only for tough guys

Having participated in the OSIM Triathlon (mini-version), my jaw was gaping when I saw a clip on AXN about this crazy, looney yet challenging event held in the UK: Tough Guy competition. only the barking mad Brits can think of it!

It involves running a 8 mile (13km) course then climb, crawl and swim through a series of obstacles with blood thirsty names like the Tiger, the Behemoth, Fiery Holes, Tyre Crawl, Dead Leg Swamp, Vietcong Tunnels, Paradise Climb, Water Tunnel, Berlin Wall, Jesus Bridge, The Great Wall, Dragon Pool, Bridge of Sighs, Stalag Escape, Tyre Torture, Dans Deceiver, Death Bridge over Kwai Delta. The obstacles usually involve lengthy immersions in vile ditches and crawling through mucky manure piles. Others are high obstacles that make our commando course look like children playgrounds.

There are two events a year, one in summer and one in winter. The winter event is recommended for those who find pleasures in hypothermia and frostbite. The event website even tabulates the number of casualties and injuries! even though safety personnel are stationed along the course. For the extreme masochists, there is a "Last Man Standing" competition. Meaning that you carry on running until everyone drops. Past winners have been known to last six laps! more than 2000 Brits, Europeans and Americans participate each year.

The stark raving mad event was thought up by a former British Army chap who now runs Mr Mouse Farm for Unfortunates, a 150 acre fram in Staffordshire that takes in hundreds of retired horses, care for wildlife habitats and provide jobs for unfortunate people. Proceeds from the event funds their charity work.

According to one particpant: "At one point I fell off this high rope section, bounced off a hay bale then landed face down in the blackist, stinky-ist swamp I'd ever seen. I wouldn't have minded so much but my mouth was wide open at the time..."


I am now making this one of my to-do-list. If and when I make it to studies in the UK, watching a Man U home match and completing this event will be the things that I hope to accomplish!