Crackneck

I’d had this event in my calendar as Mud, Sweat & Bears, I rather liked the idea of bears on the course… However turns out it was “Beers” not “Bears” and I was a little disappointed. This was the first obstacle race that I’d traveled and stayed overnight for. Mum and I drove out to Wagga Wagga on the Friday and stayed at a motel in town. The event itself was on a property just outside of town, and we headed out there early the next morning. The event was well laid out with parking close to the registration and a gathering of little tents near the start and finish line. There was a good selection of about half a dozen obstacles visible from the spectator section. I joined the other League racers at the OCRL tent and set out my supplies bag with them and also with mum near the finish line. Leah & Lachlan, two other Bounce team members were getting ready to race. We were all entered into the Toughest Nut wave, which required a minimum of 4 laps completed to be classed as a Mud

The Spartan Sprint started very early for me when I got up at 4am to make the drive to Picton, south of Sydney. It was a non-eventful drive and we made it to the course, with it’s large Spartan logo spray painted on the grass. The setup looked great, I particularly liked the spear targets which were giant wooden Spartan men with straw bale targets sitting at belly height. I joined the other elite racers at the start line for the 8am elite wave. The MC got the racers all amped up mostly using quotes from 300 , everyone was ready to charge and then we were off. I sprinted straight into the first dam and waded through it, then started on the uphill and under the first barbed wire crawl, it was very low… I actually had to army crawl most of it, then back to running up the hill and over a sloped climb (with ropes to help us). Back down the hill and into the muddy pits where there was a mound of mud followed by a water pit. I jumped from the mud pile as far out into the water pit as possibl

I was very nervous preparing to run Six Foot Track it was the longest race I’d ever run at 45kms and by far the toughest, it was also my first trail marathon. I’d qualified for it with a Marathon the previous year and judging from the times I’d placed myself in Wave 4, expecting to finish in around 6 hours… or at least under 7 hours, which is the cutoff time. Mum dropped Thomas and I off at The Explorers Tree at Katoomba and he went off to join Wave 2, while I waited around in the cold for my wave to start about 20 minutes later. We were soon off and running, a gentle jog to the top of the stairs where we all came to a halt as the runners were reduced to walking pace while we made our way down the wet and slippery stairs, the slow pace however did allow me a lot of time to look around and admire the waterfalls and cliffs as we walked the first kilometre and a bit. Then onto a fire trail where some of the runners took off, I’d been given instructions to take it very easy until I cross