What you were afraid of before the run?
The morning of the run I was very nervous. I had been up late picking up my son from a party and finally got to bed at 2am.
I am not sure what I was nervous about the most. Actually finishing the run?? Not completing obstacles?? Slipping and making myself look stupid in front of lots of strangers???
When I arrived at the venue and saw lots of people in their bespoke OCR gear seemingly knowing exactly what they were doing….this did not help.
How the team helped you?
Coming out from the registration tent and seeing lots of our team members in their bright pink t-shirts and vests I felt a lot better. I realised I am not alone.
There were a lot of faces I did not recognize from the Bedford Centre but it soon became clear they were all very friendly and easy to talk to.
The very loud men on the tannoy compering the warm ups and the finish line was not helping my nerves though!! Scotty was great as usual telling not to worry…..I will smash it!!!
Steve spent a bit of time with me explaining what happens during the race and that the PT instructors from the DVCC all run at different levels so that there is always someone there to help whatever your level of ability. He told me to just go out and enjoy it.
I did not enjoy the warm up. Corralled into a small holding area full of mud getting my bright yellow trainers dirty and covered in some very unpleasant smelling mud whilst being yelled at by some very angry sounding PT instructors (not DVCC).
I decided that I would try and keep up with Steve when the race started as he would be running out front at 75-80% effort.
My aim was to run the whole way. Do not skip any obstacles. The race started…….over straw bales and then what seemed like the world's longest run through a field to a bog of water that came up to my waist. It was very soon after this that I lost sight of Steve and the girl he was running with.
At first it seemed like I would not be able to handle the running and would be walking a fair bit but as time went on I found myself getting faster and faster. Overtaking people and not actually being overtook.
I felt physically strong whilst doing the obstacles and did not feel hesitant about any of them. I leapt, I climbed, I crawled, I scrambled and even dived through disgusting water. I just kept on running and got faster as the race progressed. I felt so strong.
I overtook Steve on the water and ropes. (I took a rope with a smaller queue!!!) The highlight was scrambling under barbed wire with a fighter jet behind me and loud machine gun fire playing on a speaker. I thought about the all the Bear Crawls that Steve had had us doing in the gym and it actually made me laugh out loud for an instant.
I finished the race in a respectable time of 56mins with the biggest smile of satisfaction on my face.
What you gained from doing it?
I have gained an amazing sense of achievement and pride and have been very elated ever since. I get so enthusiastic talking about it. (hence the rambling e-mail). My youngest kids were impressed with my medal (I FORGOT to explain that we all got one!!!!) and my eldest son who will be 16 before next year's race has already declared HE IS IN!!!
This is the first time I have done any sport since joining the DVCC and was amazed at how strong I felt. All the 6am sessions pushing the prowler and seemingly endless squats paid off.
I knew I had lost nearly 2 stone of fat in 12 weeks but had not realised just how much fitter and stronger I had also become.
Where was the weirdest place you found some mud?
I had mud everywhere. Nowhere weird…just absolutely everywhere.
Thanks for the experience guys. I would never have done one without the DVCC guys.
