FEMALE FITNESS WARRIORSRISE ABOVE THE WORLD’S MOST BRUTAL RACE

Through mud, sweat, and pain—anyone who has participated ina Spartan Race can at test to the strength, skill, and willpower needed to out match the obstacle race. Known as one of the world’s most gruelling sporting events, these highly anticipated events also entice women of different age, race, and status.

NATALIE DAU
HOLLEIGH MASON
Natalie Dau and Holleigh Mason, are mothers and “fitrepreneurs” who have been living in Asia for quite some time. They co-founded Urban Remedy Asia, a wellness online portal which aims to support like-minded people on their wellness journey. Coming from different backgrounds, both found common ground in pushing themselves to the best of their abilities. Dau, originally from Australia, has been active since she was a child, and being in the corporate world for over two decades, discipline was her secret weapon to keeping herself fit.

Despite her active lifestyle, Dau never thought of joining the Spartan race until a day before the first race in Singapore in 2015. From that day, she continued training, and have been competingand finishing in the podium since. Now she is competing in the Elite Beast division.

“I actually didn’t really know anything about the race and what was in store, and had done zero training,” Dau said. “After I crossed the finish line the first thing I said was I could go and do that again right now, so from then I was hooked.”

Spartan Beast has more than 12 miles and 30+ obstacles that will test one’sstrength, endurance, resolve, and everything elseone ismade of. The unpredictable terrain and Spartan Obstacles are carefully designed to push the participant into their discomfort zone.

Mason, on the other hand, was not the active type, she had very unhealthy habits, had developed medical complications, and even reached her heaviest at 128kgs. “I can’t tell you how much medication I was previously taking, blood thinners, steroids, inhalers, antibiotics every other month,” Mason shared. “I was living like an 80-year-old.”

Starting slow, Mason first worked on her diet, and eventually engaged in exercise after losing about 20 kgs. She bailed out on the first Spartan Race she signed up for due to a chest infection, which she believed was self-inflicted. “I think I manifested it!  I was terrified and super pleased to have a doctor’s letter releasing me from the commitment”.

She felt ashamed on what happened and promised herself to do the next. She has completed her first Spartan Sprint, which consisted of tough obstacles including wall climbs, sandbag carries, and rope pulls, held in Bintan Island last November 2016. The thrill she felt after finishing the first race motivated her to train harder, she is now set to join Spartan Super in May. This division is the middle-distance course that is designed to test one’s endurance, perseverance, and grit with more than 25 Spartan obstacles and over eight miles of rugged terrain.
COLLEEN AUGUSTIN
Colleen Augustin is a 19-year-old fitness enthusiast from Malaysia. She may be young but she has proven to get far in the race. Augustin was able to podium-finish three of the local Spartan Races. In 2015, she finished in first place at the first Spartan Race Sprint ever in Malaysia and finished as first runner-up in the 2016 Spartan Race Beast. Her most recent race was the Spartan Race Sprint held last 12 March 2017 where she took home the first-place after the tough 8 km with 25+ obstacles.

Augustin started running when she was 16, and despite being one of the top achievers in the Spartan Race, she regularly does bootcamp training with Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, including weights and cardio, as well as hiking and running.
Being really good at the sport does not spare Augustin from snarky remarks about her heavy training and being a girl,.Herlove for sports manifests and fuels her more to be the best at it, and is more determined to show everyone she can do it. Finishing Spartan Sprint, Spartan Super Races, and Spartan Beast, she is a proud holder of trifecta medal.
MELADEEL GAMEN
WHENG DICHOSO
Meladee Igamen, and Wheng Dichoso are two remarkable Filipinas who pushed themselves and conquered the obstacle race course.

Separately, Igamen and Dichosoboth moved to Singapore to pursue their careers in their respective fields. Living in a foreign land, they both knew they have to be strong to look after themselves. Through advertisements, they learned about the Spartan challenge, andwereencouraged to sign up for it.

Igamen firstsigned up for an outdoor boot camp—a high-intensity fitness program designed to hone strength, balance, flexibility, mobility, agility, stamina, and teamwork through group workouts.It was this training experience with the Lion City Spartans that helped build not only her physical capabilities, but also her courage and determination to take on the coming challenge.

“Since then I became a part of the community and started training with them,” Igamen said. “I felt I was never alone and that I’m part of the family.”

Igamen competed in Singapore’s inaugural Spartan Race, the 2015 Singapore Spartan Sprint. For her first Spartan event, Igamen finished fourth among female participants under the team category.She would run once again in succeeding Spartan Races the following year in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and Indonesia.

Dichoso is an active member of badminton and volleyball teams, as well as a photography group that shoots almost all running events in Singapore. For her, living an active lifestyle isn’t exactly new.

She signed up for her first Spartan Race thinking that the event looked fun. This would surely put her athletic abilities to the test, but she still took Spartan Workouts at her gym to ready herself.

After her first Spartan experience, she decided to attend a mass workout program conducted by Spartan Race CEO Joe De Sena. There, she became acquainted with the Lion City Spartans, and realized that she would need more intense training to progress in the race.

She joined her first boot camp in February 2016 and made friends with fellow “fitness freaks” with whom she enjoyed training and racing.Together with her new group, Dichoso became better prepared to compete in Spartan events held in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, earning her a 2x Trifecta medal.

Similar to the experiences of these amazing women, the American competition series Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge will showcase an obstacle course only hardened athletes can dare to overcome. Composed of two men, two women, and an elite Spartan athlete, different teams compete against each other in a brutal one-mile race designed to test the very limits of the human mettle.

Catch the premiere of Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge on April 22, Saturday, 9:35pm (8:35pm BKK/JKT), first and exclusive on RTL CBS Extreme.

About RTL CBS Asia Entertainment Network
RTL CBS Asia Entertainment Network is a venture of two of the world’s largest content producers: RTL Group, a global leader across broadcast, content and digital, and CBS Studios International, the leading supplier of programming to the international market place. The Network has two channels: the general entertainment channel, RTL CBS Entertainment and the male-skewed entertainment channel, RTL CBS Extreme. Both channels are widely distributed in the Asia Pacific and are localized in five languages.

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