Motivation is something we are never short of in the Army. Teamwork is something we're big on not only in the Army, but in the hospital as well. From my personal point of view, the course didn't seem that hard. I had imagined it to be a lot harder than it was, but I think that's because I had my teammates cheering each other on and motivating each other to keep moving. It was even better when we teamed up with other groups on the course to help each other out.

  Many of the first obstacles were solo ones, where you had to crawl under something without getting stabbed, and through dark places, and jump into freezing cold water. Those were not my favorite, haha. Other obstacles tested your abilities as a group to brainstorm how to get everyone over. Being launched over walls, and hung over ledges to help teammates up were physically demanding on everyone. I was the smallest one of the group, so I was tossed over many walls. I think my favorite obstacle was when we had to do the "Human Pyramid" challenge. The set up was a moat before the slope. The slope was very slippery. You had to get everyone to the top by basically building a human pyramid where people would climb over you. I was the second one up from our group. When I got to the top, I had my friend Allie hang me over the ledge as I helped pull people up. This took teamwork and critical thinking from everyone. Especially when we had more people at the top than we did at the bottom. I thought I hit muscle fatigue when I was hanging on to two of my coworkers, and I was yelling for the guys at the bottom to use my legs as a leverage to get to the top. But even after shaking and yelling, everyone made it and we defeated that damn slope.

  Another obstacle that I really liked was a water challenge. There were two rotating blocks in the water that everyone had to get over. The water was almost up to my neck! But as a team, partnered up with other Mudders, we were able to figure out the blocks, and get over! We just had to keep the momentum going. Sadly, one of my teammates lost his GoPro in the mix, and we bid farewell to our Tough Mudder photos.

The before photo where you can still see our tie dye shirts!

  This was the most physically demanding event I've done all year. (And here I was nervous for my APFT!) I had all of the doubts in my mind that I was not going to be able to complete the 18 kilometer course, especially since most of the course was steep inclines and declines. The mud mile was probably the scariest thing I've ever experienced; if you've ever wanted to know what it feels like to sink in quick sand, do the Tough Mudder. It made me question my participation REALLY quick. But I dug deep (literally and figuratively) for the motivation to complete the course. We started as a team, and we finished as a team. As shocking as the last event was, we earned our headbands and the rightful title as Tough Mudder Fxckers.

Thanks MSP for the great bonding experience, and cheers to our next challenge!