ProSport Tough Mudder Report

by Fiona Hazell

So the day finally came, the first Tough Mudder event in Australia and ‘The Nuggetiers’ were ready to tackle the challenge in Phillip Island.

All 9 of us with mixed feelings of nerves and pure adrenaline went and registered together. Unlike any other event I’ve entered before TM required all participants to sign a “death waiver” to state that we will not sue if brain injury, spinal damage or death occurs. As I stood there with my team mates I realized it was far too late to pull out!

We jumped the first wall (the practice wall) and joined 500+ other TMs at the start line, with Rocky “Eye of the tiger” blaring at us, you can’t help but be totally pumped. “The Nuggetiers” felt confident despite standing next to other teams with blokes that not only looked like they could demolish walls with their bare hands but they also looked like they ate bricks for breakfast. But it was time and we were ready to give it a shot.

Finally after our heartfelt pledge was given and with pure adrenaline driving us towards the toughest event of our lives, off we set down the Phillip Island race way. First leg led us to obstacle 1, not bad…we kinda cruised it in! Second leg got harder, especially when we saw that the next obstacle was…Berlin Walls!

The sun was beating down on us and the up hills were tough….even tougher was the next set of Berlin Walls, as was Twinkle Toes and the ridiculously difficult Everest! On the opposite end the more fun obstacles were of course, Walk The Plank, Electric Eel, Mud Mile oddly, enough the last obstacle, Electroshock Therapy was pretty fun and despite the fact people stood their with a hose while you ran through the wires to guarantee you got a shock it was good fun.

A few “mystery obstacles” that were not on the map included: Ball Shrinker, Underwater Tunnels and Log Jammin. Disappointing was the anticlimatic 2 hour wait to get a shot at Everest, especially disappointing if you still didn’t actually make it up in the end with your cramped cold
muscles, so yes “The Nuggetiers” bypassed that obstacle and I was glad about that team decision.

In this event, like any other you experience your highs and lows. My high moment was getting to tackle Tough Mudder with all my nursing friends and my good old friend Lize from boot camp. My low was having to go under the water in the ice bath and then have Lize yelling at me to grab her asthma puffer she pelted at me while I was still trying to climb out of the ice bath and regain movement in my limbs.

All in all it was an Epic day/event! Everybody that entered TM helped out each other with the obstacles and it was such a great atmosphere to experience. I probably didn’t need to witness Lize pushing an older bloke up a muddy slide by his bum but I guess on a day like that anything goes.

I didn’t quite know what to expect of the day and I questioned whether I had trained correctly for such a challenging event. But crossing the line with my team mates was a great victory and having a VB can at the finish line somehow seemed to end the day perfectly.