The finale - Part 1

All good things must come to and end but what a way to officially end my first round of the 12wbt.  I joined about 800 other people on the training oval at Ballymore for the end of round workout.  I was slightly nervous of what was going to happen after hearing some stories about the intensity of the session in the rain and mud in Melboure last round.

The starting time was a little odd.  Who organises to start exercising for an hour at Midday? I decide that I had to be organised.  I was leaving home too early for morning tea or lunch so I packed some snacks, plus some extras for my car companions.  I forgot the sunscreen but thankfully the organiser's had that on hand.

Helen, Belinda and Gillian

When we arrived the crowd was only small.  Not long after collecting our registration kits our little posse was approached by a woman wearing a 12WBT t-shirt.  I thought she was just being friendly and next thing you know I was meant to be doing an interview WITH MICHELLE.  With some for warning about the questions that were going to be asked my nerves weren't taking over but the butterflies were still there.  A couple of interviews were done and then all of a sudden Michelle was running out of time so Tracey and I missed out.  With a bit of quick thinking Tracey managed to get a photo with Mish organised.

About 15 minutes later and the action started with a group warm up in front of the stage with Mish leading.  I then started wishing I hadn't done weights the night before that focused on my upper body.  My arms and chest were already sore before the push ups started!  Then it was off to our fitness level groups for 3 x 15 minute sessions.

I'd convinced myself with a little push from Kath last weekend to do the Advanced training session and now my heart rate was increasing with fear.  The first activity for us was boxing.  I ended up with the pads, Belinda was punching at me without gloves, we lost Gil to another group and Helen was smiling thinking she got a little bit of a break.  That was until the words run and burpee came out.  After a few more instructions we started our 3.5 minute round.  Half way into the first round Mish turns up and starts yelling at us.  Belinda is punching and kicking like a mad women and Mish yells out something along the lines of "way to go women in purple".  We're then all called off our stations for a mini session with Mish - our own little torture chamber.  Less that a minute later that's over, we finish the first round and rotate.

I'm running and burpee-ing, Helen's punching and kicking while Belinda stands there and takes it, deserving every second of that rest.  Round 2 over and we rotate again.  I've got to say I'm so glad Helen could count because I couldn't manage to keep track of kick, lunge, punch, squat or whatever was going on.  The loud speaker sounds and it time to go to the 2nd 15 minute round ... Cross Training.

First we did 3 x 200m sprints in 1:05.  You started on your back, got up when the whistle blew and ran and were meant to lay down again at the end.  Each time I made it back with literally seconds to spare so I just kept running.  Next we were lined up in the sand doing push-ups.  We then had to wait until the person in front of us got up and started running around the group until we could get up and follow them before coming back to our spot and starting push ups again.  We then moved on to pushing the tackling machine around.  Unfortunately there were a few too many people in the group so it wasn't that effective.

Onto Round 3 - The Viper Room.  This one had us confused.  There weren't enough vipers (a weighted tube with cut outs to handle it) for the number of participants and when you missed most of the briefing while trying to workout where to go it got even more confusing.  All I know is that if it was being done properly then it must have been hard work as Ange looked absolutely stuffed from helping run the section for the morning. In the end it meant, more push ups, skiing and other exercises before the final speaker sounded for our cool down.

Opps, did I say cool down?  There's no cool down until the  final blast with Mish!  Some more running, jumping, burpees and push ups before we finally start to cool down.  In the end I ended up burning 587 calories and gained a tan line.