{"id":302,"date":"2012-04-27T14:01:36","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T18:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/?p=302"},"modified":"2015-06-11T12:20:52","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T16:20:52","slug":"teamworktough-mudder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/27\/teamworktough-mudder\/","title":{"rendered":"Teamwork\/Tough Mudder!"},"content":{"rendered":"

.<\/span>
\nHello friends!\u00a0 How are you?
\nI\u2019m feeling extra tough!
\nI recently participated in an event that has left me feeling capable of doing anything!\u00a0 Got a problem you need help with (said in my deepest superhero voice)??\u2026dant-da-da-daaa\u2026Stand Back<\/em>, I will take care of it for you!!<\/p>\n

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A week and a half ago, on April 14, 2012, I completed the Tough Mudder event held at the South Amherst Sandstone Quarry in Ohio.\u00a0 It was a 12mile long \u00a0all-terrain obstacle course designed by British Special Forces, that included 27 challenging obstacles (picture a masochistic playground made for adults!).\u00a0 The event is not timed, because it\u2019s not about time.\u00a0 It was designed to be “a test of all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie\u201d.\u00a0 If interested, here\u2019s a link to the official web site, which has a short video to give you some idea of what the course is like\u2026http:\/\/toughmudder.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Looks pretty fantastic doesn\u2019t it?!!\u00a0 Yeah, I think so too!:) \u00a0And it was every bit as amazing as I hoped it would be.\u00a0 What made it so memorable?\u00a0 A few things stand out in my mind.\u00a0 For one, I appreciated all the unique challenges that the course presented\u2026it highlighted the fact that the human mind\/body, when motivated, can accomplish some really amazing things.\u00a0 More than anything else, the thing I appreciated most from this event was the fact that the course forced you to work together.\u00a0 And like with so many things in life, great things can be accomplished when working as a team.<\/p>\n

I viewed my team as one consisting of every person on the course that day.\u00a0 Two members of this team, my running partners Marcus and Matt, had an exceptionally big and wonderful influence on me.\u00a0 These two guys were a huge factor in me even signing up for the event.\u00a0 I had an interest in doing it from the start, but I likely would not have registered had it not been for their encouragement and support.\u00a0 So a Big THANK YOU goes out to Marcus and Matt for inviting me to join them that day.<\/p>\n

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I also had two other running partners close to my heart that day, and I put their initials on my race shoes to remind me of their constant presence (for more on this, see the Memorial chapter in my book, Ch.6<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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My son David often comes with me to running events, but because this course was not jogging stroller friendly(!), and because it typically takes over three hours to complete, I decided that this wasn\u2019t the most kid friendly race, so I made other arrangements for him.\u00a0 I was happy to have a special piece of him with me though.\u00a0 Last year, in Sept of 2011, he used permanent markers and made me the coolest t-shirt for another obstacle filled race called the Warrior Dash (see the end of Ch9 for\u00a0my Warrior Dash pic<\/a>).<\/p>\n

He drew each of the obstacles from that race onto a white t-shirt, then added a \u201ccheck off box\u201d — so that I could later put a check mark indicating that I had conquered each obstacle.\u00a0 I had saved his very special homemade shirt, and excitedly dug it out to wear to Tough Mudder.\u00a0 Wearing it that day made me feel like I had on an invincible coat of armor.<\/p>\n

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We arrived at Tough Mudder to find long lines and a huge crowd (over 13,000 participated in the two day event!).\u00a0 We parked our cars in a nearby lot, and waited in line to board one of the many buses that were taking people to the course.\u00a0 Excitement levels were high, and we all had little kid grins on our faces!<\/p>\n

We eventually got our race bib, which we pinned to our shirts like we had done in so many other races that we ran in \u2013 but this event was a little different — and they wrote our identifying numbers in permanent marker all over our bodies as well (forehead, arm, and leg).<\/p>\n

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.<\/span>
\nThe event itself represented to me everything that life should be\u2026it was challenging, rewarding, satisfying, and shared with good friends.\u00a0 It will forever remain one of my most treasured memories.
\n.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nMarcus (yellow shirt in pic above) helping me (middle of pic) up the Half Pipe.\u00a0 This obstacle was my favorite on the course.\u00a0 It required such teamwork and trust.\u00a0 If you fell (as participants waiting in line got to witness was something that happened often) you typically would land very hard on the rough wooden board, and would get banged up as you slid to the bottom.\u00a0 After feeling very grateful for being helped safely to the top, I then took a turn helping up a bunch of fellow mudders.\u00a0 I\u2019ll Never forget the experience of looking down and locking eyes with individual members of the crowd\u2026that brief but intimate and intense moment shared with a stranger (who felt like anything but)\u2026who was letting you know \u201cI\u2019m about to run and jump\u2026and reach for your hand.\u00a0 I need you.\u00a0 Be there for me\u201d.\u00a0 I felt such love for these people that I didn’t even know, and it was a great reminder to me to treat anyone I come in contact with as if they were my brother, son, or mother…because in so many ways, I believe that\u2019s exactly what we are to each other — Family.<\/p>\n

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Thank You for reading and for sharing in my exciting day!!<\/p>\n

Eric V<\/p>\n

an invitation to you\u2026
\n<\/em><\/span>What makes you feel capable of doing anything?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And, do you have any stories to share involving a team accomplishment — BIG or small — that you witnessed or were a part of?\u2026some life event that would have been much more difficult without a team effort?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(responses can be left below. \u00a0Thanks!<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

~ \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 ~
\nNow on Facebook!\u00a0http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HoneyIShrunkTheGrief
\n<\/a>Now on Twitter!\u00a0https:\/\/twitter.com\/EricVaiksnoras<\/span><\/a>
\n<\/a>Check out my book!\u00a0http:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/book\/
\n<\/a>Feeling grateful? or feeling low?\u00a0Sign the Thank You Card!<\/a><\/p>\n

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. Hello friends!\u00a0 How are you? I\u2019m feeling extra tough! I recently participated in an event that has left me feeling capable of doing anything!\u00a0 Got a problem you need help with (said in my deepest superhero voice)??\u2026dant-da-da-daaa\u2026Stand Back, I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,91,85,13,54,14,44,21,23,22,24,90,89,12,20,11,57,25],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love-will-find-a-way","tag-a-young-widower-discovers-love-will-find-a-way","tag-empowering","tag-eric-vaiksnoras","tag-grief","tag-griever","tag-grieving","tag-honey-i-shrunk-the-grief","tag-hope","tag-laugh","tag-live","tag-love","tag-teamwork","tag-tough-mudder","tag-widow","tag-widowed","tag-widower","tag-www-honeyishrunkthegrief-com","tag-young-widower"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316,"href":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions\/316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honeyishrunkthegrief.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}