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I’m Going to Do a Tough Mudder. Hold Me. (With a Giveaway!)

I am participating in a sponsored campaign hosted by Advil®, as a part of the Advil® Relief In Action campaign. I received compensation for this post. While all opinions stated are my own, I make no claims about Advil® as a product or its effectiveness. 

Remember how not all that long ago I was discussing how I didn’t have a goal for the moment? How I was just enjoying my crazy everyday activities, throwing in some more intense workouts here and there? Oh, how far I’ve come. And how super far I have to go. Suffice it to say, I now have a goal. A big, scary, muddy goal. I’m planning to do a Tough Mudder race in mid-October.

Far longer than my previous mud run, the Tough Mudder is 10 to 12 miles of cold, muddy, electrifying obstacles. That’s right: electric shocks. And 10 to 12 miles. The longest distance I’ve ever run is a 10K. And now I’m doing a 10- to 12-mile run with some crazy obstacles thrown in? And there is a RANGE of mileage? I mean, isn’t it kind of crazy that there are these two whole miles that may or may not be there? ANYONE?

But I have a good reason for sucking it up and doing this. Besides it being killer motivation, we’re working to bring awareness to the Advil Relief in Action campaign. Advil Relief in Action celebrates and honors active volunteers who don’t let pain stop them from giving back to others in need. Both Advil and Tough Mudder are supporters of Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), and this commitment to a cause that assists injured service members and veterans of our armed forces — the ultimate volunteers —- is exactly what the Advil Relief in Action program embodies. As part of the Advil Relief in Action program, a portion of the price of participating Advil bottles will go to Habitat for Humanity International and Wounded Warrior Project so that their volunteers can get the relief they need, and get back to giving back. Cool, right?

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I knew I couldn’t do this event alone, so I recruited my husband to get in on the action with me. It turns out that the event falls on the week of our 8th anniversary, so I thought, what better way to celebrate than with mud? Isn’t the eighth year mud rather than silver or gold anyway? But really, it was symbolic, like if we can make it through a Tough Mudder, we are totally bad-ass at life together. The weekend we found out that the race was a possibility, we headed to Washington, D.C., for a quick getaway with the family. We easily walked 6 miles the day we arrived, in horrible heat and humidity, while pushing a stroller with two kids in it. We decided that weekend that if we could do 6 miles with the kids, we could do this Tough Mudder, too.

erin mud run

My Tough Mudder will be more than three times as long as this race. Gulp!

From the time we found out we’d be doing the race, we’ve had six weeks to train. And because the race is about so much more than just running, I haven’t killed myself doing distance. I haven’t wanted to injure myself like I’ve done before by doing too much distance out of the gate. The goal with the Tough Mudder is completion. I’m not worried about speed. I’m not even thinking we’ll be able to run the whole thing. But it is a serious event, so I’ve been training my buns off. I’ve been really focused on getting my endurance up, doing some solid runs and mixing up my workouts like crazy to prepare for whatever is thrown at me (maybe those rope climbs had a purpose!). Those Tabata workouts are coming in handy. I’ve been hitting my workout DVD collection to work whichever body parts don’t need rest. My old personal trainer shared a new app with me, and I’m putting it to use in my training (more on it later!). I’m basically doing anything and everything to prepare for this race.

As you can imagine, whereas before I was, frankly, half-assing it without a goal, now I’m putting my whole fit bottom into things. Workouts take on a serious new meaning when you know something like this is coming up. I know that any day that goes by (unless it’s truly a needed rest day) that I’m not preparing is making the event day that much tougher. So I’m putting my all into workouts, whether they’re 15 minutes of intense strength or 45 minutes of jogging. Just like I needed to live without a goal for awhile, I’m discovering that having a goal — a really big, scary goal — is an excellent change of pace.

I’m not sure that I’ll feel ready when the big day comes, but I am totally sure that there is no one else I’d rather do it with, and that we’ll have fun even if we’re limping to the finish! That beer at the finish line? We’ll be toasting it to 60 more years of active togetherness!

Get Involved — and a Giveaway!

To inspire you to get involved with Relief in Action, we’re having a great giveaway. Three lucky U.S. winners will win Advil product, an Advil Relief in Action T-shirt, a Tough Mudder water bottle and a seriously cool black gym towel that features a zippered pocket to store keys/ID/credit card, etc. To enter, tell us about a fitness endeavor that you’ve conquered, even though it was a little intimidating! Were you inspired to participate because it was for a cause?

To learn more about the Advil Relief in Action campaign, visit http://www.advil.com/reliefinaction, and follow @ReliefinAction on Twitter and Instagram! You can also share how you see Relief in Action by posting a photo with the hashtag #ReliefinAction on Instagram and Twitter.  Erin

FTC disclosure: We often receive products from companies to review. All thoughts and opinions are always entirely our own. Unless otherwise stated, we have received no compensation for our review and the content is purely editorial. Affiliate links may be included. If you purchase something through one of those links we may receive a small commission. Thanks for your support!