Tough Mudder

First, I can't believe I haven't blogged in a month.  It's just that sometimes the list of things to do... doesn't get done and throwing in a work trip and the start of baseball season to the month of February made it even crazier.  Don't ya wish there were enough hours every day to spend quality time with the Lord and family, exercise, plan healthy meals, coupon to save money, work to earn money, run errands, homeschool the kids, clean the house, respond to emails, study the Sunday School lesson, work on co-op lesson plans, support the hubs at his baseball games, serve others, be a great friend and get enough sleep?  Me too!  And that leaves out reading, blogging, journaling and other leisure activities :)

So, here I am a month later, blogging about a really fun weekend with friends and family...all together here for the 2012 Georgia Tough Mudder.  Lyle introduced us to this event last year when he did it and B signed up months ago to join him this time.  Thankfully, some of our besties signed up too and it made for a great team and super fun visiting with everyone.  Our friends, Chris and Jennifer, were UH-mazing and kept the kiddos for us too...so thankful for them!  It's always so easy and seamless for our kids to be with them.

On our way!  The group driving over from here...Slade, Matt, B, Emily, Jessica and David.

Doug, Lee and Lyle joined them in Washington...all numbered up and ready to go!

B started it off with a word of prayer.

The course was 12 miles and had 27 obstacles.  The focus is to work together and finish...not to compete with each other or race for a particular time.  They were a great team!  It was SO cold and windy that day that I truly don't know how they made it through so many water obstacles.  For example, they had to swim (and go under) through dumpsters filled with ice.  It was even painful to watch!

An obstacle for those afraid of heights...loved that our team was easy to spot in their red.

Demoralizing if you were struggling after 3 or so miles...but our crew was ready for the challenge!

Mud MILE...you could hear people's shoes getting sucked off

After going through the muddy tunnels at the end.  Oh boy

B and Slade did a great job on the inclined monkey bars!

I had to get a pic of the mud in B's teeth

The spectators...feeling a little guilty since we were comfy, dry and warm

The electric eel...just sheets of black plastic with a constantly running sprinkler and live electrical wires hanging down to zap their backsides.  I thought water and electricity weren't safe together??

Loved Lyle's shout out to Philippians and the awesome footage he got with the headcam.  We missed seeing a lot of the obstacles because they were back in the woods (and we couldn't have kept up with them the whole way!), so it was nice to see them all from his viewpoint afterwards

The rings are next...they did great!  We had waited there for them and watched at least 75% of those attempting them, fall in the water.  Most of our crew made it!

And then, the long jump into icy cold water and swimming to the bank...B said this one was the worst!

Nearing the end...a great show of camaraderie at Mount Everest.  Running up the super slick half pipe and getting pulled up by others.  Impressive.

And lastly, more electricity...red team about to charge through them!

After 3.5 hours, B said everything in him cramped up...sheer will got him that last 1/4 mile and across the finish line!

And I threw all my dry clothes on Jess at the end...she was shivering so hard.  I can't say enough about her and Emily.  They are amazing and so tough!!!

It's official...Tough Mudders!

I think we're ready for another!  I loved watching :) and B loved the challenge, teamwork and physical exertion.  Such a fun event, especially with a great group like this!  We're hoping it comes to Georgia again next year :)

And February pics are up too, woo hoo!