Rotorua Tough Guy and Gal Challenge - Run10k

I started out the first 5km very fast and assertively. I had a lot of pushing and squeezing past people at the obstacles and in the forest to reach first place. When the men in front of me saw that I was coming first, they kindly moved aside, as the paths were very narrow and the swamps very deep.

I felt I ran very well in the forest and hiull sections of the race especially, and am pleased with the startegies I used for the mud swamps.

In the second half of the race, I was caught up by another female competitor, and we battled it out neck and neck until she finally broke away in the last 3km.

In the last 3km, my blisters had mud inside them, my ankles wre yelling all sorts of swear-words at me and my shoes were heavy with all the mud and water. This is probably one of the longest 10km run races out there!
I put in a final kick and ran strongly in last 300 metres to the finish to take 2nd prize.

- Push more in the mid-section of the race where the course was flatter.

- Tape my necklace to my chest next time to stop it bouncing around.

Catch up with the first and third prize winners and have phtos taken. 1st place-getter turned out to be a world-class mountain runner- very interesting to talk to.

Walk to campervan and have a warm shower, get changed and replenish fuel stores.


- Getting stuck in the swamp
- Tripping on two of the hurdles
- Too much foot traffic around some of the hurdles (began to lap some slow people)
- Angry blisters


Awesome course, awesome race and nice volunteers. However, the management royally stuffed-up the starts- some women started with the men, some 10km people only did 5km, so there was mass-confusion about the placings. We had to stay behind to figure out the placings of everyone, but thankfully it was all verified in the end. Next time, the race organisers need to stagger the starts, make sure no women run in the mens start, and no 10km people bonk-out after 5km yet record their placings as 10km's. The craziest part however, was having 2 chutes to run into!! You could choose whichever one to finish in, therefore placings got all jumbled up depending on which chute you finished in. Race organizers should also time the race to verify results also.

But all that aside, it was an awesome race and one I will definitely be running next year.