I Ran An Obstacle Course Race – With My DAD!
Yes, really…
& he didn’t completely hate it!
Okay, in all fairness my Dad is only 53 (my parents had me very young) and run’s several half marathons each month, so 12km wasn’t going to be a huge issue for him. But, how would he fare with all the Obstacles? The Mud? The Water?
With all this in mind, I got up early and helped out at bag drop before we took on the Uventure Run (formally ‘The Iron Run’).
There’s an important reason I want to share this, my Dad is a Type 1 Diabetic, which is something that is still wildly misunderstood by many people. Being a diabetic doesn’t mean you can’t partake in sport, or that you are obese, not forgetting the fact you could be accused of being a drug addict due to the fact you have to inject insulin.
Due to the fact he needed to carry his kit with him, we both avoided the water obstacles but the lovely Lee and Lorraine did a fantastic job of taking these on for us!
The course is a natural trail route with a huge emphasis on hills, and natural obstacles which is something I generally prefer. I ran this event last year and they reversed the route this year, which in all honestly I found pretty tough at times, but we can only improve with practice.
I had a small personal best with the monkey bars, I like to celebrate the little victories! Lorraine, Lee and Dad flew along with ease and comfort, I can’t say that the monkey bars with hanging tyres were as successful for us though, you win some and you lose some.
Running and jumping over fire is pretty exciting, not the average Saturday morning for us ‘Hey Dad, let’s go and jump over some fire pits, it’ll be fun?’.
Personally, I really like this event, I think it’s well organised and a wonderful setting, however, when training I’d advise that it’s important to focus on upper body strength. I was caught out of a few times thanks to a complete lapse in confidence and overall strength, some of the wall climbs were significantly higher than previously too.
When it comes to walls, might I add it’s not just the traditional wooden walls you find on an obstacle course race, expect to be climbing stone walls too! It’s a good job the old man used to be my climbing partner, amusingly he fared much better than I with the climbs.
One of the best parts was seeing my lovely Mum waiting at the finish line (with tea! Yes, she brought tea!) Then everyone gathered at ours in the evening for a gloriously social BBQ, what better way to end a muddy day?
Tell me, have you ever ran a race with a family member before?
Katie
x
