At the weekend the sun was shining and I headed to Southborough in Kent with two fellow Mudd Queens and friends for the inaugural Elements OCR.
There had been a lot of hype about this new OCR in the run up to the event including the fact that they had purchased some of the obstacles from Dirty Dozen. I had never taken part in a Dirty Dozen race and so was quite excited that I would get to try some of them out.
So what did I think of it? I have one word, disappointed. I am disappointed for you if you didn’t get to take part because it was awesome!
Registration was easy though no bag drop but the parking was not far so we left our bags in the car, which was no problem. The centre of the event had various merchandise stalls and some places to get food and drink and was right by the start/finish so had a great atmosphere. The MC was the lovely Stuart Amory and, as usual, he got everyone warmed up and kept the commentary going as runners were leaving and coming back to the finish. You were given your technical tshirt at the start of the race which was a nice touch as a lot of people opted to wear theirs as they were running the course .
The event gave the option of four distances (8km, 16km, 24km and 32km) so something for everyone, which were made up of laps. That was great as it meant you were on the course with lots of other runners and everyone ended up speaking to each other along the way and giving encouragement. It’s one of the things I’ve said before that makes me love OCRs – its like a family at the different events – there’s always a supportive hand at some point.
The course used the surrounding natural terrain and that is something I like in OCRs, with urban offerings never really winning me over as much, but that is personal preference. The course took on lots of trails for running, lots of hills and lots of uneven terrain to be careful of but made the course really challenging and interesting especially running through the streams. There were lots of different obstacles – walls, irish tables, climbs, carries, monkey bars, water slide and pontoons are just some examples and finishing with Mount Smeverest – a large a frame climb with a cargo net at the top.
Really well organised event, awesome obstacles, amazing marshalls on hand with sweets and punishments as well for obstacles not completed, and if you were not aware it was the first event for The Elements you would never have guessed either as it was executed perfectly! Also loved that the Mudd Queens played the floor is lava around the course and the marshalls got involved too – hilarious when you are dragging a tyre up and down a hill and have to jump on it and balance!
I will be back next year and in the meantime will be getting a team together for their upcoming event, The Storm, in December. I would recommend this for sure!
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