‘One of the most harrowing days I’ve ever experienced’
A quote from yesterday
Not mine directly but ill take it, to a degree
Last Sunday i didn’t think i could feel any worse (read here)
For those who don’t know yesterday i took part in the ratrace dirty weekend 20 mile obstacle and mud run
For those of you who don’t know my preparation wasn’t exactly on point
Anyway as i sit here on an ass that feels as if its made of wood, unable to bend my leg at the knee, banished to ground floor level as stairs have taken on a whole new unmountable challenge, i thought id give an account of the race and what on earth possessed my to pay good money to enter, why i was so poorly prepared, the hypothermia, the mud, copious amounts of flapjacks and much more
Its a fairly long read (it difficult to fit 20 miles in any shorter) so grab yourself a nice hot drink – god knows i needed one
Originally id agreed to run with a mate, who got a severe back injury and pulled out..not sure why but at that point i put it to the back of my head…roll on 4 months to be asked how training was going and a mild state of panic ensued….the race was 2 weeks away
Now as you well know im a pt, im fit healthy strong, both mentally and physically …& maybe slightly deluded
Maybe i underestimated the difficulty of the race
‘Ill treat it as 20 one mile races id persuaded myself’
Maybe i overestimated my physical prowess…….nah surely not..I’m a personal trainer remember
But those of you who know me also know im a stubborn @ӣ$% when i want to be
Ill be fine
So i switched my time to join a group headed by a friend and also pt i know
8.15am start
Ouch
I just made an extremely hard run
A really early start in the day & extremely hard run
The poor preparation consisted of a run the weekend before (hung-over as i talked about last week) 9 miles in the countryside and a 30 min run the following day….which i ached so much from the next few days it prevented me running again in the next few days
Previous weeks my training had centred around weight training, some strength and fat burning stuff
A midweek hour bike ride in the gym
A pb in deadlift (not related but thought id drop it in anyway)
In fact the only thing of any real effort was the carb loading….but that was more filling up on sugar and poor quality junk food (an excuse to eat crap that i don’t normally ever touch)
A burger for dinner with salad and a bun…no real amount of carbs there
A plate of oven chips at 10pm the night before
Peanut butter and jam on toast the morning of the race
And some other bits and pieces in a vain attempt to get as much energy in me as possible
Energy gels, beetroot juice, sweets, jalapeño flavoured pretzel pieces..you name it i had it
All stuff im sure Paula Radcliffe would swear by?
The desired effect of this diet was to provide me with a huge boost of energy for the race, building up my depleted glycogen levels and adding plenty of energy for the race
The actual effect was to produce a similar feeling to extreme nervousness…cold sweats, shakes and feeling nauseous for a day..additionally the side effect of the beetroot juice i read AFTER consuming of the need to pee regularly..great start
Nutrition and training aside the only other essential was kit
Oh dear…this was my trainers post race…. but to be honest they weren’t THAT different BEFORE
On a positive not the water drained out from them extremely quickly
Negative point, stones got IN extremely easily
So onto the race, started in good spirits at a nice pace…running was ok and weather was nice
Was feeling comfortable
Big old mountain of a haystack to get over was fun
Then we hit the inflatable’s
It was like walking through/ crawling/ bouncing through treacle…i came out the other end with the wind knocked out of my sails, energy levels zapped…and this was only mile 3
The reality of the task ahead just dawned on me
The race at this point went like this
Great at the obstacles, fast over, under, through and round things….horrible at the running part
And as much as i had tried to mask it the obstacles were short in length so there actually WAS 20 miles to run
Upper body strength is good, so getting over things was easy, crawling on your belly through mud was actually enjoyable, climbing through cars, carrying logs, cones or sandbags, cargo nets…all good
This went on for 9 miles and was feeling great up until then.
Then we got to the water part
Now i surf and wakeboard so im used to the water
I surf and wakeboard in winter so im used to cold water
Plus the sun was out
We were wading through muddy bottomed, waist high water
All good no issues
Then after a while we were given life jackets as we were about to cross the lake
Only this isn’t just crossing a lake
Its crossing a lake full of obstacles that are near impossible to get over by yourself
So you have to get dragged onto, then drag the person behind you onto it……and repeat
Lots of times
And through floating tyre islands, now swimming through treacle
Then out onto a slide back through the lake semi swimming and out
Im pretty sure there was a 50ft jump into the lake at some point…but that could just be a dream i was having?
All done in 30-40 mins
But you’ve just run 9 miles
You’re tired, you have depleted energy levels
The water is cold so you have trouble keeping warm
Now you’re wet through and for that reason….
The next section was a blur
I think because i was suffering with mild hypothermia
Seriously
We were in the woods In the shade after the water
and i got cold….really cold…to the point i got cramp in my jaw from it chattering so hard
my body was shaking violently and i was delirious
at one point coming too, balanced on top of a beam about 6ft up wondering how id got there
‘are you ok’ i was asked by a steward shortly after…’no’ i replied….her response ‘no..you look awful’ was when i knew i was in trouble and at this point was considering stopping to find someone to hijack a coat from for a while and/or a foil blanket to get me warm again or just heading to the nearest place i could get a hot shower, a mug of tea & forget about the race
also i seemed to be the only person racing at this point having somehow found a gap in the racers which made the whole experience even more surreal & concerning
but luckily the run came out of the woods and i got into the sun, at about the same time as a water station provided me with a coconut macaroon, half a kilo of flapjack and a handful of nuts…which after a while brought me back round to the world of the semi living (unfortunately not the heaters that i had somehow managed to persuade myself id heard someone mention)
This experience wasn’t just limited to me….as i met up with the others i had lost or other competitors id chatted to during the race, they described the exact same thing
In fact its about this point where the direct quote at the beginning came from
‘the most harrowing experiences of my life so far’
But we’d all made it…just about, so far
Not sure what mile this was, the obstacles came and went….i was still enjoying them more than the running and the miles were slowly counting down
Knees were taking a battering from crawling under things, which also triggered cramp in my inner thighs every time i went to crawl…something ive never experienced before and never wish to again
It also amazing what kind of contraptions you can make to crawl around from scaffolding…god knows how anyone in the midlands had any building work done..There must have been a shortage in the stuff
My legs were starting to tire now, every step felt hard
Legs felt wooden
People were pulling up with cramp left right and centre
This section just seemed to be full of Dutch people too, loads of them, running with flags or gopro cameras, dressed up..as if it wasn’t hard enough
And at this point the guy i was running with had serious knee issues
Which i secretly was overjoyed with every time he had to walk for a bit
My gel stash had gone
Water stations were few
And since the cramping jaw incident i couldn’t chew any of the biscuits, cake, crisps or nuts that were provided for energy anyway
So the last few miles were a slog
But now i was in between a rock and a hard place…literally
Because whenever i walked my legs would start to seize up
Bugger
So i found a pace where i could plod along, barely moving my feet more than half a centimetre off the ground, no arm swing, minimal knee bend
Running style had gone out of the window
This was more of a robotic style forward moon walk…..must have looked amazing
This also prevented toilet stops, for fear of being found in the woods just of the course days later unable to move, stuck in position
We were both fuelled on by moaning about how bad we felt
Great times
Still though, whenever we got to an obstacle the upper body was fine and i could lift my way through or use my arms to replace anything i might require the legs to do
Easy
Luckily there were only 2 more water parts now
Both only waist high
But it allowed the cold water to works its magic on the legs
Very soothing
Also i could pee without stopping
Magic
I did manage to get across several gang planks laid over several canoes in the latter stages, through sheer fear of getting cold again rather than balance, some more energy sapping inflatable’s and the final run
And we came to the end
The final obstacle was a huge structure with 3 or 4 large walls you had to climb over (by this stage you lose count of things you have pulled yourself over)
Somehow at this point i was alone, the walls were quite high so i offered a fellow competitor a leg up..at which point now standing alone i had to jump and he helped drag me over…….
This was then repeated all 4 times
I got the bum deal there for sure
And it drained me of every last reserve i had
But the time on the clock was 4.50
I need to make it in under 5
Why
God knows
But i did
I crossed the line
The guy tried to get the timer chip off my trainers
I just told him to cut the laces off….theyd never be used again
Id done it
Finished
Under 5 hours
One of the most challenging things ive ever done
The drive home was long, a struggle
But the feeling of elation kept me going
Food was still too much for me to consider until that evening
When a huge Turkish takeaway and glass of red sent me into a slumber
Done and dusted
Completed
One of the hardest things ive done
Horrific, brutal, challenging, cold, wet, muddy
That was my REVIEW of the race
Later in the week ill write up part 2
telling you WHY…..
Im signing up for next year
And why YOU should too
Paul
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