First of all, sorry it has taken so long to get this blog post up. We’ve been very busy lately planning races and bootcamp sessions etc though that’s no excuse for slacking!
In July we all did the Dirty Dozen race in Usk. For those that did it i’m sure you will all agree it was a fantastic race as per usual. The obstacles were bigger and badder as promised, Obstacles on an incline = pain!)

OBSTACLES ON HILLS!!

Yes you read that correctly. Obstacles on an incline, in fact several inclines results in pain and lactic acid like you would never imagine. There was a particular steep hill that I recognised from previous DD Races at this location,
on which Doug had placed about 8-10 hurtles.


Hurtles are basically smallish wooden hurdles at about chest height over which you had to haul yourself. Now for some, even on a flat surface, getting over several of these is challenging.

With a hill added to the mix, just getting over one wall was a massive struggle. I would literally haul myself over the wall only to be flung back against it due to the wonderful effect of gravity. Also without going into detail as to why
I think Doug should rename this obstacle to the ball crusher 😀 😀

There was also an overhanging wall on a hill, again which added another element of difficulty.

LORD OF THE RINGS

My favourite obstacle of the race was Lord Of The Rings. Me and Mikey have had a fair bit of practice at rings since theyve popped up in quite a few races that we’ve attended lately which helped a lot.

They were very tricky for some particularly because not only did you have to swing a pretty big gap from ring to ring but the structure that held the rings went upwards! If remember rightly it was also shortly after a nice dip in the pond, resulting in wet and muddy hands.

So if grip strength is a weakness for you, chances are this one may have defeated you! Don’t worry too much about that though, grip strength is something we like to focus on at bootcamp. Keep training with us and you will smash this obstacle at next years race!

JACOBS LADDER

An Obstacle we had not seen at last years race was Jacobs Ladder.
This one was more difficult than it looked – a very narrow flimsy ladder which extended to about 30 ft, a great way to cure any Acrophobia!

SLACKLINE

New to the usual line-up this year was ‘Slackline’. You have to basically traverse from one end of the slackline to the other over a gap of approx 25-30ft. I really enjoyed this one and it was an obstacle I was looking forward to as I was itching to try out the technique
that the military tend to use on this obstacle.

The one that you tend to see on the telly on the likes of Bear Grylls Reality Shows. The technique is to dangle one leg down one side of the strap with the other leg hooked onto the strap itself. The dangling leg is used
as a counterweight to keep the body balanced while using your arms and your legs to pull yourself from one side to the other.
The volunteers at this obstacle were brilliant at coaching this technique, many people crossed with no problems at all.

FLOATER

Another obstacle that many people struggled with was ‘Floater’ (floating wall).

Dragging yourself onto a platform on the water is pretty difficult, particularly when the water is f’in freezing! Then once you are on the platform you have to get over a big ass wall! It was good to see the usual
OCR Team Spirit in full effect here though, lot’s of people helping each other out.

THE FINISH

The race finished with the usual 10 foot wall, which i’m proud to say almost every one of you got over with no problems.

Me and Mikey particularly enjoyed watching all our Obstafitters smash the obstacle at the end of the race with a big smile on your faces, then straight into the
arms of the beard at the finish line.

A big well done to everyone that finished. An even bigger well done is due to those that did both distances (the 12k and th 6k) in one day – Paul Eggins, Louise O’Brien Barker, Keith McAndrew, Kelly Lewis and anyone else that i’ve missed you guys should be massively proud of yourselves 😀

Another race done and dusted. Onto the next challenge!!