#mudstacle

The Nuts Challenge is a 7km assault course where competitors have the option of 1, 2, 3 or 4 laps. I’ve always opted for the Tough Nuts (28km) option and currently hold the course record for the September (and much warmer) edition. However, for the March version of the race I DNF’d last year after 3.5 laps; too cold to continue safely, I was beaten by the course…

Second lap

Although it was not as cold as last year, the conditions on the day were grim! It was the muddiest / slipperiest course I have ever ran on, requiring a massive amount of energy just to move forward - let alone haul yourself up and down steep banks and hills. This showed in the final finishing times with mine being nearly an hour longer than last Septembers Race. Needless to say: without the added grip of my inov8’s I would probably have been an hour longer still. The wind also had a part to play, with already wet clothes being deep chilled in exposed areas of the course.

I have learnt a great deal since last year and would like to think the added experience is what helped me through. I was better prepared clothing wise, as well as listening to my body during the race and adapting to try and combat fatigue and hypothermia. With that being said it was still a battle; by the fourth lap I was pretty empty and glad to finally finish, get a cup of tea, and snuggle into my DryRobe to warm up.

Fourth and final lap…

This year the Nuts Challenge definitely felt like a race and I found myself asking for updates on my position surprisingly often. In previous years I have won by an hour and a half or 40 minutes so to have someone only a minute behind me for the first lap certainly changed my attitude! At one point in the race I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, but someone telling me a slightly mis-calculated lead time forced me to suck it up and get moving quicker. As it turned out I was a lot further in the lead than the person originally thought.

Fastest lap times from the weekend’s version of the race. The 4 lappers / Tough Nuts set the majority of the fastest lap times with the quickest set by Sam from RPCC Elite and myself. 

Anyone who completes 4 laps in winter should be immensely proud, especially if it was your first time on the course. A special mention will have to go to team mates Ross Macdonald and Clare Miller as well as Sam Cherry and James Appleton who set immensely quick times over four laps even though they were virgins to the course and format. I don’t think I could have matched their performance without my knowledge of the course and experience of racing there previously. Since my first Nuts Challenge in 2012, I have completed 15.5 laps of the course and needed every bit of that experience to get round safely on Sunday…

My lap times with a total time of 3:47:59.

Team inov-8 OCR (which I am privileged to be a member of) had a fantastic launch weekend. With the performances we put in I really think we have set the bar high for other teams to match. Our next event will be Rock Solid Race in Exeter on the 15th March. Stay tuned!

This weekend I travelled down to Doug Spence’s house to try my hand at his mini assault course in an invite only time trial format OCR.

The course was made up of ‘not your average obstacles’ proving much more difficult than a run of the mill OCR.  This posed as a different challenge than what I have been faced with previously and I was intrigued to see how I would fair, especially as it has been whispered I am more of a long distance ‘specialist’ and the estimated finishing time for this course was just 4 minutes.Though running is my strength, I have a fairly good strength to weight ratio and even though I am not the most flexible of people tenacity seems to propel me through obstacles pretty fast.

The hardest part of the course was the first stretch consisting of an inverted wall, monkey bars, pipe climb, balance beam, cliff hanger, and a rope traverse… this was the first 50m or so. From then on the obstacles were a little more spaced out consisting of a timber box structure to climb up and through, an inverted cargo net, tyre flip, timber A-frame, a series of walls and a caving ladder to finish.

Monkey bars

Rope traverse

The balance beam proved to be a dark horse of an obstacle (as usual), rendering most people’s first attempt (including mine) a failure. Instead of taking the 20 burpee forfeit, most chose to restart later in the day. One person who made the balance beam (and every other obstacle for that matter) look easy was the Mudstacle pull up competition winner Jason Brunnock. He was first up and set a blistering time of 3min 40sec, most exchanged looks of bewilderment at the swiftness he completed each obstacle – looking calm and smooth and not even like he was rushing onto the next.

I bailed my first attempt falling off the balance beam and felt I should wait to have another try. Adam Teszke however was given a 10 burpee forfeit for coming of the cliff-hanger but smashed through regardless to complete in an impressive 3min 47secs. Not knowing how to feel about the task at hand and wondering if I was capable of completing the course Burpeeless, let alone in a winning time, we tucked into lunch… chilli con carne and the best brownies ever tasted!

Tyre flip

Cave ladder

Slightly full I was up second after lunch and ready to get it over with. The balance beam and cliff-hanger had dried out considerably throughout the day and I managed a surprising 2min 47sec lap. This meant I moved into the lead and Jason had to counter…and counter he did, chopping a massive margin of his previous time coming in with a 2min 58sec. Still not good enough for first but an impressive display of strength and speed!

All ladies completed the course which is a massive achievement in itself but the fastest time was set in an impressive 8min 1sec by Fi Silk (also the Mudstacles female pull-up competition winner).

A fun day and a far cry from my Fan Dance challenge the weekend before, but just as satisfying to come away in first. My next challenge will be an 80km ice skating race from Uppsala to Stockholm in Sweden. Although I will be unable to race in the elite class without a licence I am looking forward to the challenge nonetheless. Check back for a blog on my experience in three weeks’ time!

The Spartan Beast obstacle race is the grand finale of the UK Spartan season. Spartan have already held many ‘Sprint’ (5km+) and ‘Super’ (10km+) events across the country earlier in the year, but were returning to Pippingford Park to hold the ‘Beast’ (25km+) also labelled The Spartan UK Championships.

The build-up to this OCR was the biggest I have ever seen; many believed this to be the first time top obstacle course racers were going head to head at the same event (an occasion I can see happening more often in the future). Thomas Blanc had won all other UK Spartan races this year, I have had a relatively successful year competing in non-Spartan events as well as being last year’s Beast winner, and many other top racers were already known to be attending (including Ross MacDonald and Sam Cherry) and the promise of a £10,000 purse would tempt many more.

I had an interesting build up to this race. 2 weeks before I ran in the OMM covering 80km in the 2 day adventure race. On my return from Wales I felt fine but a couple of days later I developed a pain in my knee leaving me unable to run or cycle. After a couple of days rest to let it settle down and just 7 days before the Beast  I decided to try it out  with a bit of orienteering, the rough ground aggravated my knee but thankfully didn’t hinder my performance. With another week of rest I was confident I would be 100% standing on the start line at the Beast…

Pippingford Park is set in a valley giving the organisers the chance to plan a hilly and wet course using the abundant small ponds and rivers on the valley floor. Plenty of rain in the lead up to the race made the going especially wet, whilst completing a small warm up jog I could almost feel my Inov8s being sucked of my feet by the ever worsening mud.

As we waited to start, the rain became torrential and stayed that way for the majority of the race. Once we were off Ross MacDonald and I enjoyed the first 5km catching up, laughing and joking staying relaxed completing the first of the obstacles which included walls, pull-ups, a ladder climb, tyre carry and more. We soon returned to the event village where S**t got real…Both Ross and I missed our first attempt at the spear throw leaving us to complete 30 burpees while Thomas and some others ran on into the lead. With a turn of speed I had caught them in no time with Ross not far behind. However, the four of us then managed to run off in the wrong direction… bollocks. By the time we tracked back to where we had gone wrong, no other racers further down the field had come through so we got down to business with our own mini re-start to the race. 

The start

Burpees following the missed spear-throw...

By the time we had covered another 5km and the 4 of us were still neck and neck, I decided now was my time to create a gap and as we left the event village for the final time I managed to pull out a lead up a long hill. Next were many different obstacles involving carrying heavy object which allowed me to build on my lead. Unknown to us we had roughly 10km to go at this point which included many long sections of running over some rough and boggy ground. This proved especially painful for my knee and by the time I returned to the even village it was giving me a fair amount of pain. Thankfully it wasn’t hindering my performance and through the second half I had built up roughly 3 minutes lead…which (as it turns out) I needed.

Atlas stone (35kg)

The final obstacle was a 25ft rope climb, in what I can only describe as the most anti climatic finish of my life as I only managed to get half way up before sliding back down to be told to complete my 30 burpees. Once these were done over the line I went to claim the prize money of £1,501 and another trip to the USA to race next year… not bad for a day’s work! Ross came 2nd following a similar finish to me and a nice chap called Conor finished 3rd putting me and Ross to shame by hauling himself to the top of the rope. 

The failed rope climb...

Top 3 - Conor, Me and Ross

I am happy with how the race went but feel I only took the victory because of the quantity of running (my strength) in the second half. This race has highlighted weaknesses in me that I would have to address if I were to compete with the likes of the OCR athletes across the globe.

I am disappointed with not making it to the top of the rope climb… many excuses could be made but ultimately my technique and strength weren’t good enough. I am confident with more training and some practice I would have flown up it but on the day after 20km of running it wasn’t to be. I have decided cross fit may benefit me in this way and will definitely be looking for a gym in London as soon as my knee is better!

My knee is especially sore now and seems to have taken quite a beating, with the Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest race in just a week I am unsure if it will be able to take the abuse… only some more rest in the coming days will tell. 

Ice-pack on knee...done being a Spartan for today