Our Sportsister, Rachael Woolston, no shrinking violet as founder of the FitBitchBootcamp, decided to brave the cold, ice, and all sorts of gladiator-style obstacles with her 14-strong team of equally brave women! Here she reviews the beastly event.
What do you do when you tire of running races? You join the increasing numbers of runners who are switching to obstacle race challenges such as Spartan Races, a US brand which launched here this year. Forget mud runs like Hell Runner, these companies have now raised the stakes including rope and high wall climbs, ice baths and more.
After watching the videos of the events in America, it looked terrifying, but exciting and I signed up to the longest of their races, The Beast: 12miles, including over 30 obstacles!
Organisation
The beauty of these events is that they invite team work and I had recruited 14 women from my running club. Unfortunately, when we had signed up there was an option to race as a team but this was sadly scrapped a few weeks before the race with no explanation. It made no difference however, as we pledged to stick together come hell or high water. Or hell, high walls, ice baths and barbed wire!
With the threat of icy water to come, I was thankful race day dawned warm and blue and after writing our race numbers on our foreheads in permanent marker (traditional methods stand no chance when you are face down in mud), we got to the start line. With over 1900 entrants, start times were staggered in heats every half an hour. We were in the second wave and with a puff of dry ice smoke, which looked like a bunch of teenagers smoking behind the bike sheds, we were off.
The race started with a three mile run around the race track before heading into the woods for the first set of obstacles, where a queue had already formed. First up? Rope climbs, sandbag rope pulleys and high cargo net climbs. Some runners raced past them rather than wait, but having spent weeks training we did them all. Well, except for the rope climb where I got two thirds of the way up before slipping unceremoniously to the floor.
If you can’t complete an obstacle, you are given a burpee forfeit, but it was loosely marshalled. Some people might welcome this, but I would have preferred stricter rules. Once over the scramble net, the route led through some amateurish string between trees which you had to climb over, before racing through some deep, muddy pools of water which was one of my favourite parts of the race.
The course
The first half of the event was largely running through undergrowth which had been hacked back to create narrow winding routes over tree trunks. This made it tricky to get past people, or for others to get past our team of 15. We joked we’d been placed by the organisers as a moving obstacle.
The best part of the race was the last third, where the obstacles were placed within half a mile of each other. It included a set of three 8ft walls, where we got to use our team skills to help each other over, as well as a few other women who were racing alone.
Then there were monkey bars, commando crawling under barbed wire and tyre flipping with tyres so big and heavy that they threatened to leave you squashed flat Tom-and-Jerry style if you put a foot – or squat thrust – wrong.
But the organisers saved the best for last, first a crawl through ice cubes under barbed wire before facing The Wall.
Remember the Travelator on the old 1990s show The Gladiators? This was similar, with a 20ft wall covered with slippery black plastic. I managed to climb to the top holding on to the ropes only to slip, and return crashing to the floor. It was exhausting on tired legs and arms, but a real test of our team dynamics with 15 of us encouraging and at times, dragging each other to the top. (A little tip, walk up one of the ropes like one of our team did for added grip).
Having been pulled over the top by one of my team, we then had a rope slide down to the floor. There is a skill to this, involving using your feet as brakes. I didn’t use any of that and pretty much plummeted to the floor like a sack of potatoes
Now, the finish line was just metres away but first we had to face down two Spartan warriors who were hell bent on taking us out with their foam pugil sticks. They didn’t stand a chance against a team of 15 Fitbitches all running towards them at once. It was a brilliant finish to an enormously fun race to do with a group of friends. We got a lot of cheers being the largest all female team, and making up a large proportion of the predominantly male entrants.
Overall
This is a fantastic, fun event but it was not as challenging as I had hoped. Talking to other competitors on the finish line, many said that some of the shorter distance events had been harder.
This race had the feeling of an event where the particulars had had been sorted out at the last minute, including which obstacles to include. And at a cost of between £45 and £65, I would expect more.
But would I do it again? Yes, definitely! I’ve already got three other obstacle events in my sight for next year.
Gold stars
- Something new for the race weary
- Camaraderie on the course
- Inspires you to challenge your comfort zones
Must try harder
- Rule regulation, no one was checking forfeits
- More obstacles needed to prevent queues
- They only had one water station in 12 miles
- All the finisher’s shirts were mens
More info: www.spartanrace.com
Next year’s Spartan Beast is on November 9th at Pippingford Park, East Sussex. Early bird price is £45.
Rachael Woolston, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
Rachael Woolston is the founder of www.fitbitchbootcamp.com. They have a new performance team training corporates and individuals for events including obstacle races and more.
