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| High spirits! |
On
the 29th of July, I ran The Suffering race for my Granddad’s
hospice, the Molly Wisdom hospice in Kent. Prior to running I raised over £330
for the cause from friends, family and various people I had met on my
adventures! Below is a brief report of how it went!
I travelled
up the night before so I would be able to be at the grounds at the start time,
and in the evening I went for a quick recce of the grounds to see if I would be
able to walk to the event village. It was beautiful! The castle rising up,
church bells, sun setting and wild birds flitting about. I even found the edge
of the course that was next to the castle walls, complete with ‘Reapers,
beware’ signage. This little walk was the most relaxing part of the trip!
On
the Sunday I arrived at the race grounds quite early and got my registration
pack. Pinning my number precariously onto my running top, I was approached by
another runner. She had run a couple of other races, and was asking me about
what I had run and how I liked it, etc. Then she asked me how long I thought
this ten miler would take; I estimated about three hours (as it turned out,
this wasn’t exactly a ten miler, and took over four). Anyway, she strangely
took this as an opportunity to mock me.
“THREE
HOURS?!” She screeched, gaping at me in disbelief.
“Well,
thanks for that.” I responded, with no small degree of hatred at the random,
judgemental elf that had popped up to keep me company. I turned back to fixing
on my number, trying to ignore her questions as to why on earth it would take
me so long, what was my normal running pace and terrain, etc. Then her friend
came over to join her.
“Hey”
she stage whispered conspiratorially to him, nudging him with her elbow. “This
girl thinks it will take her THREE HOURS to get round the course!” She laughed.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? With no small amount of rage, I turned to her
red faced and told her that making fun of other runners was extremely poor
sportsmanship. With that, I stomped off. I literally have never experienced any
attitude within fitness pursuits except for support and encouragement (as an
adult, at least), so I was still a little flabbergasted as I finished my race
preparations.
Trying
to put it out of my mind, I stepped up for the wave three warmup, which
included lunges, star jumps, pushups and a little bit of stretching. Then,
smoke flare in hand, the trainer led the charge to the start line! I have to
add that this particular gentleman had a particular penchant for chips, and
before the warmup I saw him at one point spilling his boxful of chips onto the
stage (accidentally, I presume), and then half-heartedly trying to kick them
off the stage onto the ground. I did feel for him when I saw that.
Anyway,
back to the race! Starting out, I deliberately hung back, pacing myself at
about a 13 minute mile (for those that don’t know, that is not much more than
shuffling on the spot). A guy just in front of me was lamenting:
“Oh
no, I’m last!”
“Don’t
worry, mate” I said “I’m last!”
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| Startline |
The
first obstacle was almost straight away! All the spectators were encouraged to
grab a wet sponge and chuck them at the runner diving under the first set of
cargo nets. I managed to get a couple back with the sponges! After this I
managed to pick up my pace a little more and settle into my stride.
So,
as my race of 13 miles (someone’s measurement of the supposedly 10 mile race)
has blurred together a little bit, below are the highlights in no particular
order!
The
Reapers
The Suffering’s
name for marshalls. As well as doing all of the normal marshally things such as
instruction, encouragement and safety checks, they also had the right to right
to give you forfeits any time they liked! These included pushups, situps,
squats and burpees. I found them very
friendly and funny!
The
running terrain
Mostly
mossy fields with some sections of sucking mud and rivers! I found that they
tended to put longer running sections before water obstacles, which is a very
good layout, unsure if deliberate! Definitely enough to get a good pace on some
sections! The killer part was the up and down hill tracks, which required a
hill sprint on each upward section. I surprised myself by pacing quite well in
this part, and not walking too much! Some sections also had precarious balancing
acts through seas of nettles, which I grabbed only a couple of times before I
learned it was better to trip over in the middle than grab for the sides. I still
have the bloated, post nettle hands to prove it!
The
monkey bars
Something
I realised as soon as I nervously gripped the first rung...I can now do monkey
bars! When did that happen! I didn’t make it all the way across, but did about
twenty rungs before dropping! The whole time I was shaking with amazement as I
honestly just expected to drop straight off like I always do! The arm training
is working!
The
water slide
This
was a terribly managed obstacle. When I got there I had to wait fifteen minutes
behind a throng of people that were delicately balancing on a muddy hill (which
means you could not even jog to keep warm). When I got to the front the
tarpaulin was stretched out across a series of jutting rocks with a hay bale to
catch you at the bottom. It might be wimpy, but I carefully controlled my descent
to the bottom. When I got there I jogged up past a guy that had clearly injured
his back on the rocks. Bad times.
The
up and overs
Including
wooden barriers, elevated logs and tire racks. Many thanks to the guys who
hoiked me up some of these! Told you I was heavier than I looked!
The
seventh circle of hell
Also
known as the area with the water tubs. At the entrance a little Damien was
giving us our instructions to pick up one of the water tubs and take it around
the course. He must have been about three years old, so in my addled brain it
took me a second to understand what he was saying! My tub was one of the
lightest, and weighed about 20kg. We had to take them up slippery slopes, over
trees and under cargo nets. A huge degree of teamwork was used here, with
people grabbing others tubs and pushing and pulling to help others. Then we all
had to do ten situps in the water!
The
water obstacles
There
were plenty of these, but luckily due to the weather they were pretty warm and
not too strenuous! They included boggy rivers, swim pits with and without cargo
nets to go under and one actually quite welcome dowsing with a spray hose! June
is the perfect month to splash about!
Tire
hill
This
was a steep hill next to the castle walls (i.e., lots of elderly spectators)
which we had to go round twice with a
tyre on each arm. I saw one cheaty maleaty couple lie and say they had already done it twice! Not cool, man!
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| Posing with medal |
The
final battle
Near
the finish line, there were a group of men holding what were essential giant
padded shields that you had to barge your way through. I let roar my best
battle cry and charged towards them! Well, I know from other accounts that they
did go a little easy on me, but maybe my kiai scared them so much that they
backed off! I did hear a little girl say “Wow” just before I sprinted off,
which lifted my spirits!
Overall
impressions
Overall
I would say that the course was amazingly and painstakingly laid out through
bogs, rivers, forest and clipped fields alike! I can only imagine the effort
put into putting the route together! The reapers were excellent, team camaraderie
was at a high amongst all runners and there were some cool imaginative touches
such as the Spider’s web near the end of the course. I also loved that
spectators were allowed to roam about the course, so you never knew when a
random spectator or group of enthusiastic children would pop up to cheer you
on! I even got a high five from a little boy on the sidelines! However, I would
say that there was a huge problem with water supply on the day, with the first water stall at about mile six! By
then I was absolutely gasping, and listening to other runners, I know I wasn’t
the only one. I had to resort to picking
up random discarded bottles and hoping against hope that there was a dribble
left in them. I was very, very close to drinking some of the river water, with
only a flicker of common sense gainfully battling to hold me back from this. I
was also a tad disappointed with the goody bags.
I
would run this again, but only with the clear knowledge that their race mileage
is very loosely calculated! Still, more race for my money so I’m not complaining!
And it afforded me the opportunity to raise a lot of money for the Molly Wisdom
hospice! Thanks to everyone who made their contribution! Onto the next
challenge! Ideas on a postcard. ;)
Flatt7
Ps Thanks all for tolerating my frankly excessively liberal sprinkling of exclamation marks...I feel I may have a problem. :P
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| Leaping an obstacle |
