THERE were sprained ankles, cut knees, grazed backsides and even hypothermia as thousands of brave runners lined up to take on the summer 2009 Tough Guy challenge.
More than 3,500 competitors from all over the world made their way to South Perton Farm, near Wolverhampton, yesterday, to take part in the gruelling Nettle Warrior XII event, now in its 24th year.
Cannock Highland Pipeband played, fireworks cracked and smoke billowed across organiser Billy Wilson’s arduous “Killings Fields” stretching out in front of the runners at the start of the nine-mile ordeal.
Ahead of the competitors lay dozens of obstacles, like underwater tunnels, climbing nets, barbed wire and blazing bales of hay, with names such as Somme Surprise, Stalag Escape and Colditz Walls paying tribute to the nation’s war heroes.
Tough Guy veteran James Appleton, from Cambridge, was the first man home with a time of around one hour and 39 minutes.
Wolverhampton investment banker Nik Kandola, aged 36, who has competed in more than a dozen Tough Guys, came in at 12th around ten minutes later.
Exhausted, he said: “It was awesome. I don’t know what Billy’s done to the course this year, but it was seriously hard.”
Fellow Wolverhampton resident Ivan Damyanov, aged 26, who is a fitness instructor in the city’s Firewalker Gym, finished in just under two hours in his first Tough Guy.
“I didn’t imagine it was going to be so hard,” he said.
“At one stage I was cramping up all over my body and I wanted to stop, but everybody was saying to keep going. But I’m glad I finished – I’ll definitely be doing it again.”
New Zealand-born Nikki Pennie, aged 27, from London, was among the first women to finish, after around two and a half hours. She said: “I loved it. It’s constantly challenging – it’s not like going for a run down the road because there’s so much going on. It’s like a big kid’s playground.”
However, as in previous events, many failed to make the finish line as injuries put paid to the race for hundreds of runners. Among those to find the going too tough was 28-year-old Darren McColgan, from Hertfordshire, whose sprained ankle forced him out of the race on his first lap.
He said: “I was going a little too fast and my ankle went from underneath me – it was very painful. I carried on for bit, but it went again and I had to stop.
