Every year there is an event that takes place in South Staffordshire, called Tough Guy. This event is designed to be the original survival ordeal; a test of physical and mental endurance aiming to take you beyond your limits on torture rack obstacles known as The Killing Fields, following a wild terrain warm up i.e. a cross-country run followed by two laps of an obstacle course.

At the end of July members of Potton and Sandy Clubs took part in this madness, joined by a few members of other ESKA clubs.

The ESKA Pirates - Vicky Byford, Robert Emery, Tony Stones, Paul Grimsey, & Farah Malik
(From left to right)

Having looked at the Tough Guy website a number of months ago it was clear that this was no stroll in the park. However, what wasn't known was that the organisers continually modify the course to keep everyone on their toes and increase the torture factor for those mad enough to take part.

The first section entailed The Country Miles; a simple cross-country jog which no-one really knows the length of. What we didn't know was that the organisers had kindly decided to reduce the length of this, as the crow flies, but they had also increased the pain factor by making us run up and down a hill eleven times! This was then followed by the Ghurka Grand National - scrambling up and down the bank of a river (mud by the time we reached it) and crawling under cargo nets to end up head first in the water.

The ESKA Pirates having completed the Country Miles & Ghurka Grand National

The time had come to start the first lap of the Killing Fields. Due to the large number of competitors some time was spent waiting for a space in which to attack each obstacle. These varied from 40 ft cargo net climbs, scrambling over a series of 8 ft high walls, wading through shoulder-high, water filled ditches, crawling along old sewer pipes, 200 m of knee-high, shoe-swallowing mud, to swimming across a lake pushing a log in front of you. If you survive this the first time around, you have to then repeat it again!

The ESKA Pirates swinging from the Behemoth

Tackling the Colditz Walls & the Chicane Torture

Wading the depths of the Fiery Holes

The Dead Leg Swamp consumes all that enters

The ESKA Pirates took 4 hours 39 minutes to get around the 12 miles (as far as anyone knows) of the Tough Guy course and came 1800th. Out of the 2350 people who entered the event only 1876 completed it.

Will we do it again? Probably, so look out as we may try to recruit you to join us