Survival Of The Fittest . . . .Done

Well after my very short time space between finishing being busy at work and competing in 'The Men's Health Survival Of The Fittest Race' I had about 2 weeks to fit in as much training as possible for an event I only knew the distance of.

I was we'll aware the race distance was going to be 10km and this is a distance that I run most evenings, as its not too long but perfect to keep my stamina and fitness levels up. The problem I had was, how do i train for 21 obstacles I didn't have a clue about? Well the only thing I could think to do was, jump over stuff, pull myself up even higher things and try to lift anything heavy, adding to my strength.

Like I've said before I do keep pretty fit but I've never competed before so this was totally new to me and I didn't know what to expect.

I arrived at the beautiful Battersea Power Station (where the race was held) 2 hours before my race time, I was to start my race at 1pm and I was in wave 17 of 27, each wave was a group of 300 people that all started together like sardines in a tin, barging our way through the start of the course. The race started with 3 hay bale stacks to hurdle over each one higher than the next followed by monkey bars,steps and walls to climb. After this we ran a wet and muddy track out of the Power Station grounds around 3km to Battersea Park to its athletics track, where we did a lap over some hurdles. After a further 3km running back into the Power Station grounds, (we did have to stop at a busy road and wait for the pedestrian crossing to signal us across, which was a little annoying when your trying to do a good race time) we were bombarded with climbing, hurdling with sand bags/cones and metal beer kegs, jumping through windowless cars, through skips full of mud/ice and mushy wood chips, diving through thick mud and water trenches all whilst being hosed by men with fireman hoses.

Once you'd completed all these energy sapping obstacles the finish line could only be crossed by leaping over a 8ft wall, which isn't easy when your nakered!! But like many others before and after me I made it over and was so relieved to have finished the race. My only concern now was how quick I did it. Before I had started I thought with the lack of training and what I'd seen a friend complete it in, I thought 1 hour and 30 minutes would be a good time for me. So to find my time I had to go to the official time tent and to my surprise I smashed it in 53 minutes and 15 seconds. With 40 minutes being the fastest time, I was we'll chuffed only being 13 minutes longer.

It was an excellent event which I will do again next year and with a free sports top to run in, a great goodie bag and my finishing medal I couldn't complain.

 

 

 

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