Turf Games Sydney 28 April 2024

The Turf Games, is subtitled the “Fittest in the City”. It is a competition requiring contestants to spend a couple of hours of rowing, skiing, running, lifting weights, gymnastics and dead balls. It was hard work. It was also great fun and hugely satisfying.

The event took me to the edge of my capabilities. By the end of the event, I felt like I had followed the advice of Steve Manges and done a hard thing. My team, made up of my indomitable partner, Tanya and two gym buddies of ours, were possibly the oldest team in the intermediate division which required us to do the following:

1 ENGINE

20min time cap

1.5km Ski + 1.5km Row

·   at 500m, 2 athletes run 400m

·   at at 1.5km, all athletes run 400m

then,

1.5km Ski + 1.5km Row

·   at 500m, 2 athletes run 400m

·   at 1.5km, all athletes run 400m

then,

60 cal row + 60 cal ski

SCORE = FOR TIME

2A LIFT OFF	2B LIFT OFF
18min time cap Each athlete set a ·   5RM Front squat from the floor SCORE A = COMBINED BEST LIFTS Please see LIFT OFF B	Remaining time of 18min time cap Each athlete set 1 hang clean + 1 STOH SCORE B = COMBINED BEST LIFTS Please see LIFT OFF A

3 AMRAP	4 SPRINT
12min workout 20 cal Bike + 2 athletes 6 x 50/30kg sandbag carry lengths 2 rope climbs 15 burpees over line (3 ath) 20 synchro DB squats @ 1x22.5/15kg (2 ath) 20 cal Bike + 2 athlete 6 x 50/30kg sandbag carry lengths 20 partner wall balls @ 9/6kg(2 ath) 10 Synchro TTB (2 ath) 20 Synchro HC + press @ 1x22.5/15kg (2 ath) SCORE = TOTAL REPS	7min time cap In waterfall relay style, each athlete will perform, 8 dball squats @ 50/30kg 4 dball to shoulder 30m dball carry 6 DB thrusters @ 1x22.5/15kg Run to finish line SCORE = FOR TIME

The day was huge fun and I believe we showed that older athletes can hold their own, maybe we didnt beat too many, of the young, fit 20- and 30-year-olds we competed against. But we chased them hard.

Actually, it was only ourselves that we competed against. My aim, and I think I can speak for Tanya as well, was to get out there and just do it. Moments after the event, I described to a friend, that I found it both “brutal and exhilarating”. It was tough- the 50 kilo deadballs, the time caps, they were designed for people younger than the "Ageless Athletes". Getting to the end successfully was victory in itself.

I slept exceptionally well that night and was a bit spent the following day- us older athletes take a bit longer than younger ones to recover- but the next morning went straight on to the internet to find the next event so I could register. Two days post event, I’m not sore. I was a bit fatigued and still on a post-event high for a few days after the fatigue wore off. The post-event high will linger for sometime.

  That’s me on the right and my indomitable partner, Tanya on the left.

The Herculean Way is really all about mastering the self. On the morning of the event, I watched the end of the 1993 Disney film Cool Runnings with my 8-year-old son. I didn’t know it, but the film was a great warm up for later in the day. At one point, late in the film, Dorice the sort of self-appointed captain of the Jamaican bobsled team asks his coach why  about his coach’s disqualification from the Olympics for cheating. His coach, played by the late John Candy says that because he had made winning the sole purpose of his life he had to continue winning to feel worthy. Dorice was mystified by his coach’s response, because he couldn’t understand why someone with two Olympic gold medals needed more. His coach’s reply was that if someone wasn’t enough without the gold medals, they wouldn’t be enough with them. Never has a wiser word been said. The end of the film, when the four Jamaican bobsledder’s pick themselves up after a horrific accident and carry their faulty bobsled on their shoulders the last 50 metres or so over the finish line while the crowd wildly applauds them is as inspirational as any scene in any sporting movie I’ve seen.

The message about being enough with or without victory is a vital one. I’ve been reading Worthy by Jamie Kern Lima and as the title clearly indicates, the book is about finding self-worth. Being a Masters Athlete is not about winning, it’s about competing and about living life to the fullest. Sunday, I competed in a fitness event. Monday, I studied muscle movement, among other things. Tuesday, I wrote this blog and prepared a lecture on poststructuralism and postcolonialism in International Relations which I delivered on Wednesday. I did/do other things, workout, a bit of shopping for dinner and school, study, walk the dog and spend time with family and friends.

There’s a lot of time in a day. Loads of time in a week and a lifetime in a lifetime. Time is the most valuable gift we have. Don’t waste it. Get out there and do things- lots of things that are good for you, your loved ones, and the world.

To live the Herculean Way is to live life to the fullest- physically, emotionally and intellectually.

Until next time, Be Herculean.