Race Review - The Norse Challenge 10km - 28th July 2013

I was very happy and excited to be asked by mudstacle.com to race and review at the Norse Challenge race in Northumberland. From their website and Facebook page it was looking like a great event. So I agreed and wryly smiled at the thought of the 6 hour round trip to Drudridge and back.

I arrived at the park entrance about 50 minutes before my wave start time which should give me time to pick up my race number and go through my pre race routines. Although I was soon confronted with a long row of cars with brake lights on. It took a good 5 minutes to get to the head of the queue were 2 blokes were collecting 2 pounds for parking. This wasn't a good sign. Why didn't the organisors add the 2 pounds to the entry price and make parking easier and much quicker? Especially as the line of cars was now getting even longer behind me.

Once parked up I saw the queue for registration had started, so I decided to join the queue and get changed once I had my race number, rather than letting the queue get bigger. The queue barely seemed to be moving, but the rain was moving at quite a rate. I was lucky to be in trackies, hoody and waterproof jacket, others around me were in race kit and already starting to shiver. After 30 minutes of queuing and only moving a few meters I got chatting with people around me in the queue. It turns out they had all sorts of problems sending out race numbers in the post, so all the registrants were picking up numbers from the desk. But we never saw anyone coming out the registration tent with a number.

It was now 0920. I was meant to be starting in 10 mins. I thought sod it, I can register after the race, and by the look of the ever growing queue, they would never notice. So I ran to my car and quickly got changed, gulped down an energy gel and ibuprofen and headed off to a large gathering of runners.
"is this the start?"
"No idea spuggy"
"Alright cheers"

I then spotted a large group of runners from an athletics club, jogging off trough the car park, I picked up my knees and followed them, as do 30 or 40 other runners.
"Is this the start then?"
"No idea, we's just warmin oop 'n' waitin"
"balls, I followed you guys as it looked like you knew what you were doing"
"sorry pal, the organisation isn't too canny is it?" - I'm adding quite a bit of 'northern' speak as i couldn't understand half of what they were actually saying.
I then run over to the registration tent to ask were the start line is.
"Over there" he pointed in the rough direction I've just came from
"I've just come from over there, and couldn't see a start line"
"no idea then"
"......"
speechless, absolutely speechless that race organizers or marshals haven't been told were the start line is. It's a fairly important part of a race.

I re-join the rabble of damp, wave 1, runners who are doing their best to keep cheerful. Suddenly like wildfire through dry grass field, a message spreads that wave 1 is delayed by 45 minutes. The wet wondering would-be runners head en-mass to the cafe and visitors center to try and get a little warmth and shelter away from the northern persistent precipitation. Suddenly after some milling around, a cheer goes up and we all dash outside.
"Are we starting?"
"Dunno pet, I'm jus' followin' the crowd like"
"Cheers me duck" I throw in some Derbyshire dialect to make sure I'm mistaken from a Northerner
No officials to be seen, we just stand around and try our best to keep warm. I even have time to pose for a photo and even do an interview for SKY Tyne and Wear about the race and the conditions. It was quite funny as he bloke interviewing me ask what did I think of the conditions, and I replied "Perfect, Perfect for running in mud"

This photo sums up my mood on the day

Another report of 10 minutes until the start went round and we all took shelter in and around the visitors center. One member of staff at the visitors center, saw the miserable state people were starting to get into, shivering and wet through and through. He opened up an extra area which was under construction, but was dry and big enough to house most of the runners. He also handed out bin liners to keep the rain off and the warmth close. After the 10 minute wait we all wondered to the start area. Still nothing to mark the start area or line, but we had be told it was near a green Land Rover in a car park. Maybe this is a orienteering / puzzle / obstacle course? Guess the start time, and your next challenge is finding the start line.

Then one of the organisers came over and was mobbed in anticipation. "Sorry the race has been cancelled due to worsening conditions" after lots of head shaking and frowns, I decided it was best to get my keys from the key drop and get off site, before the car park was churned up and everyone else had the same idea. At the key drop off, people were still being registered and dropping off keys.
"are you dropping or picking up keys pet?"
"picking up, the race as just been cancelled. hasn't it?"
"I think just the water obstacles have been cancelled"
"I'll grab my keys anyway"

Stepping out of the tent the Exodus was under-way. To be honest. If the organisation is this piss poor, and the race is on, less the water obstacles, I don't think I would want to run a race were the organisation is so bad. What happens if I get injured? Are the medical staff sticking around? I'm I going to get lost because they haven't marked the course out? Are the obstacles safe? I may be an obstacle course racer, and love the thrill and challenge of the obstacles. But am I stupid and and reckless enough to put myself in unnecessary danger, when I'm 168 miles from home? Nope.

I Jump in the car soaking wet and start the fight to get out the car park. I stop later on  a few miles down the road to get changed. What a wasted day.

Race Review - Water Wipeout 29th June 2013

Rocked up on site an hour before the gun for our wave, and went through the usual signing of waivers, toilet stop and checking out the course. We then started the briefing and warm up. I must have done too many X-Runner races as the warm up guy now recognizes me and gives me grief! Maybe its time to shave the beard and resume anonymity. The warm up was fantastic, and was both motivating and great for getting prepared for the race.

From the gun JP and I pushed to get into the top 10 to ensure a clear run at the hay bail pyramid, which was a nice warm up to the obstacles. The next obstacle is the open water swim. Swimming has never been my thing, I can't do breast stroke at all and my front crawl is 'un-orthodox' at best. once I had waded out of my depth I put my shoulders and arms to work. To my great surprise my swimming was strong enough to maintain my spot in the top 10, and because my lack of co-ordination means it was all upper body, my legs felt rested after the 150 meter swim, and I could push up into the top 5. After a few minor obstacles we were in the woods on a great trail run, I managed to lose an energy gel I had stuffed in my shorts which was a pain but easily forgotten about.

Through the trails I managed to push up to the lead of our wave and was feeling comfortable. A bit water slide and short swim broke up the trail run and was great fun. A few cargo nets, balance beams and duck and vault obstacles and yet another dunking. As I approached the final km of the first lap there was a cargo net climb, this was the first bottle neck I had hit i was force to wait and queue, this was frustrating and allowed runners to catch up and over take as i was stuck behind a runner struggling getting over the top.

It was now a race to cross more water and get onto the 2nd lap in under 2 minutes to avoid being behind the wave due to start shortly. But the gun went whilst I was in the water meaning the start of the 2nd lap would be littered with runners. I was 2 minutes behind the wave and the hay bales were clear as I reached them, but the open water swim looked more like beach on a hot sunny day with free money floating in the water. After my lap 1 success in the water I took a wide path and swam hard. I must have overtaken 50 to a 100 people in the water, mainly due to lots of people in buoyancy aids doggy paddling.

There was still a lot of back markers to run through once out of the water, my mate JP was wearing bright orange and an easy target to spot and try and chase down. at the next water obstacle, which was a 6 meter pond to wade through. I knew it was waist deep after a meter or so, so i took a huge running leap, making it half way across before getting wet. this worked a treat and managed to pass a dozen people as I flew through the air. I couldn't gain any time on JP and he was always 100 to 200 meters ahead. He kept this lead all the way to the finish and over it. I finished about 45 seconds after my rival and mate.

After a quick home made shower and dry off, I caught up with an old friend and then went to watch Steve Cram start his race.

with the preliminary results in I was 37th and Steve Cram 281st

So for the only time I will ever get to beat Steve Cram in race, I am absolutely stoked!

http://www.x-runner.co.uk

Summary: A great race, with lots of swimming, and a very slick organisation team.

Race Review - The Pain and Suffering - 23rd June 2013

I arrived an hour early and joined the queue for toilets, if I've learnt nothing else from events, its to go tot loo as early as possible, to avoid the queues and the rapid degradation of the toilet's condition. With that out the way its off to join the back of the queue for my race pack. I pin my number on and attach my timing chip and  start my pre race prep. I wonder over with about 20 minutes to go, drop off my key and get ready for some stretching and warm ups. "10, 9, 8...". What? the first wave is starting? I thought I had 15 minutes to stretch and warm up? "3,2..." fair enough, I'll just forego my warm up. "Go". Not a fan of starting right at the back of 150 runners, but it didn't take long to get up to the leading group.

The pace was fairly steady and course was pretty flat a tire leap was the first 'obstacle', and after about half a mile the runners had spread out to single file. the 2nd obstacle of an under tarpaulin crawl was sandwiched with 10 press ups either side of the tarp. This was good fun but I did have my doubts to the numeracy skills of some of my fellow runners! More running and a few large, fallen, tree trucks to run along the top off, this again was great fun and a fun alternative to just leaping over them.

The course was clearly going to be lots of running with a sparse amount of horse fence style obstacles. Not really up to claims of "pain and suffering". But soon enough came a great obstacle, we had to carry 2 large heavy water containers around, down and then back up a small quarry / bomb hole. This slowed everyone down to a walk, and was a great challenge. it was then back onto the running. but after running to the other side of a small valley another water container carry was in store. There was a little confusion with the marshals whether we should have 1 or 2 containers, but we settled on one. this time the containers had to be carried around a similar small quarry but with added 1/2 meter boxes to climb over and tarpaulins to crawl under. Again great fun and a fresh approach to obstacle racing. It was now time for another long run around farmers fields.

Obsticles blur into each other at this point as there were very few noteworthy ones. The more memorable zone was a zig-zag route up and down a very steep hill side with a marshal enforcing press ups and site ups at the top of each leg. this was an energy sapping zone and worthy or the pain and suffering title. after more bland running, there was a great tire carry up the bank to the castle walls its self. but with no marker to tell you when to turn and head back to the tire pile it seemed a little confusing. A few more miles of running, horse jumps, and a barbed wire crawl and I was back insight of the car park. The final 1/2 mile of the course was great, a muddy trench to navigate, followed by a wall, monkey bars, wall, monkey bars, wall. the walls got higher with each phase, and I was greatly impressed to see marshals giving press up forfeits to those that couldn't manage the obstacles. I luckily had enough energy and upper body strength to complete the monkey bars and walls, only need a helping hand on the final highest wall.

http://www.thesufferingrace.co.uk/

In summary: A good 10 mile cross country run, but only a very average obstacle race, with only a couple of obstacles of any note, and all three of them being 'carry' obstacles.

Race Review - Wild Warrior - 17th Mar 2013

Before, looking clean and warm

Sunday morning was a miserable one, drizzling and grey and chilly. Ness and I loaded up the camper van after breakfast and headed to the site. We arrived just before 10 am and the parking field was already getting cut up and cars were wheel spinning and sliding. The bongo did well and we parked up, and headed off to sign in and register for the race. We then pottered about, went and looked at the new fire and monkey bar obstacles, then just hung around waiting for other mates to arrive.

The pre-race warm up was very crowed on the hard packed surface, and we couldn't really get a decent warm up but I had already stretched in the morning so at least I got my blood pumping a little. From the gun my mate went out pretty hard so I hung on to his heels and chased him to the first hay bales he beat me down the other side but I managed to push past him on the uphill run to the next bales. the ground was incredibly slick and wet and gaining traction was incredibly difficult. Any incline or corner resulted in instant 'Bambi on ice' flailing and sliding.

Best photo ever

This year they added 2 new obstacles of a fire pit and monkey bars. I'm not a fan of fire obstacles mainly because they are usually just a simple leap, and the burning hay gives off very acrid smoke which hurts the lungs and stings the eyes. But the wind was up and the smokes wasn't too thick, and it does make for incredible photos. The monkeys bars only spanned a stream and so I decided to leap as far as possible and grab a far away bar. But that bar was about 20 cm too far away and i just ended up in the stream. I quickly dragged my way out and continued the run (stumble and slide).

Trudging on

Next up was the swamp of doom, 50 meters of waist to nipple deep water; thick with mud and hidden trip hazards, tight corners and testicle shrinking coldness. It is impossible to move through this with any speed, you are simply forced to wade and try and maintain momentum with out taking a fall. The climb out of the swamp is muddy and slippery and a challenge all of its own.

The course now opens up and running becomes a lots easier and you can almost build up a rhythm, but there are still hay bales, cargo nets and water dips to break it up again, and the slippery grass and mud mean that every step is a fight for traction and every slip is a back jarring jerk. Nothing was going to be easy today.

Post mud slide chills

Once the open field filtered into a more wooded landscape the obstacles became harder with spider webs of rope criss-crossing between the trees, and another water plunge, and a run of hay bale hurdles. Next up came the showpiece of the course, the water slide. A 10 meter slide in to, yet more, cold, muddy waist deep water. This is a great, fun obstacle, but unfortunately I managed to get a sharp stone in my shoe whilst wading out the pool. I had to fish it out as it was too painful to run on. it took ages to re-tie my laces as my hands where painfully cold and unresponsive. Most annoyingly it gave my mate a chance to pass me.

None stop obstacles

Once my shoe was back on, I ran hard to try and catch up but obstacles and the rope climb up a very muddy and slick mud-bank. I crawled though tunnels, ran through mud and deep puddles, climbed cargo nets, vaulted over A-frames, teetered over balance beams, rolled under cargo nets, and cautiously climbed over a Jacob's ladder, before starting the second lap. I could see my mate at the other end of the field. it was going to be very hard to catch but i'm going to try. The second 5 km lap was even slippier due to the added footfall of extra runners. Every obstacle seemed higher, deeper, colder, greasier and so much harder. Those sweet spots of grippy, un-crushed grass were become a rare memory. My legs and clothes were heavier and clinging to my skin to add to my discomfort.

With the end in sight

 I fell over much more and actually welcomed the short break of lying or sitting in the brown sludge rather being frustrated by the pace stealing accidents. I met with many more back markers and large groups of charity walkers which always pushes you to run past them to avoid being caught at a the pre-obstacle bottle neck. It was still a hard painful trudge over the final obstacles to the finish lane, with bleeding scraped knees but what a sense of accomplishment. Even through i have ran this course 3 or 4 times now, this was by far the hardest time, and possibly the hardest event I have ran. I moved quickly to the bag storage area to quickly dry and change. But my hands were so cold and numb I had to pull my shoes off with undoing the laces. Getting changed was as hard as any of the obstacles and was fought with lots of grunting and mini victories won with each heavy mud infused layer peeled off. I grabbed a coffee to help warm me up. It definitely warm my hand up as I was shaking so bad it ended up all over my hand and forearm. I walked back through the course to keep warm and cheer on my sister and Ness.

Summary: every step was a challenge due to terrible weather conditions. probably the hardest race I've done to date. but still great fun!

Race Review - Rat Race Dirty Weekend - 11th May 2013

Friday:

Its not many races that make me feel nervous a few day prior to the start. But the prospect of running a 20 mile obstacle course was pretty intimidating. I have actually trained for this too. I had built up my miles in training, but only got to the 13 mile mark in my weekend long runs before slacking off due to illness and then running a few 10 km races too. So when I set off on Friday night to the event I was feeling pretty unprepared. Me and JP arrived in the camper van  and the first obstacle of the weekend was the camper slalom as we weaved through campers carried their tents and camping gear on the roads and camping site. Not sure why the organisers had chosen to force camper vans and caravans to drive through a narrow track between all the tents, and people milling about, but we soon reached our destination, plucked the un-witted and unfortunate pedestrians from the radiator grill and then set up our camp. We had a quick potter around the site village, stocked up on energy gels and checked out the obstacles near by, we then headed back to the van, for a brew and an early night.

Saturday:

we woke after a fairly reasonable nights sleep, waking to the sounds of our compares voice over the speakers calling wave one over for the race briefing and warm up. we had a couple of hours to wait until wave 8 for JP and wave 9 for myself. As JP got up to take a pee behind the van on the outer fence he was met by a quad bike leading out wave 1 right past out camping spot. We clapped and cheered the first wave past and then finished our morning duties. we then brewed up and had some breakfast bars and fruit. Chose out kit to wear and then pottered about clapped on a few more waves, before heading off to join the back of the toilet queue for a more seated morning duty. The queues were huge, and complaints from those 'lucky' enough to have used the 'facilities' complained of over flowing and block toilets. I headed back to the van in search of likely hiding spots picked up some loo roll and a plastic bag. I'm not proud, but certain needs, need to be met.

Once at the start area I watched JP warm up and and lead out wave 8, I then started my stretches and warm ups, I wasn't going to participate in the mass warm up and just go through my own routine and also use the first, obstacle free, mile as a warm up. It wasn't long after JP had left and it was my turn to make my way to the start line, I managed to get on the front row, just to avoid having to perform speed bursts to run past any slow runners in the first mile. I picked on a couple of guys in running club vest and stayed close to them. Club runners are usually great at maintaining a steady pace and that is exactly what I needed to stop me from bursting off with too much energy and enthusiasm in my fresh legs. This worked very well and the first mile was ran out in a comfortable speed, and the first obstacle zone [Zone 01 - The Car Park] was approached with efficiently in mind. I didn't show boat or try and gain places on the obstacles, just maintained my steady pace.

My pace keepers were slowly pulling away, but i wasn't going to push to catch them, I had my pace and it was comfortable. Next up were the inflatables [Zone 02 - School Daze], been through these a dozen or so times last year during the Men's Health series of races so I knew that sticking to the edge of the giant bouncy castle was easiest way to tackle this obstacle. As soon as I was out of the inflatables a few of the local rugby boys greeted the runners with tackle pads. I was goaded with a call of 'COME ON BEARDY' by one of the youths so he got my body weight thrown at him, we was well grounded and bounced me off to his mate who put his pad into me hard and bounced me to the third member of the front row. This was great fun, but really sucked my energy levels down, I thought about reaching for a gel, but instead just plodded on at steady pace, and slowly my breath and non-tunnel vision came back.

It was comforting to hit the 3 km mark and still feel pretty fresh, and turn into the wooded area [Zone 03 - Trail Blazer]. This was stunning, running through the woods on soft ground, with a very logs to leap and scaffolding bars to duck or vault. I could run like this all day every day with out getting board. The run then came out of the woods to a stunning view of the river crossing and the magnificent hall its self, I didn't have long to take in the views before hitting the next challenges [Zone 04 - The War Zone] of a lightweight sand bag carry a few vaults and a crawl under barbed wire in the mud. After a few more cargo net crawls I was pretty muddy but this wasn't going to last, as we approached the river.

The queue to get into the river [Zone 05 - River Rate Race] was pretty big and it took a good 5 to 10 minutes before my feet got wet, and then it was a very slow plod through the water as each obstacle could only be tackled 1 by 1 or 2 at a time, this was pretty poor planning by the course designers and made for a very slow, very cold bottle neck of 'runners' it must have been pretty poor for spectators, simply watching a slow precession of frustrated sportsmen and sportswomen plodding slowly and getting colder. once over the river we doubled back across the river, obstacle free, only to join the back of another queue for more bottle necks and standing about in cold water. Once out of the water I broke my steady pace, to try and warm up and get some feeling back in my feet.

After another half mile or so I hit the 5 km marker and the first feeding station where I took on water, and a hand full of jelly beans, and then plodded on, I was running with Matt quite well now and we soon reached a series of balance beams [Zone 06 - The Mud Run] and churned up mud. The mixed things up with added ramps and pits to navigate, the mud was quite dry and mainly consisted of clay so the going was heavy but not sticky. After a bit of field running we hit but ground which had been dug up [Zone 07 - Construction Site] to create ramps to run up and down, beams to vault and duck, all whilst being sprayed with water from a fireman's hose. After the final scaffolding tower it was back to running the farmers fields.

As we approached a large lake [Zone 08 - Water Wipe Out] another bottle neck had formed as we gingerly made out way into the chest deep water. As Matt and I looked out we saw a path of people slowly wading through the water. The line of ducks in a row must have stretched out for about half a kilometre. The atmosphere was great, no one could make any real progress, so everyone went at the same slow wading pace, we all chatted and had a laugh, and then the sun came out, and it was just like being on holiday. Once out of the water it was a short jog before climbing onto a platform to take a leap back into the water.

After the dunking we ran on towards another wooded area [Zone 09 - Parkour North Shore] with balance beams to run along, stepping stones made from logs, and huddles to vault, it was pretty fluid and great fun, and led nicely to the half way point and my most anticipated area [Zone 10 - Ewok Village] with more balance beams and vaults and a large structure to climb up and descend by rope on the other side. Again this obstacle was a major bottle neck with probably a hundred people queuing for the 2 descent ropes. I decided to climb and jump off the end rather than wait for the rope, after a few more balance beams I was clear of the wooded area.

I still feeling pretty good. Another energy gel keeps me alert and happy to run through another field or 2 before being greeted to a series of skips to jump through [Zone 11 - Farmer Giles] huge tractors to run round and a few hail bale hurdles, it was fairly straight forward and over pretty quick, before back to the field running. The running was fairly short lived before [Zone 12 - The Mighty Deerstalker ] a series of high, felled tree, horse hurdles to clamber over. Not sure how 3 or 4 clambers counts as a zone, but I plod on regardless. Once again greeted by views of the river, the canoe pontoon was out of actions so it was a wade back across the river and onto the the real show stopper section

[Zone 13 - Biggest Baddest Boldest] I had seen the 110 meter monkey bar challenge online and at other points where the course passed near this zone. after a cargo net crawl I started my monkey bar action. It didn't last long before i was in a heap on the floor, i was about 90 meters short of the goal. Those that couldn't make the distance had to swap to the fence vaulting section instead. this was knackering work but tiring on the shoulders and arms, which was better than more abuse to my legs. I started quite sprightly with enthusiastic vaults but eventually slowed to a clumsy and laboured 'just get over it'. This zone ended with a huge hay bale climb, this was hard, but great fun, and standing atop of that hay bay building was an amazing feeling.

I almost felt at home in the next zone [Zone 14 - Men's Health - Survival of the Fittest] seeing as I ran all 6 of the series last year and have tackled all these obstacles before. The usual a frames made from scaffolding bars, rope swings, crawling through a spiders web of bungy cords. As always the final obstacle for Survival was the 'wall of fame' an 8 foot brute. I have about a 60% unassisted success rate with the wall and wanted to beat it today. I leapt and reached the top with my hands and managed to get my forearms up too. but just couldn't drag the rest of my body over. A quick push from a fellow runner and I was on top ready to assist a few other stragglers before jumping off the other side.

At this point it was mile 13 and you had the choice to finish early at complete the 13 mile course or man up and run the full 20 mile course. I had paid for 20 miles and was going to complete 20 miles! The course took an uphill change now and a couple of horse jumps to clear. As I bounced up the first hurdle both my calfs tightened up, and cramped badly. I rolled off the box, painfully and used the obstacle to base my calf stretches until the pain subsided. It took a while for the cramps to settle down but the next obstacles [Zone 15 - Burghley Horseplay] were pretty simple and only a few horse jumps. Another feeding section, where I took on water and took another energy gel.

Another area [Zone 16 - Yorkshire Terrier] of balance beams and a small wade through a pond, was quickly disposed of before entering another beautiful wooded area [Zone 17 - The Legends of Sherwood]. The obstacles here got bigger again, with large wooden a-frames, but the problem with big obstacles is big queues. slow progress through here was very frustrating. I had another energy hit here, but this time went for 'bloks', as my stomach needed feeding too. After the wooded area, it was a 3 mile slow slog, they must have run out of obstacles, and my ITB friction was starting to kick in, but I was still moving faster than most people, and picking up extra places as I went.

It was a painful slog to the next obstacle [Zone 18 - Burghley Bedsit] luckily this 'zone' was a car to crawl through and a ply wood structure to go through with a slightly stooped head. not sure this qualifies as an 'obstacle' but it wasn't as pityful as the next zone. [Zone 19 - Chariots of Fire] a splash through shallow stream 2 hurdles, a paddling pool and a single hay bale. These weak 'zones' were made up for my the final obstacle which was made up of a cargo climb, skate ramps to run up. pits to jump into and vault out of, and finally ladders made from telegraph poles. To finish, un-injured and in a fairly decent state was great. I picked up my goody bag and medal and headed straight back to the van to get changed, clean up and get warm.

JP was waiting and it wasn't long before Matt appeared too. It wasn't long before we were cleaned up, changed and ready for a wee dram of whiskey to celebrate.

After a cheesey photo of me and Matt to help raise more money for www.performerswithoutborders.org.uk all three of us then headed for the beer tent, to celebrate and congratulate ourselves with a nice chilled beer and a pizza. The pizza was amazing, but the beer was hard work. I think i'm getting too old to be able to do an epic run and then have a skin full of beer. Matt went off for a massage and JP and I just chilled in the campervan drinking tea, and watching the world go by.

We did make the effort and wondered back over to the event village to watch Ocean Colour Scene. They were good, but I've never been a big fan of them, so we went off in search of more food, and happily ate some very tasty noodles. We watched a few more songs before the cold ground started to work through our boots and into out feet. we where all happy to call it a night and head back to our campervans.

Once the bad had finished and bar had closed and the late night revellers had quietened down to a dull roar I finally managed to fall asleep, and dream of running through the woods around Burghley Estate.

Sunday:

Pack up and go. we did this as quick and as early as possible to avoid any car park carnage, and found a local diner to have our full English in.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/pwbrats

In summary: A long run, with only a handful of the 200 obstacles being a challenge or note worthy, I wont return next year, but may seen how it looks for 2015.

Scores (out of 10)
Course: 4
Terrain: 5
Difficulty: 8.5 (due to the length)
Return factor: 4
Overall: 5

Race Review - Major Series (Midlands) - 20th April 2013

The Major series is run by British Military Fitness, I don't train with BMF, but the missus does and she told me about this race. She wasn't up for it but I signed myself up for it. The race number and chips are sent out before the race, so i rocked up 30 mins before fully kitted up. A quick look around the event village and a trip to the loo, and I was starting my warm and stretches. After 10 mins of stretching the 'official' warm was due to begin, I joined in,. but I found the warm childish and didn't really get me warmed up, so i was grumpy in the corner doing my own thing whilst the majority of the rest of the runners ran through each others legs and did the hockey cokey. I must have missed the starting pistol, as i was just standing near the start line and people started running off. I joined the runners and worked my way up to the leading group.

The water jump in the pre race dawn

The running was good and an early shallow water jump livened up the pace and spread the runners out a little. The running through the fields and woodland was tough going with shallow tree hurdles, and muddy ditches to jump. This was certainly a cross country runners, run. so i was very happy to be able to keep in the leading group. In the opening few kilometres the course was mainly running with no real obstacles until a pool of dark muddy water to wade across. The water was pretty foul, so i was glad to be only at waist depth. after more running, a series of hale vaults loomed. The hale bails where up ended, large round hay bales that stood roughly chest height. the first two or three were tackled with ease, but got progressively harder and more painful to clamber over. by the final bale (10th, at a guess) I was pretty knackered but had to carry running. the next series of obstacles were around a steep sided bomb hole in the woods. steep climbs and descend with commando crawls mixed in, helped me gain a few places from the runners that peeled away from me in the open running.

Because I'm worth it

After more running through fields, I spotted the next obstacle which was a water slide on a large tarpaulin. I didn't slow my pace, in fact I may have cranked it up and leap out, feet first onto the wet slippery blue sheet. The rough grass at the end of the tarpaulin did a good job of slowing my free fall  but took a far amount of skin from the side of my left thigh too! at the bottom of the hill the course sharply turned back up the hill to climb back up a second blue tarpaulin. As I crawled like a cat up the blue tarpaulin, marshals tried to slow our progress with buckets of water. A few more hill reps help take more energy out of my legs and lungs.

More running and a few more minor obstacles,and i was faced with a larger obstacle, this time it was a deeper pond with four dunking points where I had to submerge fully under a pipe on the surface of the water. this disorientates and the extra chill saps what remaining energy I still had. The marshals gave out lots of encouragement and I push on for the last 250 meters which included a couple of kids with paint filled water pistols..

post race self portrait

I finished I was slightly disappointed I hadn't pushed harder in the last 2 kilometres  and let a few people past me, but I hadn't realized I when I was in the last 2 km. It was a decent trail run, and fairly average obstacles, with a couple of notable talking points.

In summary: A great trail run, but only a few obstacles and challenges of note. Incredible marshalling and motivating from the BMF instructors.

Scores (out of 10)
Course: 5
Terrain: 7
Difficulty: 6
Return factor: 5
Overall: 6.5

Race Review - Endurer - 13th April 2013

This is my third time at this race, and I keep coming back because I love the course, and i will keep coming back until i manage to run every step of this course, which may take a very long time!
I was picked up and we drove the 45 mins through the stunning countryside of Matlock, Matlock Bath, Darley Dale, the stunning Chatsworth Estate, Baslow and then up to Holmesfield its self. we parked up registered and then go into our race kit.

Whilst i queued for the toilets, Jim had time to sneak in a quick pre-race massage. The pre-race warm up was a bit of a mess due to sound equipment problems and most people not really getting involved. managed to jostle up to about the 3rd line of the starting group. a quick 10 second countdown and we were off. It isn't technically an obstacle, but the first 150 meters of the course is an incredibly steep run. that ends with a less steep field to run up. It was only a minute and a half into the race but my lungs and legs were starting to feel the strain.

After the killer uphill start we had a short sand bag carry and 15 meter commando crawl which was very wet and muddy but great fun. it was then my favorite part of the course and one of the unique selling points of this  race. The Ravine. The ravine is a steep stumble down to the valley floor into a narrow slate bedded stream. the course at this point become single file but it's hard to press hard enough, to try and pass another racer. running streams and and climbing up and down the small valley walls are hard work but this path is beautiful and incredibly challenging.

Thankful to be resting my legs by crawling

Once into the open the course took another uphill turn, this long drag always defeats me, turning my pace down to a somber trudge, towards the top i fired my self up and ran the last 20 meters before the narrow young tree wooded area and into the heather and gorse bush strewn moorland. The moorland is a hard place to run due to the tall, sharp gorse bushes trying to snag clothes, shoes, and in my case; beard. The trail its self is incredibly twisty to ensure zero rhythm, and incredibly muddy in places to ensure at least one poor sole will loose their footwear today. The one thing that pushes you on is the knowledge that some great tunnels are up ahead. these 10 meter long, mud carpeted. muddy crawl tunnels.

Managed to hit the ground running

another run around the edge of a farmer's field and I was met with the monkey bar challenge, last year I had mountain bike gloves on that had zero grip, and I fell at the first rung and, they were to high to re-attempt. but this year I came armed (or should that be handed) with neoprene surf gloves, with more grip than a gecko's gonad. after the monkey bars it was a shock to see the track was through a foot of snow. the hardest things was the dazzling reflection from the sun on the snow. the uphill snow run was hard, but was spurred on by the crowds poking their head over the warm, clapping and cheering on the runners. at the end of the snow was a huge pile of tires, piled up against a gap in the wall. it was half climb half fall to get over the rubber obstacle.

A welcome water stop and a short marsh run, and then, once again opens out into more farmers fields, this was a long drag of runs, but at least I could open up my legs up and build up a decent pace. After a km or 2 the run was brought to an abrupt halt by a 7 foot wooden wall. i slowed to a job and with a meter to go, i leapt and managed to get an arm over, which gave enough purchase to bring a leg over, which gave enough weight to throw the rest of my body over the wall and crash into the floor on the other side. its not elegant, but it is efficient and quick.

I'm a slow swimmer so jump as far as possible

After a few more minutes it was bath time, a swim across 20 meters of neck deep water with a couple of ropes to help drag yourself across on. As a approached the lip of the water, two cameraman adjusted their position and focused their cameras, and the gathering crowd expected entertainment. Well. I know's it deep. Go on then. I leapt as far as i could and give the water hard and fast. i managed to keep my head out of water but my beard got a dunking. i swam until last couple of meters and then used the ropes to drag myself to my feet and out the other end.

With only 1 km to go the tank is nearly empty

It was now three hard and lonely zig zags up and down the steep field, a traverse across some chipboard frames, a series of sole destroying hay bale clambers before the hilarious and high speed water slide, with added fairy liquid to help things along. I was now in the quarter of a km so I emptied the tank and ran as hard as possible to the finish line.

Once we hard cleaned up and sneaked another massage in we headed to a local cafe and replaced the lost calories with a huge 10 item breakfast and a mug of tea.

Summary: cross country running, the obstacles are basic and more fun than challenging.