Ever since I was a boy I’ve dreamed of playing at Wembley, of climbing the famous steps and of playing just 45 minutes at the famous old stadium.
Well, I did exactly that this weekend!
Well, when I say playing at Wembley, I mean running, climbing and crawling around the car park, and by climbing the famous steps, I mean running up and down the steps outside on the concourse carrying traffic cones, sand bags and the extra weight I’ve been carrying lately! And by 45 minutes, I mean 48 minutes…it could mean only one thing, the Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest taking place at Wembley in London!
Having raced the Man V Lakes event a fortnight before and come in the top 5 I was looking forward to seeing how my first ‘pure’ obstacle race would go. I was in the first wave and a suitably fit selection of boys and girls were jostling for position at the front. After a fun warm up session, the 30 second countdown started and then the all out carnage sprint for the first obstacle followed soon after!
This was where my inexperience showed and I was swamped by the super quick guys…and don’t they go fast! Once I got my head sorted, I decided not to follow the front runners, but instead I upped my pace to try and get near the front for the next set of obstacles, but still stay well within my 10km pace.
The next few obstacles were a selection of steps, which we were instructed (forced!) to run up and down either as fast as we could or carrying traffic cones and sand bags. Think of conscription with smiley instructors and you’re somewhere close.
Once we had completed a lap of Wembley, we were off out to the mean streets, and drains, or the local industrial estate. The fun really started now, space hoppers (I remember these being fun child’s toys, but in fact they are a cruel quad burning item of torture for adults!) 8 foot high walls to scale, more carrying, even some pushing of big industrial blocks in the squat position…pure evil!
Back into the stadium car park and it’s now seriously big obstacles, straight out of a child’s imagination and blown up to adult size. Climbing over shipping containers, up ropes attached to cranes, through miles of scaffolding, swinging across beer barrels, ropes and rings, and then finally up and over a 40 foot wall (trust me, that’s how high it felt by then!) and up a Gladiator style Travelator to the finish line.
48 minutes of fun, pain, wet and wild obstacley fun!
I was 21st eventually, which I was quite pleased with, although some speed work and obstacle specific training may be the way forward! I am now signed up to the Cardiff Men’s Health event in September, one which I am really looking forward to and am planning to take a team of Sole’ers with me to get them into obstacle racing.
Before that though, the next event is ‘Runstock’ in Kettering, an 8 hour race where you complete as many 5km obstacle laps as you can. I’m off there next weekend and I’m taking the kids and long suffering Mrs M with me too, the promise of 2 nights camping and the Bootleg Beatles in the evening has turned it into a family adventure…and one I can’t wait for!
Question is…how many laps will I do? Guesses please, prize for whoever guesses correctly!
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