I’ve done Melbourne, Australia (the worst mudder because it was the first with massively massive hills) 2 years ago; Bali, Indonesia last year (extremely rough terrain, but absolutely gorgeous); and now Tempe, AZ in the USA. I got 2.5 tough mudders under my belt, and I was hoping to get my 3x mudder headband, but unfortunately I didn’t do the full.
Nonetheless, here’s a rundown and a few photos of what the dry, deserted-desert area looked like that hand endless dust-devils and other things scattered across the drylands.
DUST DEVIL!
Vendors
To have the likes of Jamba Juice there, Mexican food, delicious hamburgers and other things made it the best out of all three mudders I’ve done so far. Having protein and even a merchandise tent that sold endless apparel and necessities was just amazing compared to what I’ve seen in the past.
The Course
Now, having ran in Australia already, I was a little bit aware of the dry heat. However, there’s no way you can possibly acclimate to the inhalation of sand. By the time the race was over, I was wheezing. Positive: zero hills and running on pretty stable terrain compared to Bali made the course decent.
Comradery
Ahhhh, I went from being alone and bored the first 1.25 miles, to barrelling through the course and being pushed by someone who asked me, “how you doing, man?” We teamed up and started talking about life overseas and our personal trials and tribulations that vaunted our workout status to unshakable heights. It’s incredible sharing stories with strangers and seeing miles just drop, drop, DROP OFF. By the time we can across the obstacles where assistance was actually needed, we had met some wonderfully beautiful German beauties (the Pink Team) whereas the course got much funner. One girl even claimed that she hadn’t worked out since February…..here I am hyperventilating because of my 5 day hiatus. That’s the beauty of Tough Mudder; let alone Americans. The forming of an alliance amongst strangers and putting 100% trust into them makes this an obstacle course to remember.
Going Forward
I have a Spartan Race coming up in Singapore next month, perhaps one sometime during the American summer months that will be in Kuala Lumpur, one in Thailand (AROO!) and perhaps a Tough Mudder to top off the year. Enjoy the pictures and even my podcast down below!
Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/11587764
Donating The Shoes
Arsenio's ESL Podcast 
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