Lawyers at Maurice Blackburn Dandenong swapped statute books for the rigors of the Spartan Melbourne Race in Tooradin this month.
Similar to the Tough Mudder challenge, the gruelling obstacle course race included a lot of mud and lifting heavy objects.
It proved no match for law clerk Shannan Mu and colleagues Stevie Collins and Will Tucker.
They used their allocated annual two days off for wellbeing activities to compete and recover from the event.
Ms Mu, a mother of six and grandmother, was the ringleader of the team, as well as the office’s ‘fitness guru’.
“I’m just trying to show average people they can do anything.
“People look at the Spartan Race and think, ‘there’s no way I can do that’. But you don’t know what your body can do until you give it a go.”
She took up Spartan races after going on a bootcamp to lose weight.
Three years later, she had dropped 40 kilos.
In September, she plans to take on the World Champion Spartan Race in Lake Tahoe, USA.
“It’s really hard to explain why I love it so much – the adrenaline is just addictive.
“There’s just such great comradery; there’s always someone there willing to help you with a leg up over an obstacle.”
Ms Mu is trying to recruit more co-workers to join the races.
“As lawyers, we deal with all kinds of vicarious trauma every day, particularly within our road and work injury teams.
“So exercise – especially something adrenaline-pumping like the Spartan Race – is such a good outlet for stress.”
