SMASHING your body for 24 increasingly pain-filled, non-stop hours.
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Where do I sign up? Actually, why would I sign up? Why would anyone sign up? Most would probably say “because I can”.
Even if they can’t.
Last the full day, that is, of the Obstacle Course Racing 24-hour Enduro World Championships. We’re talking endless laps of an 11.6km obstacle course.
Up and over fences taller than Shaquille O’Neal with no foot holes or hand grips. And running to the next one.
Scrambling on your side under barbed wire entanglements. And running to the next one.
Hanging sloth-like beneath hard, hairy ropes and hauling yourself hand over hand above a mudbath. And running to the next one.
Grabbing another harsh, hairy rope and hauling yourself metres into the air just to ring a bell before slithering back to earth. And running to the next one.
The Roman rings. The cargo nets. The monkey bars. The dam swim. Rain, hail or shine you go. Around and around and around. Hour after hour.
Oh, yeah. Sign me up.
At first glance mild-mannered veterinarian Ash Phipps probably wouldn’t warrant a second glance. Until you notice he has that one thing peculiar to ultra-competitive masochists — the thousand-yard stare.
Clearly Ash is simply marking time until his next challenge.
Having returned from London in October where he lined up with hundreds of other ultra-insane competitors for the Enduro Worlds he is now back on terra firma in Rochy.
But it is only a matter of weeks until he begins preparations for the next event.
For the 30-year-old obstacle course racing is even beyond addiction, it is his way of life.
The vet, who also runs a small farm, spends most of his spare time away from the circuit in the gym or toning and honing his body with hockey, touch rugby and mixed netball.
Over a day’s competition at the qualifying course in June, Ash travelled at an average of 5.3km/h, faster than the average walking speed — and when did you last try walking 24 hours non-stop, never mind all the other stuff?
For an entire day he found the strength to push on.
“During the race, you have a pit area between the finish and start line and you pop in there between each lap and have some food, water, get warm, a change of clothes and head out again,’’ Ash said.
“For the first two I just said to my pit crew I’ll keep going and every lap after that I didn’t want to stay longer than 10 minutes each time because you cramp up or get tired,” he said.
Ash has worked towards sixth place for a long time — a mind-numbing 20 hours a week at Snap Fitness Echuca. And that doesn’t include hours of cardio outside that — all in the name of preparation.
He has gone from entering Shepparton’s Mad Cow Run a few years ago to now being at the forefront of Australia’s hopes for an overseas world title in endurance obstacle course racing.
From the Mad Cow and Spartan race series (competing with friends and building his endurance), he went on to put his name down for a series in South Australia.
“I competed in the True Grit Adelaide event, knowing I needed to place in the top five to qualify for the Sydney (worlds qualifying) event. And in the end I came third,” he said.
“But in Sydney it was so different — I was in the elite wave, and there were people from all over the world, with most from the UK and South Africa.
“I attempted (Sydney) last year and it wasn’t a world champs event, I just went for the experience and did eight laps in 24 hours, so I had a fair idea of what to expect this year.
“But this year was still different because it was a world championship and I was competing for Australia.
“One of my work colleagues was my pit crew, however we met fellow obstacle racing members at the event and we helped each other out.
‘‘I finished sixth in the elite men and seventh overall. That result qualified me for the London 15km World Championships,’’ he said.
Everyone who completed 75 miles or 120km or more qualified for the London event.
It was never in Ash’s plans to get to London; he only wanted to reach the lofty heights he set for himself.
“For me it was more about beating a personal goal of 88km, and then after I’d done that I wanted to beat 100km and I did that too,” he said.
“The position wasn’t at the forefront of my brain for me, it was just beating those personal goals.’’
The feelings his body endured after the Obstacle Course Racing 24-hour Enduro World Championship were like nothing else he’d ever experienced.
“The initial two days after (Sydney) my whole body felt incredibly tired; and sore. But after a week or so I was back into training,” he said.