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February 6, 2010 | 04:09 GMT
More than 5,000 people braved the Tough Guy 2010 obstacle course officially dubbed the world's "most dangerous taste of mental and physical pain". Amongst them was our very own Dr. Scollard. Read all about it.
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I've never been one not to like a challenge - I've jumped out of an aeroplane at 15000 feet, been chased by angry bulls in Pamplona, almost drowned in Class 5 blue water rapids, paraglided off cliffs and did an Ironman last year...but ToughGuy was..well Tough. ToughGuy is a bizarre assault course run near Telford in Staffordshire every year on the 31st January - 5000 folks from around the world take on an 8 mile cross country run followed by a perverse assault course comprising scaling 40 foot cargo nets, wading through ice cold trenches, being submerged in freezing water, crawling through underground pipes, fire pits, electric shocks, dragging your frozen remains under barbed wire through freezing mud. While it is great fun at first , and the obstacles while challenging are not too onerous...it is the cold that gets you. The air temperature was -4C, the Killing Fields as they are dubbed were frozen solid with thick ice coating all of the pools and lakes. The mud was rock solid and treacherous. Obstacle after obstacle was filled with deep water full of broken ice so thick it sounds like rocks banging off each other...
Four of us did ToughGuy for a laugh - dressed as chickens. All in all it was a great experience, but I have never been so cold in my life ever . I do these kind of things to push myself, explore my limits and ask tough questions of myself to see if I can answer. Towards the end of the ToughGuy course after almost 3 hours in sub zero conditions, stiff with cold, covered in mud, soaked through and with multiple cuts and bruises, I think I came close to not finding an answer. But not finishing was never an option just as doing TougGuy again is not an option either. My efforts were caught on camera and appeared on the BBC website and a few other publications. I am glad I did it, I'd highly recommend it - once; and I will never complain of being cold again. Many thanks to Donncha for submitting this story, remember that the website and newsletter are intended for your news, so if you have a tale to tell then submit it to news@bedsroad.org
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