South Carolina in October of 2012. In 2013, I will run between four and six Tough Mudders, and in 2014 I will be ready to tackle my "Mudder-A-Month" challenge.
What does the Mudder-A-Month Challenge entail?
During 2014, I will run in one Tough Mudder each month. The entire thing will be blogged and podcasted, and will be undertaken to raise awareness of, and funds for, the Wounded Warrior project. The blogging and podcasting elements will follow my training, travel, race-day, and recovery periods. This will be undertaken as a solo affair, but as each Tough Mudder can be tackled as a team, I wish to invite anyone who would like to run a Tough Mudder with me to join the Mudder-A-Month team.
Details about how you can participate and/or donate will be forthcoming.
In order to really understand my motivations for this project, you have to first understand what brought me to this point. About 3 years ago I left a job that required me to live in one city from Monday to Friday and then fly home for the weekends. During the week, I didn't eat well. Mostly I lived off of delivery pizza and buffet lunches. Like I said, this wasn't the healthiest way to live, and by the end of my two year contract I had ballooned from 195 to 235 lbs.
It was the heaviest I'd ever weighed, but also was easily the worst I'd ever felt. I'd lose my breath climbing a set of stairs. I was having knee and back problems. I was approaching middle-age, and could feel my carefree youth slipping away one soda at a time, so I decided to do something about it. I didn't want to be the guy with the beer gut and jowls any more than I wanted to admit that I couldn't play 4 hours of pickup basketball anymore. I joined a gym where I decided I was going to work out one hour a day (half hour on weights and half hour on the elliptical machines). I decided I wasn't going to do anything too crazy or "fad-ish". I didn't diet or track my exercise regime in a little book. Aside from working out, I gave up fast food and I stopped taking second helpings of what I ate at home. The weight came off. I blew right past 195 and eventually hit 180 (although that was unsustainable and I've leveled off around 185).
All of that is nice, I know, but what does any of that have to do with the Mudder-A-Month project? The answer to that question lies in my need to stay motivated, and an hour a day at the gym can get pretty repetitive. I started to look for physical challenges that I could train for. I'm not a huge fan of running for running's sake, so I couldn't see myself being a marathoner or a half-marathoner, so those kinds of things were out. Then I read an ESPN article about the Tough Mudder, an approximately 12-mile obstacle course based on British Special Forces training. The thing that was most appealing was that it wasn't a competitive race, rather, it focused on collaboration - helping others and being helped by others. Additionally, the Tough Mudder organization is dedicated to raising money for the Wounded Warrior program. All of these elements were very appealing to me, and as someone who will always see himself as a 16-year old boy at heart, the thought of running around in the mud all day sounded like great fun.
I decided I was going to run my first Tough Mudder at Wintergreen in October of 2011. I talked a friend into doing it with me, and he talked another friend into doing it with us. None of us really knew what to expect, but we were all willing to give it a shot. We arrived at the course on a supremely cold morning, prepared for the worst. Adjectives are difficult to find to describe what we went through that day. The course was challenging. The mud, water and ice was teeth-chatteringly frigid. The hills were hellacious. And I loved every muddy, cold, sweaty minute of it. As soon as I finished, I knew that I was hooked. I ran my second Tough Mudder in March of 2012 at Pocono PA, and my third will be in South Carolina in October of 2012. In 2013, I will run between four and six Tough Mudders, and in 2014 I will be ready to tackle my "Mudder-A-Month" challenge.
What does the Mudder-A-Month Challenge entail?
During 2014, I will run in one Tough Mudder each month. The entire thing will be blogged and podcasted, and will be undertaken to raise awareness of, and funds for, the Wounded Warrior project. The blogging and podcasting elements will follow my training, travel, race-day, and recovery periods. This will be undertaken as a solo affair, but as each Tough Mudder can be tackled as a team, I wish to invite anyone who would like to run a Tough Mudder with me to join the Mudder-A-Month team.
Details about how you can participate and/or donate will be forthcoming.
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