Wednesday 3 June 2015

Obstacle Course and Other Similar Events

If you’ve read my blog before you’ll know I’m a runner, pure and simple. For many of the 26 years I’ve been running I’ve been a pretty competitive runner, winning numerous medals along the way. During the bulk of those competitive years, certainly since 1993, when I won my first County championship, I’ve believed that if I wanted to be successful in my chosen field I needed to be very focussed and, consequently, some things had to go. I gave up football, badminton and skiing, and have never made any effort to go back to those. I was also particularly driven to seek my success on the track, which meant, other than road relays and the occasional excursion, I kept away from road races. That was a personal decision, influenced by my first coach, Arthur Bruce. Other athletes managed to have successful track and field seasons as well as doing well on the roads and I did have road race cravings but I stuck to the plan, and it worked for me. It was 1999, following a long term injury and a change of coach to David Lucas, that I decided I wanted a change of race format, and I started seeking out more road races rather than track races, but I was still very focussed on being the best runner I could be, so all my training was running based.

Had you come to me at any time since 1993 and prior to my becoming a Personal Trainer in 2009, with the suggestion of taking part in an obstacle race, I would have said no straight away. It just wasn’t my thing, and besides, I knew I could beat the majority of people in a straight forward race, but the moment you put obstacles in my way, that required you to use, technique, core and upper body strength, I knew I’d just make a fool of myself. I struggled to climb a rope at school and I remember it was a struggle for me to do even one press-up whilst in my teens, add to this the inflexibility of a long distance runner and a core used to nothing more than holding me up straight, so what chance had I against strong fit guys over an obstacle course.

It wasn’t always so; back before I took up running I played anything and everything I could and I was equally bad at hockey, football, basketball and tennis, amongst other things. In my early years as a runner, 1989-91, I wasn’t really considered that good at that either, and neither trained particularly cleverly or specified. I’d pretty much race anything, anywhere and was often seen at local leagues running the 100m, 400m, 800m and 3000m in an evening meeting. But I was having fun, I was finding myself, I didn’t think I was going to be any good, it wasn’t like I’d been a runner at school so had a very specific progressive path, I didn’t even know many of the top runners names.

Back in the early 90’s I did actually take part in an obstacle race. I think it was organised by the round table and took part in Sidcup. It was a work thing and a team event, the object being for a team to get a tyre round in the fastest time. Our interpretation was to give the tyre to the biggest guy and run around with him, which was pretty stupid really because it meant there was no real team work, no real thought process and the whole thing, for me, felt a complete waste of time, I wasn’t challenged, and even the beer was rubbish. After that little episode I decided not to waste any energy on ‘Fun’ events, I was only interested in something that I could measure my progress on, e.g. finishing higher up or, going faster, or longer. But….deep down I always had that inclination to try another obstacle course, one that was me against the clock and/or other competitors.

Focus continued on my running, such that I was 46 before I even did my 1st parkrun. At this same time I was training guys from the parachute regiment and they went to one of these obstacle events, it was winter, it was cold and they came back telling me about plunging through ice into freezing water. Now I don’t like the cold at the best of times, I will run in it, but I don’t like it. I was also starting to see an increase in the number of this type of event. There always seemed to be some element of wading through mud, I was already doing that, running at Bogarts Hole Clough, and other not quite as but still, muddy cross country courses. I hate mud, I love cross country on difficult courses, as long as it’s not muddy. Seeing pictures and videos of people running by fire, electric fences, barbed wire, tunnels. Why would I want to do that, particularly as I was now starting to find some form in running.

And then I got contacted by Dan, who asked me to write something in a blog about the Reebok Spartan Race UK. I’d heard of the Spartan Races but knew little about them, the first thought I had was ‘what could I say’, I’d never had any inclination to enter an obstacle style mud race. But then I thought a little deeper and I realised that what I could write about was why somebody like me wouldn’t be interested and what might appeal to somebody who wasn’t like me. As I thought about it, I reflected on my current state of mind, with regards to taking part in running races and how much I enjoy aspects of my training, other than running, e.g. boot camps, and maybe it was time to seek out a different challenge.

So I decided to find out more about the races, and went to the page that Dan sent me, http://spartanracemedia.com/uk . Suffice to say that these races offer a lot more than just a stroll through the park and from a competitive point of view are probably more suited to the fitter boot camp or cross fit type competitors, alongside ex-military, who probably fit into the previous categories, but more as trainers. But having said that they offer a challenge to anybody who is willing to get their hands, and the rest of their body, dirty and push themselves to their limits, and there are many of those judging by the facebook posts I read about people doing marathons and ultra runs.

Now I lead, and take part, in a boot camp twice a week, and, although I still don’t have a big upper body, it is a lot stronger than it used to be. It’s got me thinking, ‘would this sort of event suit me’? I don’t know the answer to that, but the only way I could really find out is by taking part.

Having lost some of my cardiovascular fitness, due to multiple injuries and illnesses, over the last couple of years, I no longer find myself at the sharp end of races. This has led to a slight loss of motivation on my part. Admittedly I’m still highly motivated to train hard, and I do, but I’m not motivated to commit so much time to a race where I won’t feature high in the results, at the expense of spending quality time with my partner. I was lucky enough to make it into the Salford team that won Silver at the Masters Road Relays, just a few weeks ago, the difference in my racing approach to how I’d approached races for the last couple of years, was clear, I was so highly motivated and committed to doing my best I actually ran better than current form. It swept me forward on a wave of motivation, my training got quicker and I was looking forward to my next race. With extra speed comes injury and, I’ve given myself a groin strain. It’s been manageable with treatment, but today it went big time. I need a rest, that rest could be a couple of days or it could be a couple of weeks, either way it’s likely to affect my fitness. Obviously, whilst it will put me back against my peers in running races, I won’t lose a lot against the general population of Britain, so maybe it is the right time to try something different, see how well I fair against other people who have their own level of fitness, see how I fair against the course, after all I always fancied a go on the Krypton Factor obstacle course.

These events aren’t cheap, and I know many runners who would baulk at the cost, but, having recently tried to organise an event myself, I understand that there is a cost to putting on an event. Admittedly those that are successful make good money out of it, but you’ve got to start somewhere and starting up always incurs the greatest cost. So I don’t begrudge this cost, if you do you don’t have to take part, there are other options.

To help with costs, Dan has given me a code for anybody who reads this blog to use, which will give you 10% off entry to any of this year’s UK Races (South Wales – 20 June,  Manchester – 4-5 July, Scotland 18-19 July, Cambridge - 5 Sept and South – 19-20 and 27 Sept, details of all can be found at the link above. The code is :- BLOGGER15

Additional to this, I have another code, that can be used only once, for one event, for one lucky reader. This will give you free entry to any one of the UK races, if you’re interested, email your name to rogalsop@googlemail.com, before 12 June, all names will then go into a draw and the winner will be sent the code.

I haven’t made up my mind whether I’ll be joining you, lets see how my injury recovers and where I am with my fitness, but I haven’t ruled it out either.

Written by Roger Alsop
www.rogeralsop.co.uk