In short, the Stampede is an obstacle course. A 10km long obstacle course. With mud. When I first found out about it, I immediately started organising a group of my friends to compete as a team for the Brisbane event in September. So last weekend, the 8th of September, I made my way to Woodford, just north of Brisbane, to compete in the event along with my fellow Booby Munchers (that was the name of our team, courtesy of Kate-Lyn).
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Booby Munchers in all their glory...
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I think most people do some sort of training or preparation for something like this, since it's not just a 10km flat run, it's cross-country, the obstacles require various skills in the form of strength, agility, endurance etc. Well, we just kinda rocked up, ready to face whatever was thrown at us. Might I add, that's not a recommended strategy...but we got through it anyway.
The obstacles are distributed roughly 1 per 500m, which breaks up the 10km quite nicely into small sections. There's quite a variety of obstacles including an ice bath, army crawling through thick mud, gladiator run, climbing over a bus, hay-bale-hurdle, and jumping over a fire pit. The big ones though are a huge slip'n'slide (I'm going to take a guess at around 50 meters long...) just before the 5km mark, and the very last obstacle, running through dangling wires with 10,000 volts coming out of them.
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It was totally a race...and I was totally winning...
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Did I mention you get a free beer? Yep, free beer at the finish line (or water... ). If you're lucky, you'll also score a free twin pack of protein cookies from a health food stand (they tasted surprisingly good...so good). And that, is the Stampede. If you like running, mud, obstacles and beer, then Stampede is for you. If you said 'No' to any of those things, you'd be better staying at home, perhaps sitting on a comfy couch, getting a foot massage, sipping a cup of herbal tea.
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You might not be able to tell, but this is after the race...also we lost two Booby Munchers along the way.
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If it sounds like something you're interesting, there's more than just the Stampede. There's other events that revolve around running through mud and obstacles such as Mud Run or Warrior Dash. But the the big one, is Tough Mudder, and it's next on the to-do list. It's twice as long, and designed by the British Special Forces...sounds easy. Might need to train for that one. Are you tough enough?
Chris
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