Texas Tough Mudder - 1/29/2011 - Part 3

This is Part 3 of the Tough Mudder series. If you haven't read Part 1 or Part 2 yet, go down and start from there. Sorry, I guess I could have done these in reverse order... or you can just scroll down :)

After running through about 8 miles of course, we started to hit the harder obstacles. Okay, probably not 'harder,' but we were just so exhausted at this point, they seemed pretty hard. One was the rope bridges or 'The Ball Shrinker'. A series of bridges across cold muddy water. Two ropes, one high and one low. Walk your way across the lower one, while holding onto the upper one. Our rope figured out the best way to do this was by facing alternate directions. This way there was equal pull on both sides of the rope. Doing it this way made it not too bad. Still slippery, but doable without falling in the water.

We rounded the corner after the log carry, and saw the sight that almost made me cry... another lake. I stopped on the bank to just prepare myself for what was about to happen. I even questioned whether I could even make it across at this point. The sun was going behind the clouds, and I just knew (from plenty of experience up to this point) how cold that water was going to be. It would take all my energy to get across.

I jumped in and started swimming out to the middle, where, waiting for us, were a series of three underwater tunnels. They weren't really tunnels, but large blue barrels making three barricades across the water that you had to swim under. Yep under. At this point you were in up to your head, but at least you weren't holding your breath.

I got out to the first barricade and grabbed on. I had to prep myself again. All of a sudden some guy came up next to me and said "1,2,3." Without thinking I just pushed myself under the water and swam until I knew I cleared the barrels. Unfortunately, I almost went too far, and came up just in front of the next set. I came up and gasped for breath. But I only had a second until I heard someone else yell "go." Without thinking I was back under the water.

It was probably better this way, as the longer you stay in the water, the colder you get... obviously. I can honestly say that I don't remember much about going under the barrels, but I do remember just swimming my heart out trying to get back to the other side of the shore. I got out and turned back to see Jeremy just finishing the third barricade. He took a minute to also catch his breath then swam over to me. We were both so cold...



After the water crossing, we went straight into Twinkle Toes. You had to make your way across two bridges that were made of 2 - 2x6's standing upright. So you had about 4" to walk across. With muddy shoes, while people were falling off in front and behind you. Both Jeremy and I did pretty good on this one, only falling once.


Next came the monkey bars. I knew from the start of the event that I would have trouble with this one. Jeremy was smart and took his time to dry off his hands first. I just jumped onto them.

My first attempt I only made it two bars, then I fell into the freezing cold muddy water and swam the rest of the way out. However, after feeling that I didn't really try that hard, I decided to go back and try again. I made it 5 bars the second time, and I was pretty happy with that.

Jeremy, however, did awesome. Not only did he make it across, but he had to keep stopping and waiting for the guy in front of him to keep moving. Oh, did I mention that the bars went up and then down? Like the pitch on a roof? Yea, hard.



After the monkey bars, we grabbed the last of the shot blocks to eat, then headed for the last 1 mile run. At this point it was definitely more of a walk, but I was doing a limping run when I could. After all, this was the Tough Mudder. I'd deal with the pain later.

The second to last obstacle was another water crossing (go figure). You had to wade out to the middle of the pond, scale up a vertical cargo net, climb down a wood ladder, of sorts, then wade back out. At least you finished somewhat clean, but man, I so did not want to get in that cold water.

The very last obstacle was Electroshock Therapy: sprint through a field of live wires, some of which carry a 10,000 volt shock. This was actually not as bad as it sounds. I got shocked twice, and its more of a large involuntary twitch. Oh yea, and you have to run through a thick mud pit, so you can't go that fast, otherwise you'll just get stuck or fall down.






Jeremy and I finished the event in 2:50. Not great, but not bad. I'm glad we broke the 3 hour mark. We had so much fun. I don't know if I'd chance doing it again in January, but I would definitely sign up if it was in the summer. Here's a link to the full course map.



All photos are courtesy of brightroom photography.

Texas Tough Mudder - 1/29/2011 - Part 2

This is Part 2 of the Tough Mudder series. If you haven't read Part 1 yet, go down and start from there.

After mile 5 my right knee was really starting to bother me. For some stupid reason I had decided to take a ballet class the Thursday before the event, I don't know what I was thinking. Between that class and just not being in great running shape, I really started to mess up my knee. Not to mention, it's really hard to run when your shoes are caked in mud. Form just goes to hell.

So between mile 5 and about mile 7, it was mostly trail running. There were a few obstacles, such as the Boa Constrictor: a series of small tubes that you had to army crawl through. Then there was the creek run. Yep, you guessed it. More running through cold ass water trying to make it across before your feet froze off. And the Log Bog Jog: run through a swamp while hopping over a series of downed trees.



Jeremy was really good about walking with me when I needed and fake running with me when I felt that I could. My run was more of a very slow jog at that point.

As we made our way back into the main area of the course we were met with the Texas Smoke House. At this point they would have normally had a large fire that you had to run through, but because of the burn ban in effect, they switched over to a smoke house. The idea: jump through the window of the house, then make your way out through the thick smoke. Be careful... there may be hidden obstacles.

So here's where things got interesting. First we stop to grab a few shot blocks. Then Jeremy goes first. He jumps through the window then turns around to help me in. As he turns around, he doesn't realize that the ground drops off behind him, and he goes sliding down the mud slope into the huge mud pit at the bottom. I was laughing so hard, I could hardly crawl into the house. "Jeremy down!"

Again, you needed help getting out of the mud pit, because the little mud hill on the other side (still in the smoky house) was too steep to be able to get your footing to get out on your own.

I can't really remember the order of the next few obstacles, but I know they included the Mud Mile. A series of huge mud pits lined up for about a quarter mile. These were fun... and really muddy! See...




After the mud run we hit the next obstacle: Hold Your Wood. Run up and over a series of hills carrying large tree logs. Cause at this point, you were only carrying your own weight up and over all the hills, walls and streams.

But the worst obstacle was still to come...

Texas Tough Mudder - 1/29/2011 - Part 1

It all started last April, when I bought Jeremy (and myself) an entry into the Texas Tough Mudder for his 35th birthday. Back then it seemed like a great idea. Run 10 miles though mud, water, and obstacles all for the fun of it. However, what I did not consider, was that the challenge was in January. Now, I know some of you northern folks think it is balmy in Texas all year round, but I can assure you that it can get very cold. Today it is 37 degrees. That's cold.

Fortunately, we got lucky. The weather had forecasted a front moving into the area with rain and cold winds, however, that seemed to hold off until the next week, and it was 65 degrees the day of the race. Perfect.

We arrived at the event just in time to see our friend, Mark, and his team, Sic-Fit, start the course. We followed behind them 2 waves later, around 10:40. But before we started we made sure to brand ourselves with our bib, and bib number written in permanent marker across our arms, legs, and forehead. Yep, they wanted to make sure you were visible from all angles... and when covered with a ton of mud. (side note - if you are planning to do this event, bring your own marker and avoid the long branding line)

First things first. They make sure to stress to you that the Tough Mudder is not a race, it's a challenge. It's about having fun and helping each other out. And man are they right. There were more than a few obstacles that you could not have conquered on your own.

Our event was held at the Cross Creek Cyclecross track in Paige, TX (about an hour east of Austin). The first mile or more is running around the cyclecross track. Up and down the many hills they have built up. Then you hit the first obstacle...

Kiss Of Mud


I was able to get under this by crawling on my hands and knees, Jeremy had to get down a bit lower and army crawl through it. Just for kicks they made us do this obstacle twice.

Run around the track a bit more, and you come to the mystery obstacle. This one we also had to do twice. Obstacle two: Ice Bath. Yep. It was a pit of mud water about waist deep that you had to jump into... and it was filled with ice. Brrrr. You definitely needed help getting out of this one.

After running about another quater mile, you hit obstacle 3: Creek Crusade. Slosh your way through waist deep freezing cold muddy water. This was the second introduction to the freezing cold water. This "creek" was pretty wide, and by the time we got to the other side, my feet were frozen. I guess this was their way of "easing" you into the cold water that was waiting for you ahead.

Just as you exited the creek and turned the corner, there you were faced with the first real tough obstacle... Walk the Plank. Okay, so here you had to jump off what they say is a 15 foot platform into freezing cold water. (I think it was more like 20' myself). But first you have to get up to the platform by scaling up this flat wooden incline (about 80 deg) using a rope. Of course it was so muddy that was almost impossible, so someone helped push you from the bottom, while the guy at the top grabbed your arm and yanked you up. Now the platform at the top was only about 5' x 10' most, so you didn't have much of a chance to think before someone started screaming at you "jump, jump."

I don't really recall falling into the water, as much as I remember the cold zapping all the energy out of my body the instant I hit the water. Whew... that was cold. But that wasn't the end of it. You still had to swim across the lake. Yes, lake. This wasn't just a pond, it was FAR. All I could think was "swim, swim, swim." Half way across you can't feel anything anymore, and all you can do is try to focus on making it to shore. When you finally made it, they had emergency blankets for those who needed them, but we found that we warmed up quite quickly. After all, the water was probably about 55 degrees, max. Way colder than the pool at Barton Springs in Austin.

The next few obstacles included Devil's Beard: a series of three cargo nets that you had to climb under.... some while going up a muddy hill. Then there was the Hay Bails. Not just little square ones, large round ones. First stacked one high, then stacked in a pyramid 2-3 high. The pyramid was another obstacle where you definitely needed the help of others to get up and over.

There was also the Berlin Walls: A series of 3 - 12' high walls that you had to get up and over. And of course the Mud Hill: try your best to make it to the top without slipping back down... then slide down the other side.

I should mention here that all these obstacles were somewhat spaced out and between each one was some running and a lot of trekking through small ponds of freezing water and/or mud. You know, at some point, you just don't even notice that you can't feel your feet.

By this time we finally reached mile 5. Time for a short water break and some clif shots.

Recipe and a Ring

I've been feeling bad lately about not posting more recipes and food related stuff. Although, in my defense, I still don't have a kitchen or a house, so, you know, that's kinda been slowing me down. Because I don't have any new food items to blog about, I thought I'd pull out an old recipe for you. I can't recall if I've blogged about this before, but if I did it was so long ago that most of you probably forgot. This is one of my all time favorites and people go crazy for them: Butterscotch Bars.

Ingredients
12 oz butterscotch morsels
2 cups gram cracker crumbs
1/3 cup of butter (look for the 1/3 measurement on the stick)
1/2 (ish) cup of ground/chopped walnuts (if you like nuts, use more, if not, use less)
1 egg
1 tsp (ish) vanilla
8 oz cream cheese (1 pack)
1 can (14oz) sweet and condensed milk

Directions

melt butter and butterscotch morsels together in a bowl. If using the microwave make sure you do this slowly so as to not burn the butterscotch. once melted, mix in the gram cracker crumbs and the nuts. This will make the bottom and top of the bars. Press 1/2 the mixture into a 13x9 pan.

filling: cream together the cream cheese, egg, vanilla, and sweet and condensed milk

pour the filling on top of the base layer of butterscotch crumb

sprinkle the remaining butterscotch crumb mixture on top of the filling, to form the top of the bars.

bake 25-30 min at 350 deg. (i usually do 25 min)

let cool to the touch. I'd recommend cutting them at this point. They are difficult to cut when they are very cold. Once cut, place in fridge to cool. It's a cream cheese mix, so you don't wanna have this out for super long (ie - 5 hours). But you can take them out 30-60 min a head of serving to warm up a bit. Though I prefer to eat them cold.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

The Ring

Now onto something super exciting. When Jeremy and I got engaged last July he gave me a beautiful diamond set in a placeholder band and allowed me to take the time to design my own engagement and wedding bands. This way he could surprise me with the proposal yet still give me the ability to personalize my ring. For the last few months we were looking at tons of different rings and coming up with a design that was a combination of the things that we both liked.

We had the ring done at C. Kirk Root Design here in Austin, and last weekend after the Tough Mudder, we were finally able to go pick up the ring. It is GORGEOUS! I've posted a few pictures below. Obviously I'm not allowed to wear the wedding band yet, but I included it in the pics so you could see them together.

Restaurant Reviews

Since my parents were in town this weekend, we spent plenty of time eating out. I decided to write a quick blog post about a few of these restaurants because I was pleasantly surprised by some, and oddly disappointed in others. First, the disappointments.

Trudy's

We went to Trudy's on Sunday morning for their breakfast buffet. Only now, it is barely a breakfast buffet at all. It is now considered a "brunch" buffet, and if you haven't been there in a while, I think you will be greatly disappointed. On the buffet we found about 5 breakfast items, about 5 more "Tex-Mex" items, and then the most random selection of food ever. For example, meatballs. Meatballs... really? You're putting meatballs on your breakfast buffet at a Tex-Mex restaurant? The whole thing is really just a disaster. While this used to be one of my favorite weekend breakfast stops, it is now off the list!

Maudies

Many of you know, Maudies is my favorite Tex-Mex comfort food restaurant. I always want to go to Maudies. At some point, within the last week, Maudies decided to roll out their new menus with a few new "rules." First, the menu. It seriously looks like a 5 year old designed this thing. It's so confusing, big bold words everywhere, and very difficult to follow. I eventually found all my favorites, so at least it appears that they have not changed the food at all. Sometimes I really wonder what makes people take something that's working and change it up. Change for the sake of change is a stupid idea. Maudies, your old menu was just fine, why did you re-design it to look like a childs menu?

Unfortunately, the menu wasn't the only change. Apparently there are new "rules" now. For example, I was told that I probably could not substitute zucchini for my rice and beans, as most menu items "No longer allowed substitutions." Seriously? WTF. Okay, I understand if you want to tell me that you can't substitute guac for rice, as there is a major cost difference there, but the least you could do is offer me the chance to pay the difference. I don't think it would be difficult to say "Sure, we can do that, but there may be a slight upcharge." We're not talking about a fancy restaurant here, we're talking about Maudies.

Now, to end on a happier note, here's a review of my experience at The Carillon.

The Carillon is housed in the AT&T Conference Center on the UT Campus. Parking is just below for about $9 for 3 hours. Since it was pouring rain, we choose this option. Heck it was going to be an expensive dinner, so what's another $9 at that point. I should mention here that we choose to check this place out because my boss raves about the chef and I had a Groupon for $50. I knew since it was the 4 of us going, this would probably only make a dent in the bill, but that's okay, I love checking out fancy restaurants.

We each choose the 3 course tasting menu; you get 2 appetizers and 1 entree. Below are some pictures of the food that we got. The presentation was great and the food was amazing. For appetizers we had:

BABY ICEBERG SALAD apple smoked bacon | smokey blue cheese | chervil ranch | red pepper syrup

BEEF TARTARE parmesan | truffle | potato | whole grain mustard

SEARED HUDSON VALLEY FOIE GRAS vanilla french toast | macadamia butter | balsamic figs (AMAZING!)

CRISP PORK BELLY diablo glaze | asian pear salad | fried mint

And for dinner, I got:

BRIOCHE CRUSTED RACK OF LAMB english pea risotto | whole grain mustard | tomato confit

All the food was just so amazing, including the olive oil poached prime beef tenderloin that my parents got and the braised beef short ribs that Jeremy ordered... oh and the prince edward island mussels that my dad got (though I can't seem to upload the picture correctly). I would highly recommend checking this place out. It's the perfect date night... just be willing to put up the bucks around $70/pp for a three course meal, a glass of wine, tax & tip.

A New Year

Happy New Year!

I would start off this post by telling you all about my New Year's resolutions. However, I have decided not to make any this year. I mean, hell, I could tell you that I'm going to "eat healthier" this year, but as I sit here munching on Christmas cutout cookies, I know that's a lie. And really, it's just a bad idea to start off the year lying to ourselves. Makes me wonder why so many people make New Years resolutions in the first place. Lies.

But I am excited today. I'm excited because I made one more wedding decision. I bought my garter. You know, it's funny. Some decisions are so difficult for me (the dress, the venue, the photographer), but this one was so easy. Maybe because it's really a teeny tiny decision in the grand scheme of things, but I saw this one and I was like, that is awesome. You want to see a picture? Okay. I really have no idea what the rules are on showing off your garter, and I figure most you will forget (or not care) by the time the big day arrives, so here ya go.


Blue is not actually on of my wedding colors, but I just liked this one so much, I went for it. I'll be excited to see what it looks like when it arrives in a few weeks.

We also started going through old photographs of ourselves and our parents. Here's a teaser for you.



I'M GETTING MARRIED THIS YEAR!

Happy Holidays

Just a quick note to say Happy Holidays to you all and to give you a quick update on the house.

We are now at 7 1/2 weeks since the house first caught fire. I can tell you, it doesn't look much different than it did 7 weeks ago.

All of the drywall has been removed, the studs have been cleaned, and have been sprayed down with this white dusty chemical to lock in the smoke smell. It works pretty well because the house doesn't smell as much like smoke anymore... now it's more of a chemical, kill you in your sleep, kinda smell. Hum... not sure about that tradeoff.

I do have updated pictures that I took with my fancy new camera, however, I have yet to upload them. I'll work on that over Christmas holiday.

I finally got my initial estimate from the insurance for the base of the contents. What that means, is that the initial list covers everything I could remember at the time but there's still lots more to be put on there. I'm happy to be finally getting an initial check and getting that process started.

On the other hand, I have yet to receive a check to get the house rebuilding started. I'm lucky to have contractors who are willing to start without having a check in hand, but my insurance adjuster is just very very slow. I think he's close to retirement and just doesn't care anymore. For those of you that are curious the process for payout goes like this:

1. Get check from insurance for initial amount (of course it may need to be adjusted as the process continues).
2. Sign check and send to mortgage company (they own most of my house, so their name is on it also). Must also submit lots of other paperwork (go figure).
3. Mortgage company pays out 1/3 to contractor to start rebuilding.
4. Inspector goes out, looks at work, approves next 1/3 to be released to contractor.
5. Inspector goes out, looks at work, approves last amount to be released to contractor and/or me.

It is an understandable process, but it just takes a while. Ugh. Hopefully after the new year this can start moving faster.

So that's the update. Fortunately I'll be spending the holidays in PA and won't even have to think about the house. :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!