Event: Tough Guy Race

About 20 years ago I caught a news article about a difficult assault course created by a farmer from a little village, Perton, not too far from me. At that time I was training 5 or 6 times a week at judo, gym, fitness classes and on the bike, and it all sounded like a great challenge to take on. But I was bit lazy and never got myself organised. Over the years I kept catching news reports on the event but I still didn’t take any action.

So when I once again caught wind of the event last January I immediately took action and within 30 minutes I was a fully paid-up entrant of the Original Tough Guy Race. Then the penny dropped that this was going to take more than my credit card to complete.

It was obvious that over the years this event had grown much, much bigger. The number of obstacles had also grown massively and I expected this to be a real challenge. I immediately set about a plan for regaining much of my lost fitness since 10 years of sitting around, with just the occasional bike ride, was simply not going to cut it. And as all great athletes do, the first thing I did was buy a sports watch to track my fitness during the next 11 months.

And it worked. My first 20 minute run was laboured and took me 5 days to recover. I felt embarrassed my calves were no longer able to function at the pace of a short jog. However by the end of the year I was easily able to run for an hour without problem, and if some illness hadn’t knocked me hard over Christmas and then again mid-Jan, I’m sure I would have ramped this to my target 90 minutes without any issue. I was a little concerned I hadn’t hit my target but I was still ready to give it my upmost.

On the day of the race I looked outside to see a puddle frozen solid. This was not a good sign and it made the prospect of jumping through ice a real risk. As luck would have it, by 11am the air temperature rose enough to defrost everything and at least lacerations from the ice were now behind me.

After some traffic problems getting into the event, I eventually joined the mass start of 5500 people. Many were dressed up in various tartans or fun outfits. Some went the other way and dress down just to shorts or even trunks. Those were brave people given the temperature of the air, and in particular the water.

The course is about 15km long but the real killer is the 250 obstacles you need to tackle on-route. At the beginning you have some small hay bales (jump over), then medium sized hay bales (climb over), then large hay bales (clamber up and over) and so on. The obstacles were often laid out in sets and followed this type of pattern: easy, medium, hard then very hard difficulty. This also had the added advantage of spreading the pack in order to reduce over-crowding (for the most part it work at least).

After hay bales, there was a killer section of running up and down and up and down and so forth a steep hill. In all I think we must have crawled up that hill 7 or 8 times pulling on trees and various stumps. Moral breaking stuff and again something I saw repeated several times. Repeat some soul sapping obstacle multiple times while all the time draining your energy.

Other obstacles included climbing over tree trunks, through electrified wires, crawling under barbed wire, crawling through tight tunnels, splashing through muddy rivers, squelching through thick mud, overcoming hundreds of tires, jumping flame pits and climbing 30-40 foot towers using ropes. Everything meant to sap your strength just a little bit more.

However the real pain came with the water. Some early obstacles had us ankle deep and this chilled your feet. But as we progressed the water got deeper and each time it stabbed just a bit more. Just as getting into a swimming pool is worse if done slowly, the course carefully maximised the pain it could inflict my repeatedly attacking a little more untouched skin. And then it would take you out of the water and give you a few obstacles to warm up, then repeat the gradual soaking. Oh how sadistic.

The two worse obstacles involved going under water. In the first you had to duck below a log and out the other side. Then repeat 4 more times with the final one being double the size. The other was a plunge from a plank suspended 6 feet above the water. When I hit the water the shock was insane and when I popped up I had cramp in both legs but was also swimming as fast as I ever have. I needed to get out of the water and regain control of my hyperventilation.

I eventually finished after 4hr 18mins and this is indicative of just how long and complex the route was. Only at the end did I appreciate how much rain was being dumped on the spectators; Sue, Mum and Dad amongst them. I was totally frozen and not far away from hypothermia. Many had dropped out throughout the race due to the cold and this was the real barrier to completing it. The obstacles were hard and needed significant determination but it was the weather which was the most formidable of them all.

This was the last ever Tough Guy competition so I am very pleased that I got my act together to join in before it was too late. It was easily the single most difficult thing I have ever attempted and I’m kinda glad I don’t have to make a decision whether I do it again. I’m not sure I could stand it again.