As a Tough Mudder blog, we don’t talk about many other obstacle course races here at TMtour2014, but as The Stampede was my first ever obstacle course that I ran, and what got me into the sport in the first place, I thought it fitting that I write up a review of last weekends The Stampede Melbourne which I ran in.
So last weekend was my third Stampede event – I have run it in the previous two years in Melbourne. Like I mentioned above, the 2012 event was my first ever obstacle course that I ran, and it is what got me hooked onto the sport. Back then I was not as fit as these days, and the thought of running 10km straight, through the mud and over obstacle including through electric wires and ice baths, scared me. I was a part of a team of 10, named Super Heroes In Training (we are pretty funny ...). Being the showman that I am and always wanting to be centre of attention, I decided not to buy a matching shirt like everyone else, but wear a full body Superman outfit (the thing being that I had past my training, and was a full fledged superhero, and better than my friends who were still in training). As awesome as I looked, and as many compliments as I got at the event, it wasn’t the most ideal outfit to run in. Even with my poor outfit choice and my lack of fitness, I still had an amazing time running The Stampede in 2012.
So last weekend was my third Stampede event – I have run it in the previous two years in Melbourne. Like I mentioned above, the 2012 event was my first ever obstacle course that I ran, and it is what got me hooked onto the sport. Back then I was not as fit as these days, and the thought of running 10km straight, through the mud and over obstacle including through electric wires and ice baths, scared me. I was a part of a team of 10, named Super Heroes In Training (we are pretty funny ...). Being the showman that I am and always wanting to be centre of attention, I decided not to buy a matching shirt like everyone else, but wear a full body Superman outfit (the thing being that I had past my training, and was a full fledged superhero, and better than my friends who were still in training). As awesome as I looked, and as many compliments as I got at the event, it wasn’t the most ideal outfit to run in. Even with my poor outfit choice and my lack of fitness, I still had an amazing time running The Stampede in 2012.
So that was my first experience with The Stampede. I also ran the 2013 event, with my Mother and her gym friend. I was more prepared for this event, having run a couple Tough Mudder events since the first Stampede a year prior. Mum, who was turning 60 a month after the event, killed it, and Tash being a fitness guru absolutely tore it apart! From what I remember though, it rained the entire day, and we were extremely freezing by the end of the run.
Back to last weekend’s event. Having run the previous two years, I had a fair idea of what to expect. You can’t really compare Tough Mudder and The Stampede to each other, as they are directed towards much different age groups – Tough Mudder is mainly run by the 21-30 year olds, with a high percentage of males over females, while The Stampede is a much more family orientated event, with kids much younger than 10 allowed to run with their parents around their own section of the course. The Stampede has two different age groups which tend to run their events, the younger generation – kids under 14 – and the older generation – the parents, 40+ years old. There isn’t a huge presence of the 21-30 year olds which you see at Tough Mudder. Now this is neither a good nor a bad thing. They are just two different events, both of which are mud runs, and shouldn't be comparable to each other because of this.
Back to the event last weekend – I keep getting distracted! I rocked up into the ‘Hub’, and collected my bib. I had a pink wristband attached to mine, as I purchased the multiple laps option. My plan for the weekend was to run 4 laps of the 10km course, with the final lap being the last wave at 1pm, which my Mum and brother Ben were running in (this was Ben’s first obstacle course race ever).
I lined up in the starting wave for the day at 9am, and off we went. With this only being a 10km run, I went out relatively hard, as I knew I could keep up the pace for quite a while, especially after having completed 3 laps of Tough Mudder in a day just a few weeks ago in Sydney.
On the course map, released a few days before the event, it was stated that there was 30 obstacles on the 10km course. There was also an option to run a 5km lap. A bit over 3 km into the course, the 10km runners split off from the 5km runners, and all met back up later down the road. This is a great idea, as it gives first timers and those who are not fit enough an option to work up to the 10km run next year (the kids course is 1.5km long).
For such a short course (compared to Tough Mudder anyways), there was plenty of water stations, 5 or 6 in total. That’s one every 2 kilometres, which is perfect. One thing which I’ve said numerous times which I would change about Tough Mudder, would be having more drink stations. The only thing which The Stampede lacked was bananas at these drink stations, but I guess as it’s only a 10km course, bananas aren’t really necessary, unless you are doing multiple laps (as much as I don’t normally eat bananas, I was craving them throughout my 4 laps!)
The obstacles were all pretty well set up. I won’t go into detail for every single one, but some of the stand outs included the Water Worx, walking through knee deep water, climbing over a series of floating barrels while the fire department sprayed you in the face with fire hoses, Tyre Tumble, climbing up and over a tyre wall which reached maybe 5 metres off the ground, Slip N Slide, a 30 metres water slide, Cargo Heights, climbing up and down a storage container via cargo nets, and Ayres Rock, a 3 metre high 45 degree slanted wall, which you pull yourself up with a rope, underneath a tight cargo net, all the while being drenched by a sprinkler.
I lined up in the starting wave for the day at 9am, and off we went. With this only being a 10km run, I went out relatively hard, as I knew I could keep up the pace for quite a while, especially after having completed 3 laps of Tough Mudder in a day just a few weeks ago in Sydney.
On the course map, released a few days before the event, it was stated that there was 30 obstacles on the 10km course. There was also an option to run a 5km lap. A bit over 3 km into the course, the 10km runners split off from the 5km runners, and all met back up later down the road. This is a great idea, as it gives first timers and those who are not fit enough an option to work up to the 10km run next year (the kids course is 1.5km long).
For such a short course (compared to Tough Mudder anyways), there was plenty of water stations, 5 or 6 in total. That’s one every 2 kilometres, which is perfect. One thing which I’ve said numerous times which I would change about Tough Mudder, would be having more drink stations. The only thing which The Stampede lacked was bananas at these drink stations, but I guess as it’s only a 10km course, bananas aren’t really necessary, unless you are doing multiple laps (as much as I don’t normally eat bananas, I was craving them throughout my 4 laps!)
The obstacles were all pretty well set up. I won’t go into detail for every single one, but some of the stand outs included the Water Worx, walking through knee deep water, climbing over a series of floating barrels while the fire department sprayed you in the face with fire hoses, Tyre Tumble, climbing up and over a tyre wall which reached maybe 5 metres off the ground, Slip N Slide, a 30 metres water slide, Cargo Heights, climbing up and down a storage container via cargo nets, and Ayres Rock, a 3 metre high 45 degree slanted wall, which you pull yourself up with a rope, underneath a tight cargo net, all the while being drenched by a sprinkler.
As a Tough Mudder regular (having completed 15 laps across 7 events to date), none of these obstacles were exceptionally challenging for myself, but I can see how OCR and Mud Runner first timers would struggle. Speaking of Tough Mudder, a few things caught my eye, and reminded me of a Mudder event. Glory Blades (Cliff Hanger), Arctic Enema (The Esky’s), Electroshock Therapy (Bug Zapper) all made an appearance, and all exactly the same as a TM event, even down to the size of the obstacle (the zaps from the Bug Zapper where nowhere near 10,000 volts as they said though – if Tough Mudder is 10,000 volts, then The Stampede was about 2000 volts).
Even with these few Tough Mudder obstacles, it was still a fun course. Granted I got a bit bored half way through my second lap onwards, but that was because I’ve done it all, and wasn’t that much a challenge for myself. I knew this coming into the event, which is why I chose to do 4 laps – give myself a real challenge.
I finished my first two 10km laps, and got back in time to start the 12.20 wave. Knowing that I had to be back in time to start the 1pm wave with Mum and Ben, I worked out that I wouldn’t be able to run another 10km lap and get back, so I ran a quick 5km lap instead. After that, I joined my mum and brother for their first, and my fourth and final lap for the event. Overall, I ran 35 kilometres total, almost 2 Tough Mudder laps. I was stuffed by the end though! Running that far in 30 degree heat wasn’t ideal. Yay for a sunburnt face!
I finished my first two 10km laps, and got back in time to start the 12.20 wave. Knowing that I had to be back in time to start the 1pm wave with Mum and Ben, I worked out that I wouldn’t be able to run another 10km lap and get back, so I ran a quick 5km lap instead. After that, I joined my mum and brother for their first, and my fourth and final lap for the event. Overall, I ran 35 kilometres total, almost 2 Tough Mudder laps. I was stuffed by the end though! Running that far in 30 degree heat wasn’t ideal. Yay for a sunburnt face!
There were quite a few injuries which I saw firsthand, or heard about afterwards throughout the event. One lady fell down head first over some hay bales, possibly concussing herself. One lady was on the ground with a possible broken ankle just from taking a misstep along the track. I saw one child fall head first off the hay bales as well, but he jumped right up as if nothing happened, and continued on his way, like kids do.
One of the volunteers I was talking to said that the waterslide had to be closed down for quite a while (was closed on my second lap), as there was a hole in the bottom of the slide in one of the lanes, and someone’s legs got caught in it, but their body kept going. They had to be taken to hospital with a broken leg. I found out later that that person was the daughter-in-law of a friend of my mothers, and that she got both her ankle caught in the hole in the slide whilst going down, smashed one ankle to smithereens (that's the medical term) and broke the other one quite badly. She had to be air lifted to the hospital.
And finally, a family member of mine, who I didn’t even know was participating, got pushed over in ankle deep water, thinking it was waist deep, and split her hand open below the thumb, and needed microsurgery. I could say “so much for a family friendly event”, but these were all accidents and could have be avoided, and The Stampede wasn’t really at fault (maybe with the waterslide one they were, but I don’t know).
That all being said, overall it was a good event, and a good day. As a standalone event, for a first timer, it is perfect, but for the OCR veterans out there, you might want to find something a little harder to test yourself with. I don’t think I will be participating in 2014’s event, which would be my forth, mainly because it is around the same time as World’s Toughest Mudder, but also because I’ve run it 3 times now, and gotten everything out of it that I want. It was a good piece of Tough Mudder training for me though!
One of the volunteers I was talking to said that the waterslide had to be closed down for quite a while (was closed on my second lap), as there was a hole in the bottom of the slide in one of the lanes, and someone’s legs got caught in it, but their body kept going. They had to be taken to hospital with a broken leg. I found out later that that person was the daughter-in-law of a friend of my mothers, and that she got both her ankle caught in the hole in the slide whilst going down, smashed one ankle to smithereens (that's the medical term) and broke the other one quite badly. She had to be air lifted to the hospital.
And finally, a family member of mine, who I didn’t even know was participating, got pushed over in ankle deep water, thinking it was waist deep, and split her hand open below the thumb, and needed microsurgery. I could say “so much for a family friendly event”, but these were all accidents and could have be avoided, and The Stampede wasn’t really at fault (maybe with the waterslide one they were, but I don’t know).
That all being said, overall it was a good event, and a good day. As a standalone event, for a first timer, it is perfect, but for the OCR veterans out there, you might want to find something a little harder to test yourself with. I don’t think I will be participating in 2014’s event, which would be my forth, mainly because it is around the same time as World’s Toughest Mudder, but also because I’ve run it 3 times now, and gotten everything out of it that I want. It was a good piece of Tough Mudder training for me though!
Did anyone else run this event or any other Stampedes in Australia this year? Let us know in the comments below, or hit us up on our Social Media pages and tell us how you went! Do you feel its hard enough, or do you want a harder challenge next time?
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