Tough Enough?

Our Work Crew

Back in July, my work mates decided it would be fun to get a crew of us together for a bit of a laugh and do something more exciting than the usual after work drinks across the road.

Who knew they had mud, mud, and more mud in mind??

There were 13 of us in the team and for some reason we thought we'd dress up with lady bug wings and antennae. Yes, this included two deparment heads, our managing director, one manager, one senior manager, and eights execs. We also had blue face paint on just to make sure nothing was discreet.

Lots of others dressed up!

So there we were at the Woodhill Sands Equestrian Centre on a sunny day in the middle of winter, gearing up for the challenge ahead. Apparently we were supposed to go through a 6k obstacle course of green hills, mud pools, walls you climb over, thick knee deep mud you trek through, barb wire to crawl under, waist deep mud rivers, walls to climb over with 6-inch wide planks to walk across, a freezing mud pool dive, and a net to crawl under with mud water covering your legs and wrists as you do. Easy.

Its called the Tough Guy and Gal Challenge, held across four locations in New Zealand over winter (as if the course wasn't hard enough!) and each year thousands of Kiwis join the fray.

I'm not even going to pretend that I did well. Of our little team, my buddy and I were the last to finish the course. Truth be told if he hadn't waited for me the whole time, he'd probably have finished waaaaaayyyy before I did.

the meat pie ladies

In my defense, I couldn't stop laughing the whole time and I think that's what did me in. That, plus the fact that I am ridiculously unfit and won't be able to jog a mile without wheezing and clawing my way through the last couple of meters to finish. Yea, I think it was the laughing.

At the end of the journey, you do get a ginormous goody bag from the sponsors, a cup of water, and a hot meat pie for your troubles. None of the clothes you wore would survive the mud, and you'd probably need at least 3 showers to scrub everything off but what the heck?! It was all good fun!

Two months on and some of us are still talking about it and suggesting we do it again next year but this time with an even bigger team. Hmm.. I wonder if we get to go as fairy princesses this time.

Ever supportive PIC with a pre race hug