Tough Guy

---

On July 27th 2008 I became a tough guy.
A few miles outside Wolverhampton I took part in a bi-annual event called Tough Guy - Nettle Warrior. Me and my friend Jim Reilly went down on the Saturday night before hand. We stayed at the parents house of one of the Global Exchange Volunteers(Syrian Group) that were in Glasgow earlier in the year. They stayed only 1mile from the event , so it was very convient and saved us a few boab.

The tough guy event started at 11am on the Sunday morning. The event started with a 4mile run. Then the fun started. The next stage was called the salom. It was running up and down the hillside a total of 10 times. It sounds easy but near the end it was very slidy and hard to get a good grip coming down ,so you ended up running down the hillside trying not to fall or even break your leg. After this point we ran into some small woodlands. Inside we had to jump over many haystaks and crawl or scramble under low lying cargo nets.

After clearing the woodlands we ended up at the main obsticle course. After scrambling up a few vertical cargo nets and scalling high over nettles with more ropes, we came down into some electric cables dangling. After avoiding them we had to do a variety of tasks such as balencing beams, climbing over walls, jumping in and out of muddy watered ditches and the coolest or maybe hottest thing, jumping over haystacks that were on fire.

After a while we ended up carry a log into the water and then having to swim with it around the water course and then put it back for another person to use. We also had to walk though a swamp and the best was a 40ft climb up a cargo net only to walk the plank to end up back into the water.

We also navigated tyre crawls, underground tunnels, trye scrambles, even more cargo nets and then crawled under barbed wire. After doing the entire course we then ran towards the finish line only to have to do a second lap. Hey it is called tough guy.

The second lap was easier mentally since you knew what to expect. Physically I was coping pretty good. I could feel tension in my calfs and I thought a few times that I would end up with cramp. However I just changed my running style and was carefull not to put to much pressure on my legs. After finishing the second lap we had to do a water slide down a hillside. Some young boys were sitting there with water pipes soaking the competitors. This was meant to help you slide down easier before you reached the water ditch below. However the boys targeted a woman next to me who stopped at the top of the hill and this caused me to run out of momentum near the bottom. After giving myself a massive chinese burm I ended up in the water and then dragged myself out to run towards the finish line.

There was over 6000 runners who took part. I finished after 3hrs 20mins 42 secs in finishing postion 1148. Jim was a second behind me and a finishing place behind as well

Now I can call myself a TOUGH GUY and an idiot to

---

Photos

Tough Guy 1
I dont have black eyes. Its just some mud thats makes me look dangerous

Tough Guy 4
Jim following behind me

Tough Guy 5
Jim in the background