WIKWEMIKONG—Have you been asked by one of your friends lately to do a Mud Run, Warrior Dash, Tough Mudder or Spartan? Chances are, if you haven’t been asked you have heard of them. But a better question might be, what this kind of event is?
Whatever you call it, it is essentially an obstacle race where you are expected to run a distance anywhere from five to 20 kilometres. While running there will be obstacles that require the athlete to do some sort of physical activity other than running. Some of the races give these obstacles clever names such as Electric Shock Therapy, Arctic Enema to evoke fear or a little bit of humour such as the Funky Monkey. But no matter the name of the obstacle, you will have to pull, lift, crawl, jump, carry, or push your way through mud.
Over the past four months students at Wasse-Abin Wikwemikong High School have been training with myself (Nelson Wood) and Matt Kernagan, which meant at times running in the pouring rain, completing burpees, jumping parking lot chains, carrying 40 lbs, a few hundred yards and also recording their thoughts in journals about how they feel about the training and the upcoming race.
“It means leadership,” journalled Brandon Shawana. “It means inspiration. It means pushing yourself to the limit. It means being part of a team.”
“I now find I am more interactive with other people and events these days,” Student Leo Peltier said of the experience. “So that is why these after school exercises are important to me; they keep me fit, confident, expressive, and more willing to do new things.”
Like the race we have many obstacles ourselves to get through and our students have shown that they will be able to cross the finish line with a new lease on life and, more importantly, on themselves.
We have had more students than expected continue to train with us, therefore we are fundraising to help cover the race entry fee and travel cost to Toronto where the race will take place on June 8. Students at Wasse-Abin are currently selling raffle tickets, one for $2 or three for $5. First prize is a Phil Kessel-signed Toronto Maple Leafs jersey and second prize is a 16GB iPod Nano. We are hoping to sell 725 tickets. If you would like to purchase a ticket please contact Mr. Nelson Wood at 1mrwood79@gmail.com.
