This weekend I realised what separates men and women….Tough Mudder.
Both sexes take part in the run/obstacle/mud fest, but men take it to another level.
Massive respect to all the men and women that sacrifice themselves to take part, but the testosterone around the start line is palpable.
It literally drips out of the competitors’ muddied Under Armour.
As I stood watching 500 of the first wave huddled into a pen before the start line, it was like being transported back to Neanderthal times.
My partner is a trainer at Barry’s Bootcamp London and obsessed with fitness and winning pretty much everything, so maybe he’s an extreme case. Even so, as I watched him and the other men chanting with a crazed look in their eyes during the countdown to the race, I could almost see him holding a club in one hand and a bison leg in the other.
As the smoke bombs went off and they began running, my partner emerged like a man on a mission. As he ran towards me screaming, I felt like a little lamb about to be torn to pieces by a hungry lion.
Mental.
Barry’s Bootcamp London and Lululemon Athletica ambassador Faisal Abdalla
Being the dedicated wifey that I am, I followed the hungry lion through the course, fighting off the yawns caused by the 4.30am alarm that morning.
As I watched him hurl himself into 40 tonnes of ice, squeeze himself through terrifyingly claustrophobic tunnels, and voluntarily subject himself to a series of painful electrocution, I realised my choice of life partner was in fact MENTAL.
Scratched, battered, and bruised, and with mud in places you never knew it could go, the chanting and hoo-rahing never stopped, even as he dragged his body up near vertical hills.
I witnessed first-hand the power of PMA, which is something that will be rammed down your throat if you ever do one of Faisal Abdalla’s Barry’s Bootcamp classes. I also witnessed what it would be like if cavemen time-travelled to modern times.
As we made our way back to the car, he whispered to me, “Baby, I could do that all again right now. I’m a warrior. War-ri-or.”
It led me to conclude that while the crazy chanting is fun for spectators to watch, all you actually need to survive Tough Mudder is a load of PMA and a warrior mindset. Where do I sign up?
With fellow trainer Alex Castro
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