About the SUCK..
Ok, you may have to be a little crazy for signing up to something that is called the SUCK, a 12 hour overnight event, nothing like an obstacle race, so going into the complete unknown. Maybe I signed up because of the bloody hand on the website or the fact that it had the words extreme in the title that makes you want to sign up to these things? Maybe as with most things, I am just damn stupid. I like to think its about testing my own strength, abilities and endurance, to see how far I have come and of course to find out if I can actually do it. It could be because I was brought up with my dad in the Marines. I will probably never really know why I want to do it, except that I really do love it.
The SUCK however is like no other event that I have done, created by Guinness World Record Holder and 2 x Spartan Death Race Winner, Joe Decker. It will include a lot of grit and mental anguish, not just doing an AMRAP session, not just testing your overall fitness but testing every aspect. The 12-hour overnight event is a test of physical strength, mental toughness and intestinal fortitude designed to push you to your limits but ultimately empower you. It will consist of trail running, military calisthenics, carrying heavy loads, lifting awkward objects and much more. What have I done now??
Once we signed up we had to get the list of mandatory gear (this is gonna be heavy):
The SUCK - Mandatory Gear:
The SUCK - Mandatory Gear:
- Ruck Sack / Backpack - I personally recommend a 60 liter / 3500 cubic inch
- CamelBak hydration plus pack - recommend 70 - 100 oz
- Life Jacket
- 8lb sledgehammer
- Old car tire
- Men 2 x 50lb (22.67 kg) sandbags
- Women 2 x 30lb (13.6 kg) sandbags
- Standard Size Military Duffle Bag 24" X 36"
- 2 x 5 gallon (19 liters) buckets
- Headlamp
- Trail shoes
- Work gloves
- Workout gear
- Roll of duct tape
- Warm/cold weather gear
- Plenty of food, water & electrolytes for the entire 12 hours
- Suggested - snake bite kit and first aid kit
It hasn't even started yet..
Its hard to believe that the week before I was seriously thinking about not doing this event, my lack of training, mentality and the last minute suck training put all sorts of doubts in my head. I didn't think I was strong enough physically or mentally to do it. There was a lot of internal turmoil happening and in the end I decided not to do it, but to do the 4 hour Gut Check Session instead. I knew this would still be hard, but knew I could do it. So I 'unofficially' changed from the 12 hour overnight to the 4 hour overnight, this helped me feel a little better about the whole event. I guess I didn't lose complete faith as otherwise I would have contacted Joe and Nicole to change it and do an 'unofficial' change, my idea was that at least if I could continue I still had the option to do so, instead of finishing early.
| When I signed up for the Suck back in June, I had every intention of practicing buckets, training with my suck babies 'Bob and Betty', training with the full ruck (lets face it there was a hell of a lot of weight that I needed to carry).
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All the weight definitely stated to add up and my ruck got just a little heavy. Ideally I would have tested all the equipment out, testing the ruck and weight (luckily I had already tested it for 6 hours during Spartan, otherwise this could have been interesting), how it all packed together, the best way to carry everything, the most comfortable way of carrying everything, and then all of sudden the day was here. I hadn't done anything that I was supposed to do as I had that 'Oh F*@!' moment.
Dave had packed the 30kg buddy bag for me on the morning, after trying to work out what worked best to fill up the buddy bag, having two bags of mulch made it too big and bulky and having two bags of sand would have made it too small and hard to manouver (still the same weight), so we opted for both mulch and sand. This way I could easily balance between my shoulders, it also had a nice little air pocket that cushioned my head and made a little pillow, carrying this amount of weight, you really did want to think about comfort. My other concern was that my buddy bag were a lot different from the ones that were posted, plus mine hand handles and you were not allowed to use handles.
Luckily for me I have the most practical other half, who put all my gear together as well as pimped them up, he put my buddy bag together, smartly turning it inside out to stop me using the handles, put the mulch and sand into bin bags, since if it did rain the mulch and sand wouldn't retain the water and of course make my buddy even heavier.
My buckets were sprayed a nice bright pink, so I could pick them out in the sea of buckets. Dave also made my two suck babies, a little girl wrapped in pink gaffa and a little boy wrapped in blue gaffa, I could then easily find them again if I needed to.
My bucket handles had some extra padding to make it a little nicer to carry, nothing to big too then compromise my grip, especially when you are carrying 13.6kg in each bucket.
After testing out all the equipment (that morning), yep that's how prepared I was, everything got packed and tested out how I would carry everything and off course making sure that I had the mandatory gear list. I had a larger tyre which we worked out, actually fitted over the top of me, and I could use it to help me carry anything I needed too.
It was then coffee and lunch time with the dog, nutrition for the event is always key, so I thought I would go for something a little bit more substantial since it was going to be a long night, so I ordered grilled zucchini and halloumi fritters with bacon and poached egg (nothing can really go wrong with this), part from it not being grilled but fried (you would think the word fritters would give this away), so it probably wasn't one the best things to eat before an event, the grease just sat in my stomach for the rest of the day, so I ended up avoiding food including dinner (not really the best of starts).
It was then coffee and lunch time with the dog, nutrition for the event is always key, so I thought I would go for something a little bit more substantial since it was going to be a long night, so I ordered grilled zucchini and halloumi fritters with bacon and poached egg (nothing can really go wrong with this), part from it not being grilled but fried (you would think the word fritters would give this away), so it probably wasn't one the best things to eat before an event, the grease just sat in my stomach for the rest of the day, so I ended up avoiding food including dinner (not really the best of starts).
I then thought I should have a quick nanna nap in the afternoon, but if you don't usually do this, this is really hard to do, plus the anticipation and anxiousness for the night ahead, didn't help, so in the end, it was just best to get up and pack the car, by the time we did all this it was time to go.
The traffic was a little but crazier than expected and took us nearly an hour to get down King, I was starting to think we weren't going to get there on time, this didn't really help that it was Friday night and everyone was leaving the city. We eventually arrived at the designated meeting point 'Avondale Heights Reserve' and found that no one was there, and by this point we were getting a little bit agitated as the tension mounted in the car. This really was going to be a long night, with the usual directions arguments. Luckily for us, Dave Syme was also there and called up Trent, and we were back in the right direction (which is where I thought it was initially, plus I was there the week before).
We Made It!!! I am still not sure if this was a relief or not...
It hadn't officially started yet we still had to get all our gear down to base camp, the smart ones had wheelbarrows to help them down, we just had us. Cant believe how much stuff we had, and that was just for me, it would have been a nightmare with Dave's stuff too. After getting the gear down, I had to then register, and then had to step on the scales (amazingly my weight went up by 2kg from the day before), so not happy about this, nearly had to repack the buddy bag, until Maryanne told me to weigh myself without my shoes and gators. Surprisingly this took off 1kg so I had the right amount in my buddy bag (thank god, I didn't want to destroy Dave's handy work).
Both the 4 hour gut check session and the 12hr SUCK started at the same time, which helped with my 4 hour decision making process. The group started off nice and large, I wasn't looking at going quickly, I just wanted to take it 'One Fuckit at a time' I didn't want to make the mistake of going out too hard too soon.
Everyone was gathered together, we were told to choose between one of the babies, so I choose Bob and put on our life jackets (seriously we were getting wet so soon, so I headed off to get me shortie on, no way was I going to suffer from the cold so early on, both the American and Australian national anthem were then played and then it was time to go.
One Fuckit at a Time
Trying to remember the full night is going to be interesting. A quick run up to the top of the hill and down again for a warm up, and then
It was then 50m swim across the river, the smell was something to be desired, but as with most things, what do you do? Get in and do it!! At least at this stage the sun as still shining and it was still quite warm, so you didn't stay wet for very long. After our little dip, we were then sent up the hill for some burpee broad jumps (up hill!!), only I decided to skip the jump part and just burpeed up the hill, already lost in my own thoughts I didn't even realize I was making this even harder then it needed to be, it was only until Jenny and Shaun told me about the jump that I was skipping (typically I was nearly to the top of hill), not surprised it was taking me so bloody long to get up. The suck baby was also carried to the top and back down again.
After the lovely hill warm up, we were then introduced to the 'fuckit' carry, we also had to take our head torches and any food food/drink we would have needed for about 3-4 hours. The trail we took seemed to go on forever and the bloody fuckits felt like they got heavier and heavier. The worst part was that you know walking there, you still needed to walk back with them (at some point during the night). The fuckit carry probably brought out the OCD in people as they started to count steps, weirdly I started off at 20 then moved up to 60 and then moved back down to 50. I was seriously grateful for the extra comfy cushioning handles that made it a little easier to carry, still reciting the following:
'One Fuckit Step at a Time'
After finally reaching out destination point, it was time to get down to business. Using one suck baby and complete a series of exercises, and then after each exercise it was time time to get up another huge hill that was located under the bridge, and back down again to carry on with another set of exercises.
- x 50 suck baby shoulder press
- x 50 squats holding suck baby
- x 50 push ups
Just to add to the excitement to the nights events, for a moment I thought that they may have had the possibility of the whole night being cancelled after a bush fire erupted close to the bridge, with the fire brigade being called. The night didnt get cancelled, but everyone that was climbing up the bridge needed to come back down, at this stage I was on my second lap of the bridge after completing 2 of the 3 sets of exercises. So we then had to fill up our buckets (half way for women and full for men) and navigate a 4x4 dirt track and make our way to the quarry.
Its funny how you don't even notice it getting dark, until its dark by the time I got to the quarry, the water was splashing around the bucket, so it took me a little longer as I needed to slow my pace to ensure I still had enough water in the bucket. Putting the bucket down, I then got told to get in the quarry, swim to the other and touch the opposite wall and come back and do a series of exercises, followed by a 800m run around the quarry, just to do it another 2 times.
x 50 shoulder press with bucket
x 50 squats with bucket
x 50 push press with bucket
x 50 shoulder press with bucket
x 50 squats with bucket
x 50 push press with bucket
I have to say the quarry was absolutely beautiful at night, if you didn't think about the water or what was in it, I actually enjoyed it. The water was warm (don't want to think why it was warm), and the sky was clear that when you were doing back stroke you just looked up to the stars, it was simply stunning (only problem was you could easily find yourself swimming in a diagonal direction, oops). There was one point that I thought I saw a shooting star but then realized it was a satellite, then a plane went overhead which seemed a little close for comfort.
The path around the quarry wasn't the easiest to navigate especially in the dark, a section you had to climb over were just rocks, also at one stage if you followed your own path you could easily just walk off the quarry. I know at this stage a few people were already suffering from the cold, so was really happy with my wetsuit. I also knew that we must have been approaching the 4 hour mark as those that were competing the 4hr were sent back to base camp. It didn't even cross my mind to finish, and was happy with my decision to carry on with 'one fuckit at a time'. Once we had done our 3 laps, we got to throw the buckets of water away YEAH!! then it was back to the bridge, along the dirt track to where we left our suck babies.
I collected Bob and Betty and then it was a long trek back to base camp, by this point I was walking with Kerry and Erin which helped break down the walk, also Kerry pointed out that I wasn't holding the bucket correctly, if I held onto my thumb my grip would last a little bit longer, plus for some really silly reason I was walking at my normal pace instead of actually walking quickly.
The time we got back to base camp, we had enough time to quickly refuel and check in. We had to then pick up our buddy bags, whom I started to refer to as 'Dad', mainly due to the military reference and the fact I could've sworn he kept putting on weight. So with 'dad' on my shoulders, I hiked up the hill and down again, but before we did that we had to complete 50 burpees just to add in some exhaustion to the hike. We had 3 sets of different exercise, complemented with 3 hikes up the hill with 'dad.
- 50 x burpees - hike up the hill with dad (buddy bag)
- 50 x sit ups - hike up the hill with dad (buddy bag)
- 50 x push ups and yep another hike up the hill with dad (buddy bag)
'Dad' and I seemed to get well acquainted during this stage, and I seemed to have lost all concept of time. During the exercises I used 'Dad' to help stabilize my feet during the sit ups, thank goodness we didn't have to actually use him for anything else apart from the hike. Each trek up the hill was hard, luckily 'dad' was quite evenly distributed across both shoulders, but it didn't stop the weight from pressing down, as your chest started to feel compressed. Going up hill didn't really help with the breathing, so I kept with my motto even without the buckets - 'one fuckit at a time'.
This helped with powering up the hill, not thinking about how far you needed to go, but just doing it, once back at base camp, we said our goodbyes to 'Dad', i wouldn't be seeing him for a while after this.
 | Next up we had our ruck carry, carrying all our gear except for one such baby and of course dad. We had to then head back down along the path towards the bridge, I can't remember much of this walk I must have been lost in my own thoughts as suddenly I found I was there, plus I was walking with Erin so helped break the journey down and make it a little but more enjoyable. Once we got there, we had another series of exercises and then it was up the side of the track (another huge climb) and then back down the bottom to complete the tasks. |
This is the point I nearly lost it, I just couldn't work out how do a push press with a bag (especially as it was so uneven), Dave made me calm down and think about it logically, and after he said about using the the side pockets and holding the suck baby I eventually did them. Thank goodness, as I seriously thought that I would be there until Sunday trying to complete the reps.
| So with the ruck we did:
| |
After this, is probably where the real fun began, as we got told that we needed to get in the river and make our way down stream back to base camp (without the ruck), but with enough food and water to last a couple of hours. I had Dave's camelbak that fitted in the back of my wetsuit (which annoyingly I later lost, not in his good books eek). Dave kept us company walking alongside the river and throwing in stones in front of us to scare any fish, eels or anything else creepy in the water. I was in a group with Georgie, Darren, Erin and Ant thankfully, as to do this on your own would have been totally freaky, it was also at this stage when my torch ran out of battery (you would think I would have learnt after Enduro, but obviously not).
At times it was actually quite pleasant in the river, if you didn't think about what was in the water, or saw the peering eyes in the trees. The water was peaceful and tranquil with the mist coming off it, it was almost mystical. You did have to fight through what ever was floating on top and through the logs, and branches in the river, at points you could actually reach the bottom and walk, but if you're a genuine short arse like me, this didn't happen that frequently. There were a few points that there were some big splashes, and we all hoped it was Dave, but I don't think it was. All of us had heard the stories about the eels, leeches and body parts (yep actual human remains were recovered a week later after last years event).
 |  | It was starting to feel like that we were never going to reach the end, and once we finally did, we all picked up our swimming pace just to get out. We had a shock once we got out of the water, as the air chill hit you and your body temperature just dropped, it got so cold (I think I would have preferred to stay in the river). |
Dave and Jenny came and put a blanket around me and helped me out of my wet clothes and into something dry. I'm not even sure how long this took, but it must have been a while especially trying to get another pair of compression socks on whilst you are already cold and wet. Dave would have had a serious workout just for trying to put my clothes on, there was definitely no room for being modest at this stage. I tried helping, and found I was more of a hindrance as my hands and fingers were not working as they should.
After being dressed, we checked in again and then went for a nice jog back to where we left our rucks by the bridge. There were no additional exercises once we got there, we just had to pick up our gear and walk back to base camp. You could feel the bag getting getting heavier, but I still kept with the same motto. 'One Fuckit at a Time'.
On the way back I saw Sharon and Carole, accompanying Kerry back to the bag. It was great to have a quick squeeze and some words of encouragement, especially as Sharon knew how close I was to pulling out last week.
I knew we must be close to the end, as by this stage the sun had risen, and once I saw base camp I was a little more excited. Of course it wasn't quite over, we had to then get our rucks to the top of the track. Dropped it off and discovered I had some empty beer bottles in the bag (thanks Dave), didn't even realize I was carrying these. I ran back down, and then got told we had to get 'Dad' to the top, and with another run down. This time we must be finished, nope we had to pick up whatever we had left and take it to the top, surely this must be the last one and with another run down the hill arms spraying everywhere I was told it was over. I just collapsed, I actually done it!!
| I was in a state of disbelief, I could hardly believe it, I did it, I did the 12 hours, especially when I was so close to pulling out, not only that but I was second female to cross the finish line! I would not have been able to do this without all the help and support of everyone, especially Dave whom prepared everything for me and always believed in me, even when I don't believe in myself. The support of everyone that was doing the SUCK too, knowing what each and everyone has given and what we went through together. |  |
There were so many inspiring people out there with me, we all have our stories and we all have our own reasons for doing what we do, and there is nothing better then coming out on the other side, and earning your coin. I have to remember that I did work hard for that coin and I do deserve it, even during the times when I didn't want to keep going (mainly before it even started).
I couldn't think of a better way to spend a Friday night.
'The Only Way to Define Your Limits is by Going Beyond Them'
Gut Check Fitness
EMBRACE THE SUCK
Gut Check Fitness
EMBRACE THE SUCK
 Thanks to Dave for always being by my side, believing in me more than I believe in myself. |  My awesome and amazing friend Erin, whom with less than 4 days to prepare came through and triumphed. |  Jenny, who I always think is amazing and was there every time I needed her (without even asking) thank you.  Trent for believing in me, even during my times of extreme self doubts. |
 Linda and Kyle who's happy smiley faces always make me laugh even during the darkest times during the night.
 Jackie P, who is just amazing strong, fit and determined. All I can say is wow, and congratulations on taking out the win. |  Kerry, who's sheer will to never give up and to power through was nothing short of inspiring. Jackie and Jonno, whose photos capture the moments so amazingly, and whom I always seem to steal the images for my Facebook profiles.  |
Georgie, Darren, Ant, Erin and Dave for accompanying me down the river, making it a lot more bearable and fun. It would have been a long trip without you guys there. It was a great way to get to know you all and can't wait until the next one.
 |  | Joe and Nicole Decker, who brought the SUCK to Australia. It was an amazing event, and one that I would highly recommend to anyone. It tested all facets of my health and fitness and own mentality. I am still in shock that it is now over. I can't believe that I did it. THANK YOU |
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