The well known, but unofficial, motto of Tough Mudder is: When was the last time you did something for the first time?
My journey to World’s Toughest Mudder started month before I actually made a decision. It started April 29th while I was on the course completing my second Tough Mudder with some strangers.
“Walkers to the right, runners to the left,” a voice called out from behind me. I was already on the right; TMHQ decided to flip the course around and this uphill jog was not fun.
“Hey! Do you have a team?” the same voice asked me, this time beside me.
I looked over at this man beside me and gave the short version of how I was starting the course alone for the second time in a row. I also explained that I was slow, molasses slow. His response: “You have a team now.”
This, I later learned, was a pretty common thing for Jay Mazza to do.
Later on Jay ended up staying behind to help another Mudder, who was doing the course in full turnouts and with a SCBA, and I moved on with three guys from the group, including a man named John Caulderon. And John plays a bigger part in this than Jay did.
It needs to be said that there is a pattern of me stating that I’m not going to do something when it comes to Tough Mudders but then doing that.
Example #1: Met a guy at my first TM that told me he was doing two TMs that year. I said I would never do multiple TMs in a year. The following year I did three.
Example #2: Friend telling me that I should do a TM the following weekend. Me stating that there was no way I would do that. A few hours later, me changing my mind and doing a TM four days later.
John and the other guys were talking to me about World’s and I laughed. My response: There’s no way I could do World’s.
Seven months later I’m in the midst of working out a training/nutrition plan, figuring out the finances, and writing a blog for World’s Toughest Mudder 2018.
So, when was the last time I did something for the first time? Right now.
