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Saturday August 23rd 2014 saw the final of the Hydr8 Zero Tough Guy and Gal Challenge take place at the home of mud, Lakes Ranch in Rotorua.
The day kicked off with 50 competitors toeing the start line for the inaugural New Zealand Tough Guy and Gal Championships. This was an "invite only" start for place-getters in from the 12km races at Hawke's Bay, Palmerston North, Wellington, Auckland and the first two Rotorua events.
From when the start hooter went off, it was clear it was going to be a two-horse race between local runner Sjors Corporaal and Aucklander, Josh Harrison. Both had won their respective events on the 9th and 16th of August in Rotorua. The course was suited to both Corporaal, who does most of his training on the farm hills in Murupara and Harrison, an experienced Tough Guy runner, and current record holder for the Firefighter Sky Tower Stair Challenge.
The pair matched each other stride for stride for the first 6km before Harrison pulled away from Corporaal on the second lap, to take the win and the National title in an impressive 57 minutes and 12 seconds. Coming in not far behind was Corporaal, dressed up as a Smurf, in 57 minutes and 37 seconds. Taking third place was Angus McKelvie from Palmerston North in 1:01:14.
8 out of 10 of the women's winners were on the start line, including three of the Auckland event winners, Caroline Cornish, Bridie Bradley and Miriam Gaensicke-Bartley, Hawke's Bay winner Michelle Rennie, both Wellington winners Catherine Dunn and Julie Johnson, and both Rotorua winners, Sue Crowley and Tasmyn Benny. It was anyone's race to start with, but Wellingtonian Julie Johnson proved too strong for the others and won convincingly in 1.07.49 from Gisborne's Michelle Rennie (1.08.30) and local runner Sue Crowley (1.11.42)
The first three male and female competitors in both the open and 40+ grades were presented with a beautiful carved trophy to take home for bragging rights.
Later that morning, over 1600 competitors took on the same course as the national champions, either a 6km or 12km obstacle course including a barb wire crawl, electric crawl, tunnels, hurdles, climbing walls, wobbly bridges and plenty of mud. Rotorua didn't disappoint as the "home of mud" reputation, with plenty of sticky mud to lose your shoes in! There were lots of great costumes, happy people and smiling faces, a perfect end to the 3 months long Tough Guy and Gal series which saw over 18,000 people take part.
Entries for the 2015 events will open on the 1st of February. Keep an eye out on http://ift.tt/R6bFMT for information on dates and venues.
from New Zealand Running Calendar http://ift.tt/1wpUWHS
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