ToughGuy –Nettle Warrior 2010
Sunday 25th July

I like a dirty weekend, and I know Debbie Lewis does too. In fact, Debbie Lewis and I loved our dirty weekend away last year so much that we decided to do it again this year, only this time Adela joined in as well!
Yes, that’s right; it was that time of year for ToughGuy in Wolverhampton – a unique event requiring endurance, stamina, agility and a sense of humour too.
Taking place in and around farmland, the event starts with a firing cannon, the sound of bagpipes, coloured flairs tossed to the ground in front of the start line and fireworks cracking overhead. It’s the start to a race like no other! It’s an event like no other!
A 6 mile off road run to begin with thins out the 3500 competitors as we climb through deep boggy ditches, ascend and descend steep hills repetitively, before navigating our way  through woods littered with hey bails to climb over and netting to crawl under. All this tires your legs and ‘get you in the mood’ for the main part of the event – the assault course known as The Killing Fields.
The Killing Fields is a series of obstacles to tackle over two laps of the course, and includes giant A-frames, Parallel rope climbs across a lake, tire tunnels into swamps and running through fire. Yes, that’s right, running through fire. The route between each obstacle takes you through energy sapping muddy trails and ditches. If that wasn’t enough, the course also required swimming round a lake pushing logs and paddling on rafts as well as submerging your head under a series of logs.
New for this year was The Torture Chamber- a low covered enclosure requiring competitors to crawl on their stomachs through muddy bogs in darkness as you passed through curtains of hanging heavy cow bells and electric shock wires. Exit from this was through small diameter concrete tunnels.
Most competitors take between 2 ½ and 4½ hours to complete, so it really is an endurance event. With this one, as well as being exhausted, you finish feeling battered and bruised but also proud to call yourself a Tough Guy.
Oh what fun we had!

Iain Denby