The St George Dragons Australian Football Club increased its womens membership by 100% filling two teams for 2020. This Friday 14th August over 200 countries and territories worldwide will see our newest member Marni Williams, not as an AFL player but a competitor in the World’s Toughest Race Eco-Challenge Fiji. In the words of its host Bear Grylls “This is not a normal adventure race, it’s 671 kilometers, there’s mountains, jungles, rivers, oceans and it is brutal”. The ten-episode event is being aired on @AmazonPrimeVideo.
Last year Marni was part of Team Scouts Australia. The team is made up of Myall Quint (captain), Bernard Cronan (navigator), Ben Warner (adventure racing rookie), Marni Williams (nutrition and motivation) and Brett Johnson (support crew). Together they have two decades in Scouting and all hail from the St George and Sutherland Shire areas.
The team has been adventure racing for a few years, but through scouting they all had long-term involvement in adventurous activities. But the Eco-Challenge put all their skills to the test.
Marni trained intensely for the Eco-Challenge consisting of long-distance rides, hikes, trail runs, ocean swims and paddles. The teams in the Eco Challenge include the world’s top adventure racers and professional and amateur athletes of all kinds.
Team Scouts Australia are relatively new to adventure racing and endurance events by comparison—only two had done expedition length races before. Marni says “if you’re going to attempt the physical and mental challenge of finding your way through one of the world’s most beautiful and demanding landscapes with only a map and compass while being filmed”. Marni would highly recommend doing it alongside friends you’ve known for decades.
Scouting introduced Marni and her team to the outdoors when they were young and more recently our experiences as leaders in running activities for kids have served us well as a team. When Marni finished the race, she gave herself a six month “recovery” period, during this time her friend Hannah Ascoli, was part of the 2019, St George AFC Div 3 premiership team. Hannah always spoke positively about the game and the club. Marni and her sister Rae are now Dragons and in doing so has shaken off the post-race slump.
Marni revealed “throwing herself into AFL surrounded by 30-odd women has at times made me just as nervous as when faced with a week of non-stop unsupported racing in remote locations. In that sense, knowing a bit about the culture of the club beforehand was reassuring to say the least! It’s also pushed me to be more social, which has turned into a blessing in the current times. Even despite having some injuries get in the way so far, being part of the St George Dragons AFC has been exactly what I expected and much more.” The Eco Challenge relates closely to my experience with the AFL, if you can work together off the field by volunteering, organising social events, and just making sure communication is good and the club runs smoothly, then I think there’s an added level of trust on the field.
Marni is excited to watch the epic adventure this Friday. “There’s so much that happened in our 200-plus-hours of racing that I’m sure I’ve forgotten many of the great and not-so-great moments. I’m excited to see how all the other teams managed, and for it all to come flooding back—though I’d be happy to leave behind the memories that involve carrying my bike on my back for eight hours through volcanic mud! The landscape of Fiji was breathtaking and so varied as we went across oceans and onto islands, through highlands and jungles, and up, down and across more rivers than I care to remember”. Unlike AFL, adventure racing’s usually an incredibly hard sport to follow as a spectator, the ten-episode series is a great way to watch team strategies unfold from the comfort of a sofa.
Reflecting on the experience Marni says the knowledge of how important it is to have a solid team of mates around you when you’re trying something new, and to learn early on how to be humble and rely on each other because you can never really know what’s coming and everyone has peaks and dips at different times. I’ve already taken that with me into my new sport with AFL—I think the approach is the same whether you’re racing in a team of four, playing in a team of 20, or managing from the sidelines.
Be sure to
- Watch World’s Toughest Race Eco-Challenge Fiji on Friday 14th August and cheer for Team Scouts Australia.
- Try Scouts you never know where it may lead you
- Follow the St George Dragons AFL there are only five more games until finals. It is a short season and every game counts
#worldtoughestrace #EcoChallengeFiji #BearGrylls #primevideo #toughracetv #stgeorgeAFC #stgafc #scoutsaustralia #teamscoutsaustralia #playafl
@TeamScoutsAustralia @Scouts Australia @BearGrylls @ToughRaceTV @AmazonPrimeVideo @StGeorgeDragonsAFC @AFLSydney @AFLNSWACT
