Hitting Kickers

Tough Guy 2008: Nettle Warrior - Year of the Iron Fist

Sunday, 08. 17. 2008  –  Category: Running

I entered an event called Tough Guy recently, my first running event since 2002! And what an event it is.

Probably best described as an extreme assualt course. In their own words:

The phenomena of Tough Guy© has now evolved into cult status with mythical legends to a world wide audience and competitors from every continent coming here to try to beat this ordeal and enjoy the unique spirit of our friendship and amiability.

We are set in over 150 acres of fertile land where spring waters will wash away your miseries and replace them with smiles of achievement .

Each year a new theme is built into Tough Guy this ensures that it remains the worlds safest most dangerous taste of mental physical pain endurance toughest events. Tough Guy will always be a physically challenging, mentally demanding, fear inducing, visual spectacular. After you have taken part you will understand why thousands keep coming back, year after year to experience some of the most demanding yet rewarding challenges of their life!

Yohimbe!

Yohimbe indeed. What a laugh. The race started with a run of about 5-8k, culminating with 10 shuttle runs up a steep hill. The heat was blistering, and this was seriously hard work. A relieving water stop later and you enter The Killing Fields, with a selection of obstacles designed to work the entire body and give you cramp.

You spend the next couple of hours jumping into murky, farm yard swamp water and slurry, running through fire, climbing up scramble nets, negotiating parallel ropes, under barbed wire scramble nets, electric fences, underwater and Vietcong tunnels…

The organisers go out of their way to scare the entrants in advance. All the literature warns of fate worse than death, extreme endurance conditions and general hostilities. Who am I to break the Toughguy myth? It is all true! lol

Up until very recently, even Google was warning users about the safety of the Tough Guy website.

So, my return to running (after doing a marathon and some 10k runs a few years back) was most enjoyable. There is a Winter Tough Guy event I’m considering - though the freezing January farm water is supposed to be a killer - and have signed up for a cross country half marathon in November, and considering an off-road duathlon in September.

Hopefully this should get me into the best shape I’ve ever been for snowboarding by the time the season rolls around.