Extreme race debutant impresses
Fuelled by flat coke, white bread and M&M’s, Skudders Beach resident Andrew Robinson recently completed over 120km in 24 hours.
Taking part in the World’s Toughest Mudder race, Robinson completed laps of the 8km course, in the desert of Las Vegas, that featured monkey bars, extreme climbing obstacles and the threat of hypothermia.
Robinson says less than 70 out of 1500 reached the 75-mile (120km) mark during the race that began at midday on November 12. He was accompanied on the trip by his ‘‘pit crew’’ father Marty Robinson, and partner Aimee Upson.
His father and Upson were charged with keeping Robinson hydrated and with enough energy to achieve his goal.
‘‘It was pretty amazing after the 75 miles, it was a good moment for me and Aimee.’’
While Robinson, who is also on a plant based diet, had been an avid gym goer, he didn’t seriously start running until January this year. He had previously completed just one New Zealand Tough Mudder event.
In a typical week of training for the World’s Toughest Mudder race, he was training before, during and after work completing between 60-80km of running or hiking, three or four hours of movement training, such as crawling or hanging and around two to three hours of crossfit training for general strength.
‘‘It’s a lifestyle, everything I do now it’s in the back of my mind, if I see monkey bars I’ll play on them, if I see things I can balance on, I will balance on it.
‘‘If I can go from no real race experience, to coming top 40 in the world in my first race, there’s not a huge amount I can’t do if I put my mind to it.’’
The couple have 12 races lined up for next year, with multiple Coast to Coast winner Steve Gurney signing on as a sponsor.
‘‘That was a big win from the trip.’’
He encourages others to think about when they did something for the first time.
‘‘Even just achieving little goals, 5 miles or 10 miles is a good achievement, then you’ll feel better for it.
‘‘There was a guy there with one leg who would hop across the balance beam- to see those people doing things, you don’t really have an excuse.’’
Robinson has no plans to take a Christmas break from training, given the hectic schedule for next year.