Race Review - Total Warrior 10mile - 4th August 2013

Total Warrior 10 miles - Clean at the start of the race

I reviewed and took you through the course yesterday on the 10km race, and today is the same course but with an added 3.8 mile trail run which I'll come to later on.

Again the morning started with a very pleasant walk through Shap village to the event village, and the super slickness continued with registration and bag dropping. Even the pre gun motivation and briefing seem that little bit slicker today, and the gun music today was the rousing fire starter from prodigy. I wasn't planning on running with Pete from Mudstacle but from the gun I took a nice wide route to avoid the crush, on the first downhill Pete's long legs came in to their own bounding down the hill in about three giant steps. I caught up with him on the uphill, and so the day went for the next hour and 45 mins, with Pete and myself running together, overtaking on obstacles or runs. It was great to pushed to catch up after the obstacles I struggled on, and felt good to pull away on the obstacles and runs I felt more at ease on.

Total Warrior 10 miles - In full hippy mode

On the 3.8 run it was 2 miles of uphill slog through wet soaked marshland, the hills were not too step but the constant drag force the group of runners we were in to take breaks for walking. Anyone who ran the entire way to the top is a legend and deserves huge respect and a free massage. The run back to the main course was incredible. Stunning views, soft ground underfoot, extra speed from the downhill nature. This was trail running at its best. Always on the edge of falling over. Needing to watch every step, but at the same time running like a kid, if i hadn't have been running with Pete at this point, I may have just thrown my hands in air and shouted 'weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' all the way down the hill.

It was now back on the obstacle course from Saturday's 10km, the course was much muddier after last nights down pour and being churned up by 4500 runners. This added so much to the course, all obstacles covered in a coating of slime, mad every vault, drag, pull, crawl and step, that little bit more challenging. The water dunks seems colder, smellier, and even managed to drain more energy today. Amazingly the integrity and quality of the obstacles was impeccable, no splinters, no breakages, no failures. This is a true testament to the skill and engineering of the course builders. Brave Sirs, BRA-bloody-VO!

Total Warrior 10 miles - Running through fire

The rest of the course remained unchanged, although the the water slide was longer due to wetter slicker grass at the base, causing another out of control slide. The final hill was a killer and went into Sunday plodder mode, and managed to run (slow jog / plod) all the way to the final wall. Pete was right on my heel and we were side by side on the final monkey bars. With my short arms and legs my feet couldn't touch the water, but with Pete's added lank he has lift his legs to keep his knees out the water. 2 days on the trot I've nailed the monkey bars, but Pete only managed to get half way.


What a privileged to run that course with the added trail run. I struggle to find anything wrong with the entire weekend but if the Total Warrior guys want a couple of  areas to improve on.

1. Water station on the 10 km was a little too close to an obstacle.
2. Add a bottle bar with plastic bottles to the beer tent.
3. Add a 'quite camping' area for those, like me, who are too old and grumpy to party all night after a race :)

That's it, that's all I can think of after being on site for 2 days, racing hard, and using the facilities. So close to perfection, its scary! Oh and there may have been a quite camping area, I just never asked.