Heyo,
wow it’s been a while between adventures. Since my wings are clipped (for now) I signed up for something local involving lots of mud, barb wire, 10m high walls, fire and electric shocks – which was the easy part. The tough part was the 20km run. Hello Tough Mudder! http://toughmudder.com.au/ Headed down to Phillip Island Grand Prix, signed the death waiver, got my number written on my forehead – in theory so that your head can be identified in death or dismemberment? Not really.
I was worried before the event about my lack of stamina, also about getting cold so I definitely had to keep moving. I had mapped out the aerial photo of the course and figured out that the distance between each obstacle was at most 1.5km, shortening to 400m at the end, and I had a strategy – keep moving. Turns out I needn’t even have worried about the course length as the girls I was running with had to start walking after 1km of jogging. Yes, they really wanted to walk 20km. 4kmh pace = 5 hours. The suggested time to finish is 3 1/2 hours. Another girl and I jogged between obstacles and waited for them to catch up, but also because we had started later in the day there was a lot of waiting, especially at some obstacles like muddy hills, muddy trenches, where there was a lot of lining up.
The obstacles and running weren’t as tough as I expected them to be, the cold water and wind wasn’t too cold if you’ve been surfing before (heat sapping cold and bone chilling winds), the ice bath halfway turned out to be refreshing, the electric shock wasn’t as bad as getting static zapped everytime I get out of a car (static generates 12 000 volts apparently) and the mud wasn’t too bad if you’ve had to shit off a rock (Rinjani, Indonesia) or surf in sewerage (East Coast Malaysia). There wasn’t really a fear of being seriously hurt as a 4wd can just pick you up if you get injured – unlike if you go trekking in the Malaysian rainforest and realise that being helicoptered out isn’t an option with heavy rainforest canopy. So, queuing up and waiting aside, was it worth it?
Definitely yes. Although I would have like to push myself a bit harder, the silliness of being covered with mud, going through obstacles, helping each other out and just going through the whole experience together, was super memorable. Best bit was at the end downing a cold beer. I think I washed my stuff 4 times before most of the mud came off. I had mud under my nails and in my ears for days. That being said, I want to do TM again next year and this time do a proper flat out run. Let me know if you’re keen – pre-signing up for the Melbourne 2013 event has started!
http://toughmudder.com.au/events/australia-event-preregistration/
Big love,
Shi.
ps: A pic of me in the trenches – it was a 1km walk through muddy water, I was thinking of the Malaysian floods at this point. “What, you mean that I don’t have to worry about being slashed by submerged rusty corrugated iron, stung by stingrays or stepping into a submerged pothole? Wheee”