OCR - Fat Girl Fit

My Sisters First Ever Obstacle Race

You will have seen many blog posts from me over the years about various muddy obstacle runs that I have taken part in and I will be the first to admit that it has been a while – Covid and all that!

Nuclear Races has always been a firm favourite of mine with events that never disappoint, amazing atmosphere, great staff and always sure to bump into someone you know (and probably met through OCR). When they got in touch about attending their Rush weekend I was very excited BUT I have a previous knee injury that has been niggling me and with some endurance riding coming up I thought it best not to take a chance. However, I knew of someone who is always up for a challenge – my little sister.

This would be her first experience of a muddy obstacle race and she would be doing it with a friend in the same position. I gave them hints and tips on what they should be wearing and also some ideas of what should be in their kit list for before and after. Below is an idea:

OCR Kit List

Phone with race entry plus photo ID
Trail shoes (trainers will work but will have much less grip)
Kit in tech material and not cotton (gets heavy when wet and doesn’t dry out quickly)
Dry robe for after (if you have one)
Spare clothes, socks, trainers for post race, including warm hat
Wet wipes
Towel
Black bag for wet, muddy kit
A bag for all the above
Watch to record your activity (if you wish)
Compression gear (again if you wish or are racing and not for fun)
Money (you will be hungry after)

I will admit that some of the questions I had ahead of the race from my sisters friend (I will not name her) were amazing and honestly made my day! They included:

Will I break a nail?
Will my hair get wet as I had a blow dry yesterday?

Naturally I went along to support – this was going to be fun!

I should start by saying my sister was always the sporty child in our house growing up and still is in her adult life. She has 3 children but continues to manage a netball team for the county, whilst still training and playing herself, she walks a lot, runs and is competitive! Her friend has 5 children and is also very active, again with netball, the gym and lots of walking.

What Did They Think?

They did the 12km course for Rush and here is what they thought:

there was a group of six of them who ran together and they agreed that this is about the fun and that doing the course together would be their preference rather than alone – there are people who race solo but for them this was a fun experience and the group helped
my sister is small (but mighty) and very much has the attitude to give it a go and so that is what she did
even once my sister got home she messaged me to say she was still buzzing – honestly she loved it and would go back without a second thought
let’s just say my sisters friend gave it a go but in future she may spectate – she had not appreciated how much mud and water there would be (this is Nuclear and their slogan is Love Mud)

Sarah’s Review:

I had the BEST day ever at Nuclear Races at the weekend. From the moment I got there until I got back in my car (was actually still buzzing when I went to bed). I was a little nervous to start with, wondering if I would be able to do everything and complete the whole 12km course but all the marshals were so supportive and encouraging and guided you through all the obstacles – even the cameraman, Tony, was enticing people to get involved!

I ran the course with my bestie, who to be honest was not a fan. She didn’t realise it would be so muddy and wet, but that for me was one of the best bits. I just threw myself into everything – literally. The muddier the better – you just have to embrace the mud.

A couple of the obstacles were daunting due to being vertically challenged at 5ft 2” but where there’s a will, there’s a way. The marshals find a way for you to do everything and even the other runners help you out with tips and a leg up here and a pull over there. It’s a real community and everyone wants everyone else to do well. You get a sense of achievement of completing an obstacle you arrive at and think ‘there’s no way I can do that’.

I think my worst obstacle was Ebenezer, purely because it stinks and is slimy mud so you’re waist deep in mud and slipping in every direction trying you’re best not to get you face submerged for the fear it tastes as bad as it stinks. But again, once I got out the other side I felt like a warrior!

It’s hard to pick a favourite. The Death Slide and Zip Wire are obviously up there and the half pipe at the very end. My body was screaming at me to stop, legs and arms dead but you just find that reserve in the tank to sprint up a near on vertical wall, lucking I had a strong helper at the top pull me over.

I honestly cannot wait to do it again. I’m going to bring my kids as they will love it just as much as I did. Thank you Nuclear Races!

What If You Want To Spectate?

There is something for everyone at Nuclear! Parking is free and to spectate you pay £5, unless you are accompanying a child taking on the Rookie course or under 12, in which case it is free. What can you expect?

there is a main event village, which has the start and finish so you can watch the warm up, see the runners off and finish for both the adults and children
food and drink stalls, including a licensed bar
merchandise shop
live music
inflatables for the kids
two tractors work at the same time to ferry people from the event village to the fun zone so you can spectate on course
the fun zone is near the lake zone and so you can see the obstacles on the lake such as magic carpet, donuts, death slide, zip lines and ebeneezer for all the mud!
also at the lake there was an ice cream van and a van selling drinks, crisps and fresh pizzas

It was an amazing day, despite having serious fomo once there, I had a blast watching them and walking round the course, although I did get very sunburnt!

Head to my Instagram for a short reel to give you a taste of some of the course.

Entries were gifted but all opinions are our own

Category: Events, OCR

Commando Series with my son

This year was the third year that I have taken part in Commando Series. It has always been my season ender for OCR and I always feel like I end on a high as I genuinely love this event. And this year I took part with my son so it made it extra special. He has taken part in two obstacle runs before but it is not often so this was a lovely treat for me. However, he was not happy with me as he had asked if he would get wet and muddy and I had said not really – this was a little white lie and he found that out pretty quickly and was not overly impressed though we did laugh about it. I mean its a muddy obstacle run – I thought he was joking when he asked hence my answer.

Commando is set in the gorgeous Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, and gardens and its just stunning there and this run uses the grounds and streams and is something I love rather than an urban event. I have done a previous write up you can read here.

This year there were some new obstacles and the route was slightly different so it was exciting to see the changes that had been implemented. In previous years, following the warm up, we made our way to the start line and the run began. This year instead we made our way to the end of the lake and all boarded a a landing craft that then took us across the end of the lake where the run began. This was one of the new obstacles called ‘D-Day Landings,’ and is explained as follows:

‘a landing craft experience, based on ‘Operation Neptune’ from World War II – otherwise known as ‘D-Day’. Royal Marine Commandos were transferred ashore on similar vessels from much larger ships during the D-Day landings, whilst having to encounter many obstacles. Recruits will experience the combined thrill and terror of the ramp lowering under fire, having to take cover using hedgehogs, and finally neutralising the enemy. Keep your nerve as you step into the shoes of our WWII Commandos. ‘

Another one of the new obstacles required balance – I am always terrible at these sort of obstacles and as most people get over quickly I am usually teeny tiny steps whilst pleading with the person behind not to get on and wobble it – in this case my son. I feel like I could be the first person to fall off! It was called ‘The Mole’ and is explained as follows:

‘Testing Commandos’ speed, balance, team work and accuracy, recruits must balance on a ship’s gangway before launching onto the cargo net and climbing to the top of the mole. All done whilst carrying ‘grenades’, ‘The Mole’ is inspired by the daring 1918 Zeebrugge Raid, encouraging high level performance under pressure. Aiming to neutralise the enemy using ‘grenades’ upon their descent. Recruits must keep their nerve, show dexterity, and maintain a low profile.’

I was pleased to get to the slide – I remember this from the media event for this run and its surprising how much speed you can get on this. I went first and could see my sons face as he zoomed down the wet tarpaulin, which was quite funny. Not quite as funny as when he came out of the ‘leap of faith’ obstacle, which is a steep windy tube slide and he flew out of the end of it!

It wasn’t long before we had reached Peter’s Pool and I knew this was where we were about to get cold! This is effectively a lake crossing and again I remembered from the media event a tree trunk about half way across to climb over. The water was as cold as I thought it might be and it really takes your breathe away. This probably wasn’t the best time to stop and get a photo together before we got out ha ha!

Sheep dip came around quicker than I thought and I knew that my son would be sitting this one out as he had recently had a tattoo and was trying not to fully submerge the top part of his arm in the muddy water along the course. I was wearing my usual Mudd Queen kit, which is recognised by many who take part in these events and as he was wearing his Spartan top the marshal decided it would be fun for him to complete air squats as I did the obstacle and so I took my time (it was funny at the time I promise).

We finished with the 12 foot wall and as we crossed the finish line for the 1 lap course the first finisher for the 2 lap course finished – that was a tad embarrassing but kudos to him!

It was good to see more people at the event this year. I feel like this event is not as known as the more mainstream OCR events but it really should be and those that have taken part would know why I say that. I’ve noted in my previous post that you can decide the difficulty or your entry from just getting round (which was what we did) or to be treated as a commando so you see many doing additional exercises and carrying bergens and wooden rifles to mimic how a Commando would complete training like this.

It was nice to see the positive posts on social media that this event deserves and I hope to see it get bigger and bigger as years go on. Even nicer that as you finish you run past the castle itself and the poppies down the front of the building are gorgeous and with the event falling on remembrance weekend was a fitting tribute.

But don’t just take my word for it here is some feedback from a couple of others who took part in Commando Series at the weekend:

Claire Rosser from Team Elements

‘A great Sunday taking newbies around Commando Series – fab course and a good reminder of what OCR is all about – FUN!’

Vince James founder of OCR Wrongens

‘Blown away at just how much year on year this event gets better and better. Great work Commando Series this is a gem of a race. The team loved it.’

If you want to get involved next year then tickets are available!

My race entry was complimentary, but all opinions are my own.

Category: OCR

Spartan Trifecta Tribe

Slightly later than usual for me but it took longer than usual to defrost following the Spartan Beast at Windsor on Saturday! Man was it cold! Wet and cold, for almost 15 miles and this made it tougher than usual. The word I have seen across social media repeated over and over is brutal, and it was!

I set out at the beginning of 2018 with my best friend and PT, Emma, to complete my second trifecta and her first. We had done the Sprint and Super earlier in the year in Kent over one weekend and Beast was the last of the set to complete.

Emma and I do almost all of the OCR events together and we are at different abilities but together it works – she is a better runner and walls and monkey bars are her thing, whereas I am more comfortable with the carries and weight obstacles.

Spartan have some standard obstacles you expect and there will always be one stand out that people end up talking about. At the super earlier in the year it was the tyre carry which seemed to go on forever and this year was the second sandbag carry. 1.2 miles! 1.2 miles with a pancake shaped sandbag, it seemed there was no end in sight as we passed sandbags that had been discarded, but this was my thing and I got it done. The first and second sandbag, bucket carry, log carry and atlas ball was my domain and all five saw me smiling as I completed them.

Unfortunately for us the rope traverse was closed by the time we got there due to the bad weather for safety but I saw earlier in the day that some got to complete it and better to be safe so totally understandable.

The route had the usual hills that you would expect from a Spartan race – especially those switchbacks going up and down the same steep hill, if you’ve done a Spartan you will know what I am talking about – those hills we all love.

This years Beast at Windsor was longer than last years by almost five miles, which I think was a tad confusing for those who took it on last year to go from just under 10 miles to just under 15 miles but this is what you should expect from these events – they are made to test you and it does say 12 plus miles and just under 15 is over the advertised 12. The race did become the race of 2 miles left for us though as from just over 8 miles everyone around us kept saying 2 miles left – for almost 7 miles in the wind and rain this went from being frustrating to being funny. How long left? 2 miles ha ha. 2 miles is a long way when you are cold, wet, tired, have heavy legs and are running on what looks like wet and muddy ground but as I found is actually a waist deep bog (yep that was a surprise that got everyone behind me laughing and subsequently taking a more sensible route).

I am so pleased to have earned my second trifecta and even more pleased that Emma got her trifecta too – couldn’t think of anyone else I would have rather done that with!

It was also so good as usual to see the many familiar faces during the race including finally getting to meet the fab Fitcetera the UK Mudd Queens, Mudd Kings, friends from The PT Barn and many more! Always super helpful marshals that I cannot fault and the skinny beer at the end was very welcome too – drank that when I got home and would never have been able to tell it wasn’t normal lager!

It was also great to see and hear from two of the competition winners from my blog who won two Super tickets, Cassie and Paul. Seeing their finish photo was an awesome feeling to know that they got to experience something that I love. Did they love it? Different to what they have done before, which is generally road racing, duathlon, triathlon and cross country running. However, the awesome Cassie managed all bar three obstacles (rope climb, twister and monkey bars), which is amazing. Her favourite obstacle was the inverted walls – there were three in a row and after help from her boyfriend Paul she completed the last two on her own! Least favourite for Cassie was Olympus – it’s a hand killer so I totally get that but teamwork makes dream work and as Emma sat on my shoulders for this Cassie did the same with Paul (great minds). Cassie said ‘it was fun, but nothing like I thought it’d be – absolutely loved it though’ and I love that!

Lastly kudos to those who took on the extra challenge of completing the course with a plank of wood, repeating obstacles and completing burpees prior to doing the obstacles – epic!

So who is up for a Spartan race in 2019 and earning your trifecta?

My race entry was complimentary, but all opinions are my own.

Category: Events, OCR

Tough Mudder

At the weekend I flew back from Italy, packed my kit bag and then the following morning got up bright and early to head to Tough Mudder to take on the full.

I had previously done the new 5k event with The PT Barn, which you can read more about here. I had also completed the Tough Mudder Half, which you can read more about here. So now it was time for the full!

I was signed up with my bestie, Emma, and her boyfriend Dan. Emma and I do all of our obstacle events together but this was the first obstacle run that Dan would be taking part in and between us we were excited! The signs you see as you enter the event village always make me laugh and you see similar whilst on the course too.

We were starting as a team and we were finishing as a team. The run was as usual very up and down though didn’t feel as hilly as the course used for the half that Emma and I had completed. Here we are before and after:

I will repeat what I have said several times before but the thing I love about OCR is the teamwork and everyone helping everyone else out and with Tough Mudder not being chip timed this is one of the areas mentioned in their pledge that ‘Tough Mudder is not a race but a challenge’, that ‘teamwork and camaraderie before course time’ plus ‘help my fellow mudders complete the course’ whilst having fun!

As we made our way to the start line we found we were in the same way as a man who was completing his 100th Tough Mudder event that day – and was running with a backpack full of all the headbands he has earned over those events. This was pretty awesome and he actually helped us on the underwater tunnels obstacle giving a little helping hand push under the tubes.

There were some obstacles that I had not done before as they were not on the 5k or half courses. These included:

arctic enema – the name gives it away and I was that stupid person that came out of the end and said ‘my god that’s cold’ to which the marshal said ‘the clue is in the name’. You climb up to a platform, slide through a tube into a container of icy water, the submerge fully under a partition and then climb out the container on the other side.
electroshock therapy – I don’t know why I was disappointed not to have done this on the previous events, because now I have done it I can say that it hurt! A weird pain that is exactly what it says, a shock, but left my two teammates on the floor whilst I froze not knowing whether to help or carry on. As they started crawling I ran on and got shocked twice more – man that smarts!
funky monkey – I can’t do this, enough said! but kudos to those that did especially those that made it look super easy.
underwater tunnels – a large container of cold water with tubes to submerge yourself under and come out the other side then repeat three times.
cage crawl – I’d done a very similar obstacle at Nuclear Races and so whilst people were wondering how you tackle this I was straight in there and knew the drill, quite like this one!
walk the plank – now I will happily admit I didn’t even try this one. I knew there was no way I would be able to make myself jump from a height but stood watching people who did it over and over again – maybe one day I could muster the courage?

There were a number of obstacles that I was hoping to be on the course that weren’t including Just The Tip, Prairie Dog, Kong and Kong Infinity but most of all was disappointed that Shawshank was not on the full course as it was my favourite on the half and I was looking forward to doing that one again. But this just means I have to go back in 2019 for these ones! You can see more about the obstacles on the Tough Mudder page here.

When doing events such as Tough Mudder people often wonder how you train and think its the craziest thing to do but I am sure the same people would surprise themselves if they gave it a go and most would thoroughly enjoy it as it is heaps of fun! Tough Mudder also post videos with training ideas on their social media and have a whole section on their website regarding training for one of their events that you can find here.

I had a blast on Sunday and so did my team – I am by far the weakest runner and yet didn’t feel like I was holding anyone back at all and we all worked well together. It was also great to learn more from Dan about Runarchy that he is part of. Runarchy have a mission to inspire everyone on the planet to boost their mental fitness through exercise. They quote:

As a brand our mission is to inspire you to create mental fitness through running & exercise.

To achieve our mission, we promote a rebellious attitude to fitness & life. We want you to run, exercise and keep fit your way.

We value individuality, uniqueness and nonconformity. We want you to be bold, strong, fearless and free.

They are also very much centred around teamwork and so having Dan as part of the team with Emma and I was great and for a first timer he did awesome and smashed Everest too!

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I have been so pleased to be part of the Mudder Women group this year and hope to get more of those headbands in 2019!

My race entry was complimentary, but all opinions are my own.

Category: Events, OCR

Tough Mudder Half

Almost two months ago I took part in my first ever Tough Mudder event, the new 5k Run, with The PT Barn. I had a blast with these guys and so I was excited to go back for more.

I signed up with my friend Emma and we were heading to Henley to do the Tough Mudder half.

First off was the warm up and honestly there was part of me that just wanted to stay there as this guy was hilarious!

A warm up like no other with dancing, laughing, a sexy catwalk from a stag in a wedding dress, sexy noises and suggestive lunges. Warm up was the area to be!

Then on to the start where we all got on bended knee and with hand on heart repeated the Tough Mudder pledge.

Then we were off and soon learned this course was hilly. Hilly as hell! People were walking fairly early on, including us. Just after the hill we will run again, that was what we kept saying, until we realised it was just hill after hill so a run/walk strategy was adopted. They were going to make us work for those head bands!

We soon learned the half did one lap and the full did a second lap. Now I’m not a fan of laps and after the hills in the heat I think someone would have had to be truly convincing to get me to do a second lap. However, well done to those who did as there is now a piece of me that is gutted we did the half. Just means I need to go back later in the year for the full!

What did we miss by doing half and not the full? Arctic Enema and to be honest in the heat the water obstacles were a relief! Kong Infinity, the rig, Electric Shock – I’m sure there are others too and you can see the full list of obstacles here. We also missed out on Everest and Human Pyramid as there was just us there and between Emma and I we would get less then halfway up Human Pyramid! We did ask for the ropes that the elites had used but they had been taken off – another for us to do on the full.

Favourite obstacle? For me I love the water obstacles so Blockness Monster or Shaw Shank would be mine and were a lot of fun! Emma said at the time she liked the hero carry but that was because she got a piggy back the whole way! Her favourite was also Blockness Monster.

Ever fancied a Tough Mudder? Do it! So much fun and as the pledge says it’s not about time it’s about teamwork. The energy is fab, there’s music at some obstacles, great marshals and atmosphere, well signed and they feed you on route! (This was also one of Emma’s favourite parts ha ha!)

My race entry was complimentary, but all opinions are my own.

Category: OCR

Training at The PT Barn

I have written a few posts before about The PT Barn and Coach Scotty. This is Scotty:

I first heard of The PT Barn on a training day there with the Mudd Queens, which you can read more about here.

After talking to Scotty about training I signed up for his body transformation course and my god was it tougher than I thought it would be but the results were amazing! Here is the write up for that.

I then signed up again, and you can read about that here – must be a sucker for punishment but as hard as the sessions were the sense of achievement made it worth it. And I’d recommended it to others too who’d signed up and I am sure would echo anything I said about the courses, training and coaching.

I was even crazy enough to sign up for one of his six hour bootcamps – one of the toughest days ever! Don’t let me put you off though – have a read here and sign up for yourself!

I’ve said before one of the things I love about OCR is the people and the fact that there is always a helping hand or words of encouragement or a boost up a wall from an absolute stranger. So the fact that there is such a variation in ability does not matter at all. I always seemed to get partnered at the bootcamp with a guy called David. David was like a speedy little spider monkey and would speed through everything from running to bear crawls to strength workouts. I always felt terrible when he was partnered with me as we were at very different ends in terms of ability but we worked together and got it done and if i carried the sandbag uphill for 100 metres he might take it for twice that so we were both putting in equal effort.

I recently took part in the new Tough Mudder 5k at Stratford with The PT Barn and again there is a post and you can read more about that here but again it shows what it is all about – teamwork.

I’m not just doing this blog post to share previous posts, it’s a build up to give a bit of backstory as to how I got involved with training at The PT Barn.

My latest session was on Sunday and I signed up to a beginners OCR session. Yes I have been doing OCR now for a while but I do it for fun and I just give it a go or I will be honest if here is a queue I don’t want to hold people up waiting for me so I let them go ahead or have before even opted to skip it and then feel gutted after. Or if I feel intimidated (which is often) I might fumble something I’ve done before easily. So whilst I do the events for fun it would be nice to do them for fun but do them well and I knew this session would take me back to basics and refocus. So my training recently has been focused more on technique, homework exercises Scott set me to help with grip strength and trying to get more quality rather than quantity from my training, which is great as my best friend is a PT and we do these events together so I have her expertise and knowledge also, and the majority of my training is with her!

There were five of us on Sunday, plus coach Scotty and his better half Karen, who I am so so grateful to for filming parts of the day, always being there to give me a nod when I was about to have a wobble and to tell me she would slap me when I said I can’t do it. (Don’t worry there were no Lisa’s hurt in the training as I did it all so no slaps needed.) Being in a smaller group like this is amazing as there is so much focus on each of us and the support is brilliant – you start out as strangers and pretty soon in you are cheering each other on and clapping each others achievements.

I learned so much during that one day. It was almost 6 hours and that amount of time doing OCR training with a lot of work on the hands is tiring. You fatigue quickly but it was structured in such a clever way with a good warm up and moving from a specific technique to something else to allow for some recovery. Scott says he will not be making any of us better in that one day but he breaks each obstacle down step by step that it makes the obstacles more achievable. That coaching and knowledge is invaluable and is all about training smart! I read something recently and it was saying how it doesn’t matter how heavy you can lift, how quickly you can do something or how many times you can do it if it is with poor technique and these sessions really focus on getting the technique bang on.

We tackled rings, traverse rope, cargo net climb, high wall, low wall, spear throw, traverse wall with rings, slack lines and balancing, ropes, the weaver and the monkey bars. And I did them all. There were bits I was so nervous about and bits I’ve tried several times before and never got far but it all just clicked. Although I did think we were doing the traverse rope hanging underneath but Scott explained this could be done under or over and without thinking he saw the look of fear on my face at the thought of balancing my body on top of the rope and moving along he then explained (with a smile) that we would be doing it on top. I just laughed – poker face Lisa, remember your poker face when around Scott! We didn’t have to do anything we didn’t want to but I felt like I had to face this, I am trying to face my fears lately and rather than take the easy way out give it a go and figure out what needs work. After the recent Spartan weekend I did just this and made a note of obstacles I failed so I know I have from now until October to work on those before I tackle Spartan Beast. Anyway back to the rope traverse, I mean this thing is roughly about six foot off the floor and when you lay on it it lowers a lot so you are probably 1.5/2 metres off the ground so not exactly high but when you are balancing on it it is high enough and it moves as you move and so with every movement I was telling him not to move away and to catch me if I fall. I didn’t fall! I did it.

I also swore a lot through the whole day. I know I swear but really didn’t realise how much. Although this was in a good way as I was so pleased and it was either swear with excitement or cry and then feel silly so swearing it was!

I came away absolutely buzzing. I don’t have the most confidence and Scott knows me enough to know exactly what I can do and it was just bloody awesome. I’m never sure who is more pleased when training there if it’s me for accomplishing something or Scott watching me get there!

Last night I was sent a video of my time there on Sunday by Scott and Karen. This was a total surprise to me and I am not too ashamed to say there may have been a little tear or two or three, more because of their kindness at taking the time to put this together for me. I am my own worst critic and when other people believe in you there are two options – to think they are just being nice or believe them. I usually think people are just being nice but I can see improvements myself from this video and it makes all the training so worthwhile and I am very grateful to these people for their help. I’ve made a lot of friends through this OCR malarkey!

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So in short get involved! Get down there and see what it is all about. There is an open weekend at the end of April with pay and play on offer so you do what it says on the tin and turn up pay and go on whatever you want and Scott will be there if you want to ask questions. I won’t be in the UK for that one so will miss it but I will be at the next one and the one after and the one after that. Alternatively there are OCR classes, different levels of these sessions on offer, bootcamps and more. All event details can be found here.

See you there!

Category: Events, OCR

My Spartan weekend

This weekend saw the start of the Spartan season for 2018 at the St Clere estate in Kent. On Saturday the Super was taking place and on Sunday the Sprint. Naturally I signed up for both and this would mean I would be well on my way to getting my trifecta this year with only the beast left to complete.

The Sprint is minimum of 5k with 20 plus obstacles.
The Super is minimum of 13km with 25 plus obstacles.
The Beast is minimum of 20km with 30 plus obstacles.

Complete all three within the same year and earn your trifecta – simple! I have done this before and so this helps my mental game as I can remind myself when needed to pull up my big girl panties and get it done.

I will be completing my trifecta with one of my best friends and training buddy, Emma. Emma is a Spartan trifecta virgin and so this weekend was a first for these events for her also.

I cycle and I run and when there is an event in Kent I immediately think hills. Spartan are known for hills and having their races have parts of hilly trail running involved. What I had not bargained for was how relentless the hills at St Clere on the course would be. I have seen one word mentioned in OCR groups online – brutal. And they were. To be more precise the elevation for both was as follows:

Sprint – 4.7 miles with 1,027ft elevation
Super – 9 miles with 2,106ft elevation

In addition to this at the Super the switchbacks up and down the hills in the woods went on for roughly what felt like 5 hours. The tyre carry went on for what felt like another 5 hours. I mean it didn’t actually take me that long but it felt like it – coming out of the woods and seeing sky was like what I imagine seeing water in a desert feels like even if we then completed some more obstacles and had to go back in and yes you guessed it back uphill again.

The Sprint being only part of the course we ran on Saturday meant there was no tyre carry but I would be lying if when we entered the woods and started climbing up and up and up and up and then up some more my heart didn’t sink a bit and I was thinking please dear god don’t let it be as long as yesterday. If it was there was a good chance I may have hurled my own body down the hill and just hoped for the best. Thankfully it wasn’t as long and there was no body hurling involved.

But one thing is for sure it was savage. But this is Spartan and you have to earn that medal!

When you fail an obstacle at Spartan you receive a penalty of 30 burpees. I have made a note of the obstacles I got burpee penalties on and will be working on those for when i take on the Beast.

It was great to run with Emma, as always, and on Sunday we were joined by more Mudd Queens, which was great as it was their fourth birthday and we had a blast. We also saw Coach Scotty from The PT Barn on course as well, which was amazing as a lot of us train with him.

It’s brilliant seeing everyone post their pics and videos – always love seeing them from Karen who also trains at the Barn and is just girl power beasting everything like an absolute boss! And her daughter, Isla, follows in her footsteps and absolutely smashed the kids race. One of the great things about Spartan putting on kids races at all their events so everyone can get involved. Isla will definitely be one to watch on the OCR scene when she’s older!

I particularly liked the fact that part of the course drew out the Spartan mask when you loaded your run to Strava – very nice touch!

And of course it is never a chore to see Spartan Phil!

Also great to see some friends take podium places – well done to Robin French who came third in his age category at the Sprint and to Andy Durrance who came third in his age category at the Super and first at the Sprint – awesome efforts!

The highlight for me, aside from a well earned beer at the finish, was getting back to the bridge before the event village and Emma exclaiming with pure joy ‘it’s the bridge!’, which meant no more hills!

Great organisation, brilliant marshals and brilliant idea putting down the sheets in the car park as the ground was so boggy from recent weather and meant there were minimal issues with cars getting in and out.

I am bruised, I am battered, I cut myself on the barbed wire crawl, I feel like I have the knees of a 90 year old and I had to shower twice on each day to get mud out of places I have never got mud before and I loved every minute of it.

Spartan Beast we are coming for you!

Category: Events, OCR

Tough Mudder 5k

Toug h Mudder have launched a series of 5k events and last Friday I took part in one with an awesome bunch of people from The PT Barn. This included Coach Scotty who is an awesome OCR coach and having been on a number of his six week courses and bootcamps I had been lucky enough to experience an obstacle race with these guys before and so was looking forward to having his experience, and help, as we made our way around the course.

There was a large group of us and all of these guys I met from The PT Barn. We are of differing shapes and sizes, varying abilities with some having qualified and competed for the World Championships and others never done an obstacle race before, and a lot of us only know each other from our time spent training with Scotty. These guys bloody rock! They are all so lovely and so supportive and we stayed together for the whole thing. There was always a helping hand, assistance getting up a high wall, words of encouragement, high fives when completing something you didn’t think you could, a hug to say well done, a fist pump, a sh*t load of smiles and a lot of laughs.

Despite all my obstacle racing over the past two years I had not done a Tough Mudder before and only been to them before in a support role whilst cheering on my husband many years ago. So I had no idea what to expect! It was in Stratford, which is fairly local to me, and so I assumed it would be water and mud free and it was.

There were 10 obstacles that included:

Bale bonds – stacked giant bales of hay to climb over (for some reason this was roped off in our wave and we didn’t get to do this one)
Skid marked – 10 foot slanted wall to get up and over (10 foot is really really high!)
Devil’s beard – heavy cargo net to crawl under
Giant A-hole – a-frame that you run through and then climb up/over (again so much higher than I thought it would be but one of the guys, Stuart, was next to me and although I was shaky I got it done and pleased as up and over is one of my nemesis)
Mudder wheelbarrow – wheelbarrow action with a teammate (Emma was my wheelbarrow – well done Emma, shoulders of steel)
Hero walls – 10 foot tall wall to get up and over (again so high and some of our guys could get up and over alone with no help!)
Get low – crawl under chicken wire (this is where I was pleased I was wearing black knickers as my trousers ripped on the bum and when I got home I found my knickers had too – savage, though thankfully no flashing as a result!)
Clean & jerk – stretcher carry with teammates (Emily was on our stretcher and weighs almost nothing so this one was good!)
Hanging out – rings, one day I will get these (these were quite high so some of us needed help to even get to them)
Everest – quarter pipe to run up and climb over
Pyramid scheme – climbing up and over teammates to get over, once you get to the top you hang down to help the next up and let me tell you hanging down by your feet is terrifying (thanks Dave)

Being a new member this year to Mudder Woman, a group of ladies taking part in the events over the course of this year, I am pleased to say I now own my own Tough Mudder headband finally, and enjoyed that cider at the end!

I would say from the little experience I have of this event that I’d been told Tough Mudder were known for bigger obstacles and some of them really were. Given this I would say the camaraderie of OCR that I know and love is key here and the 5k series is a great way for people to try it out before moving on the the half or the full.

Until the next one….

Category: OCR

Ladies only classes at Wild Forest Gym

If you follow me on Instagram you will no doubt have seen a number of posts from training sessions at Wild Forest Gym. Some of them are my own training and some from the classes they put on, specifically the ladies only class. They run two a week, one on a Tuesday morning and one on a Wednesday evening. I attend the Wednesday session with my friend Emma.

The class is run by Tracey and is fab. Tracey is nuts and a lot of fun. She is also full of great tips for techniques and ways to tackle the obstacles.

Every Wednesday we make our way through the forest gym with our head torches and we get sh*t done. I can’t (yet) do all the obstacles so sometimes it is more I am trying to get sh*t done. But that’s fine, that’s what we are there for.

I go with my friend Emma who is a PT and I am on a fitness and weight loss journey so between us we have very different levels of fitness. I have also been injured and Tracey has even amended some of the workouts to allow for my injury. The sessions are fab and suitable for all abilities so whilst I understand why people may be hesitant (I was to begin with) there is absolutely no reason to worry that you may not be fit enough.

I love being able to work out in an outdoor gym, whilst also being able to work on improving on the obstacles. I also love the variation – one week we may work on the monkey bars and rings and finish with some circuits using the atlas balls and large tyres and another week we may work on walls and complete pyramid exercises for example 1 sit up then climb up and over the wall then 2 sit ups and repeat up until 10. No sessions are the same!

I have made definite improvements since I have been attending these classes and would absolutely recommend to anyone thinking about it. I am also trying to work on improving my confidence and this helps!

Yes it is cold but you warm up quickly. Yes it is muddy but who cares? That’s half the fun! Yes it is dark but that is what the head torches are for. Yes you may have a little fright by the sound of deers in the forest but you laugh about it as Tracey dances (she did this last Wednesday and it was very funny).

See you there one Wednesday? I hope so!