Deep in the scrub of Mt Warning in northern NSW is where Michelle Walker was told she would have buckleys chance of the task ahead of her.
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However, the Bega mother of four was not deterred by the 75km event course known as a survival run that would make Bear Grylls cower under his blanket.
You have 24 hours to finish treacherous trials and find your way by poorly marked maps using a required kit you would liken to preparing for the apocalypse - complete with an 18-inch machete.
And no woman has ever completed the event, until now.
Walker, who has competed in the world tough mudder series and 24-hour endurance courses, was intrigued by the event that only accepts 75 entrants per year.
"You sign up to the challenge not expecting to finish. But I can finish this ... or at least die trying," Walker said with a gritty determination.
During the 24 hours, entrants compete for arm bands and medallions that spell out the phrase 'I did not fail'.
However, being the sadistic punishing type of event its name implies, the survival run badges are given out of order.
Should you fail, even at the final hurdle, you will only have pins to commemorate 'I did fail'.
Walker had no intention of failing, but lugging a six-metre long tree through crotch deep mud after accidentally being clocked in the nose pushes most to breaking point.
"You struggle to get through it and then I accidentally smashed in the face by someone who thought he was helping," Walker recounts.
"It [expletive] hurt! I had an instant nosebleed, but didn't let it stop me."
The second checkpoint: Turn your tree into a raft and sail it back down the mountain to the start.
Walker said she had a love of building things and found it quite doable to quickly claim her second armband.
Organisers didn't think their event was hard enough yet, so soon came the rock challenge.
"The bloody rock," Walker said.
An 18kg awkward dead weight that had to be hauled seven kilometres up a mountain side with no set path.
"This was the challenge that I dominated - I powered to the checkpoint in an hour refusing to put my rock down for fear of not being able to lift it again."
After crafting a boomerang, but missing the target, and failing to climb a six-metre high tree no wider than your arm, Walker was at risk of missing the first badge.
"I tried to climb the tree for about an hour, but finally had to let it beat me," Walker said.
"I still want to go chop that bloody thing down."
The hours rolled on and so did the arduous tasks.
At times Walker felt she was teetering on the edge, but was snapped back to attention with help from "my survival run husband, legend and sidekick" Christian Griffith as well as Nicholas Lewton.
Walker and Griffith had stuck together for the last set of challenges and were in possession of their 'I did fail' badges.
Just one final task loomed, finding four markers with a shoddily drawn map that led to the final badge.
"We were lost before we got 200 metres up the road - talk about a lost cause," Walker recalls.
"But trying to work out the map Nicholas joined us and we became an unbeatable trio."
The group found each of the message sticks that read: reading, digging sticks, meeting place, people dancing.
The location of the final badge was in a dugout created during the challenges.
"We did it, we got there and found our medallions in our dugouts," Walker said.
"But we looked at our watches and had just two hours to get back to base camp and finish what we started."
All three crossed the line together at almost 3am to a roar of cheers with Walker creating history as the first woman ever to finish such an event.
“I am so proud to say I did not fail,” Walker said.