Anyway brief race report from me. On Sunday, I raced in the Men's Health 10K at Battersea. Billed as a tough (I think they use the word "grueling", although that makes me think of porridge!) obstacle course over a 10K.
I have been quite stressed with this move to San Fran and everything it entails and it was quite a good stress-reliever. I had not thought about it until the night before when my only thought was that I didn't fancy running a 10k through mud and over obstacles having done no training for it. DH was telling me not to bother if I didn't fancy it (we are Yin and Yang) but I had committed to do it with my Bootcamp buddies and so went along for the fun. Worrying slightly though as I was convinced I couldn't summon enough strength to do a single pull up let alone a set of money bars....
We arrived in plenty of time to get our registration packs and check out those bits of the course we could see. It was at Battersea Power Station with some running in Battersea Park and some in and around the Power Station. What the course involved (in no particular order) was: a 10 foot wall, 3M high stacks of hay bales, cargo nets over ice cubes and mud, skips with chest high filthy water, a pool of cold water to cross, lots of A frame type things to climb over, sand bags to carry in the Power Station, crowd control barriers to get over, bollards to climb, Mini Metros to climb through, a pond to wade through, plenty of rope swings, two lots of money bars etc among other things.
It was very slow going as there was so much congestion around the course. I told myself it would be a slow race due to the crowds alone. We were set off in 20 waves 15 mins apart but with 7000 competitors on the course it meant it was quite crowded. The worst thing was that I was held up at pretty much every obstacle by people who were taking forever to leap over/under/through/across an obstacle. It would have saved me a good few minutes if I'd had a clear run at the obstacles. What is it about the male pride that won't let a female pass who is going faster than him? I managed to scale all the obstacles easily enough (including the monkey bars!!!!) with the exception of the 10 foot wall at the end and I would definitely not have managed it without the help of the leg up by the very kind man there at the time. I managed to overcome my fear of heights by jumping down before thinking about it and crossed the line feeling quite fresh.
I was very surprised it had seemed so easy as I was expecting to find it quite hard being a bit of a weedy person. I have not been doing any conditioning work for some time with the move taking up most of my time. What spare time I can find I squeeze in my running. I definitely felt as if the course could have been longer which would have given me more time to get going. But it was hugely enjoyable and a great stress reliever.
I was 8th female overall and first in my wave with a time of 50:43. 393rd overall of about 7000. Fastest woman managed it in 47 mins, fastest man was 39 mins. I wish now I had pushed the running a bit more and been a bit less polite waiting at obstacles but I hadn't realised it would feel so easy. And I was the first Bootcamper with the second (a chap we call Fit Mike), three minutes behind me.
I recommend giving it a go to anyone curious. It was tremendous fun and a great stress reliever!