The Walking Dead Mudders nail the “I got your back” obstacle.
A few weekends ago, I was crawling through muddy pits, swinging from tires, and careening down a slide into an icy pool. Somehow I managed to convince four of my pals to join me in these antics at Mudderella in Whistler. They’re the best, and share my passion for donning crazy costumes and entering fun running events. We realized a long time ago we could never win on speed so we put our efforts into costume design. The Walking Dead Mudders were a hit, and unlike some of our pretty lululemon-clad competitors, our look just kept getting better the dirtier and more tattered we got.
Some of you may have heard about, or participated in Tough Mudder. Mudderella is an offshoot of this event, designed for women. It involves a 10 km muddy run through an obstacle course that challenges balance, strength, stamina, and mental fortitude. It’s not as hard core as Tough Mudder but it ain’t no girly event either. Fellas are allowed to participate provided they’re invited by a registered female participant.
The Walking Dead Mudders on the gondola heading to Mudderella Whistler—C.Helbig
I love the photo above. Due to a family emergency, I had to drive up to Whistler the morning of the event (my friends had stayed over the night before). I broke all speed records on the Sea to Die Higway (sorry, Sky), frantically changed into my costume in the parking garage, and raced to the Whistler gondola to meet my friends. What a team! They pulled out the makeup bag and had me “zombified” in minutes. Now that’s a scary look (2nd from left)!
We were proud of ourselves for re-purposing our costumes from another amazing event: The Half-Corked Marathon where we won 2nd place as the “Walking Red”. We should have come first, but I’m not bitter…you can read about it here.
We felt that a few of the obstacles were a tad “wimpy”—not quite challenging enough for a bunch of tough zombies. But, here’s a couple of the Dead Mudders having meltdowns on the “Wheels in Motion” obstacle. This was a surprisingly difficult obstacle especially with our tattered skirts getting in the way.
These girls are much prettier than us and I can forgive the event photographers for not taking a photo of the Dead Mudders emerging from an ice-cold pool after plunging down a near vertical slide in an obstacle called “Hat Trick”. It was a shock to the system and we were not a pretty sight, but fortunately we were dead already.
This is another one of my favourite images that expresses the joy we get out of being together and being silly. Actually, I think that’s a grimace I’m sporting, but my partner is having a ball.
I’m definitely cheesed that the photographers didn’t get a photo of the Walking Dead Mudders doing the muddy crawl under the chicken wire. The photo above is pretty good, but unlike these gals, we were down on our hands and knees. Some of us were even whipping mud balls at each other (not popular with everyone)!
The Walking Dead Mudders made it to the end looking none the worse for wear after scaling walls, “down-dogging” across muddy pits, teetering on log balance beams, and meeting up with a black bear. Yes, hard to believe that a bear would want to be anywhere near a mob of loud, crazy women. He didn’t seem impressed, and slowly sauntered off.
That’s it for another great event and lots of belly laughs with my pals.
Writes of Passage 
Oh my goodness you girls take the prize. Not sure how I missed seeing this post when I explored your blog before (and which I will continue to do). Unfortunately for my book club girlfriends you have given me an idea .
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We had so much fun. I have a great and crazy group of girlfriends who embrace the costume events. We also had a ball at the Half Corked Marathon…wine drinking and more costume antics….have never laughed so much! I have a few posts about this event. Thanks for reading and sharing my enthusiasm. Let me know if you convince your book club pals to do something like this!
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How many kilometres is the half corked marathon. Sounds dangerous! Look forward to reading that post.
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It’s 18km. We walked most of it through the vinyards. ..very pretty. Luckily they only serve up small glasses of wine at each station!
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It looks like you guys went all in, not like those “other teams” haha. Love the authentic looking zombie costumes – you all look great!!
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Thanks Stephanie. We really get into the whole costume thing. I think we have more fun planning and making the costumes than doing the actual event.
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hey thanks. I enjoyed it. I did a Mud Hero in Red Deer this summer so I know how easy this isn’t ! Good job…and with good friends..keep writing I enjoy them all
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Thanks for stopping by Mike and for your kind comments. I’ll have to check out Mud Hero…we’re always looking for interesting events
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I love that photo of you and Morag! Thanks for getting us all organized for this crazy event!!!
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That last comment was from me – sorry about the “anonymous”
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Dear anonymous…me too! Did you find our photos from the Mudderella folks? I have a few more duplicate types (mostly swinging tire) that I didn’t add.
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Great article Caroline – the best part was the pre-event build up. Getting zombified, having our pic taking with tourists and laughing til we cried. Thanks girls!
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Thanks Colleen and I couldn’t agree with you more about the fun we had getting ready.
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