Tough Bloke Competition

by Tate Ryan

Finally after two months of training the day arrived to see if I really was man enough for the Tough Bloke Challenge held at Cataract Scout Park near Wollongong. T Boggs the Melbourne Vegan gathered a few of us unfit Sydneysiders to join with him in the race to help him look good. Inspired by the challenge and the need to get my legs back in running order I accepted the challenge with about two and a half months to prepare. I definitely needed that time as it took me at least two months to get comfortable running the required 6Km at a reasonable speed. The training let me get to know my new neighbourhood as well as a devised some tough but enjoyable running routes from Bexley to Arncliffe.

By the time the race hit town I knew I could do it without having heartache so I felt prepared. The race was tough. Firstly I was amazed at how popular it is. There were hundreds of people doing the race throughout the whole day. It was a real enjoyable carnival atmosphere. Hanna and Tristan were there in support. Hanna was happy because it was finally coming to an end and she’s hoping my training will now not interfere with other things I have been putting off because of it.

Trent, Shack, Chris, Hass and I hit the starting gates at about 10.15am. I managed to finish 49 minutes later with cuts, bruises, sores, rash etc for my effort. It was a cold morning and some of the water challenges were freezing whereas the mud pit outdid its reputation by being more of an icy cold quicksand pit. It was so hard to move in. And no way of escape with barb wire above your head keeping you locked under. The final challenge of a rope crawl did the most damage though as it scrapped and burned the skin right of your legs as you made your way across.

All fun and games though. I was quite happy to do it in a reasonable time a couple minutes behind Trent.

We all went back to Engadine and played Risk to early evening. As you might expect as an internationally renowned Risk Champion, I took the win, which was a nice way to end the day!!

Also my mate let me know he saw a picture of me in the Telegraphs online newspaper. The photo was soon after the mud pit where I had to ditch my shirt because it was too heavy with all the mud on it.