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16
RACE: REVIEW
european championships
So close, yet so far.
I’d quietly kept the weekend of June 12/13th free.
Penciled in the diary in my mind. The inaugural
European Championships in Berendonck, The
Netherlands. In order to get there, the only qualifying
race I was signed up for was 4 laps of Winter Nuts
– my goal was purely to finish (terrified of my first
DNF) and so I didn’t want to let anything else distract
me from that goal. But I finished, I qualified, and so I
booked my flights to Amsterdam.
It wasn’t that I was particularly keen on having a
band back on my wrist (having broken myself at
the 2015 World Championships, and frustratingly
lost my band at the UK Championships in the rain
and cold), but the location just looked stunning.
Beautiful woodland, a crystal blue lake, sandy
beaches – what an incredible place for a race! And
bonus, no hyperthermia (I had just finished Winter
Nuts after all!).
Most of Team UK were at the Strong Viking site
(the championships were sharing the majority of
the course with the Strong Viking race) on the
Saturday – scoping out the course and trying to see
as much of the obstacles as possible.The fantastic
location was why I wanted to run this race, and it
didn’t disappoint – from the looming slide, to the
finishing rig, to the beautiful lake stretching across
the venue, it had to be one of the most impressive
race settings I’d ever seen.
Race day rolled around and the excitement built.
We were to be set off in waves, which did settle
the nerves slightly – we could watch the elite men
scale the wall which marked the start of your race.
The wall was much discussed – 8 feet tall, wide,
and covered with a slippery tarpaulin, meaning
there was only one way over – muscle! The first to
struggle was a woman in the wave before mine, she
tried a few times and then looked around helplessly
– this course would take no prisoners!
A few minutes later and I was ushered into the
starting pen, the same wave as the UK female
number one, Freya Martin. A short countdown
and we were off. There was a bit of a scramble
as we heel-hooked our way over the starting wall,
and a clatter of feet as we raced across the metal
bridge, leading us through to the woodland. A
rope climb later and we were into the first section
of the race, – the MUD section! A far cry from the
sandy beaches and dry trails I was expecting; my
Terraclaws slipped around in the deep mud and, as
I crawled through the ditches, under beams, over a
slippery inclined wall, and through ‘Nuts Challenge’
type muddy ditches, I felt my energy sapping away.
Conscious that there was still a long way to go, I
settled into a steady pace, navigated over a balance
beam and came out of the trees and faced the lake.
A short run across the beach and up and over the
quarter-pipe (Nordicly named ‘Storm the Castle’)
I went. Next up was the ‘UFO’ – what looked like
a simple enough rope climb with a wooden disk
three quarters of the way up. But, sodden with
mud from the previous section and the fact that
the rope was suspended quite high up from the
ground, getting a foot lock proved tricky. The UFO
would end up claiming quite a few bands. This is
where the spirit of Team UK really started to shine
through for me, especially amongst the girls – given
that the obstacles relied heavily on upper body
strength, and sometimes (unfairly, in my opinion)
on height, we all certainly had a challenge ahead
(some more than others – the height obstacles were
less of an issue for me at 5’8”, but some of the girls
were shorter than the height that the organisers
had dubbed would be ‘fine for you to complete
all obstacles’). However, we proved we were all
stronger together, cheering each other on and
lending support. The UFO re-try lane was pretty
busy, but fortunately once I had a proper foot lock,
I managed to climb up and reach the top!
Next up was the ‘Flying Ragnor’ – a jump to a
suspended bar, which would swing and let you
ring the bell (similar to Tough Mudder’s King of the
Swingers – an obstacle I was less than fond of due
to a slight fear of heights, jumping from heights,
water, the list goes on). All I wanted was to ring
Excitement
was in the
air as we
discussed
technique
and
wandered
around the
event village
By Sarah Greene
Photos:
Group – Sally Wright
Others – OCR EC
