Obstacle Mud Runner - Issue 7

ForEliteAtheletes to FunRunners 01732 452404 25 RACE : MUD We’d love to hear your story, email us at [email protected] We might even publish it. This was my response to my trainer 4 years ago when he invited me to do my very first mud run, who even knew the term “OCR” ever existed? Let alone what it might stand for. I’m struggling to remember life before mud and things have changed as time progressed. That 1 ‘fun run’ has a lot to answer for. The response I was met with by my then and still trainer Daniel Welstead post race was “You were actually pretty quick.” And so it began. That teeny tiny moment where I thought, “Wow, I’m actually not too bad at something.” Having searched my whole life for a passion, a hobby, something I can call my own and do purely for me and by Jove, I’d found it somewhere I least expected it. From there, my passion grew and grew. With a surprisingly new found urge for getting down in the dirt, I booked another run and added some friends into the mix. Before long, it was a regular occurrence. An early morning start, a fixed grin whilst blowing out the cobwebs, time spent with some of my nearest and dearest, followed by the obligatory post race tipple and bling photo shoot. Winter came and the ‘sensible’ friends decided a warm bed and a cuppa was much more preferable on a chilly, wet morning, yet for me, the challenge was just beginning. Life was changing. I’m fitter now, way fitter than before, that’s actually not difficult. I went from an overweight stay at home mum with just the children to care for having done zero exercise since my school days to where I am today. I barely recognise the person I was then; I couldn’t even run down the street let alone a race. I kept setting myself goals, made sure I always had a challenge to work towards, the funny thing was, those goal posts kept on moving. Anyone who knows me will confirm that I’m not remotely competitive (ahem) what??... but what I do have is desire. Desire and passion to be better, in all angles of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll never be up there with the best of them but I’m delighted how far I’ve come and that’s what’s important. Take a glance over your shoulder from time to time to see how far you have come. Don’t dwell on not reaching all your life goals by the time you’re 39 and three quarters, what is there, if you have nothing left to achieve? One thing which has remained the same throughout my 4 years of obstacle racing and that is the love, excitement and enjoyment which I see around me at every race. I always take a moment to appreciate the surroundings, not only in terms of natural beauty but also within the heart of our sport and what it has become. The cliché about it being one big OCR community is not as corny as some might think. It truly is a community where people unite. Sure there are the occasional ‘you don’t really belong here’ bodies, but we welcome those too in the knowledge that they’re just passing through on their journey to find ‘their thing’. Camaraderie is a word which will come up in also every race review and it truly is present on every course. Yes of course there are the front runners, head down, focus, blinkers on, dog eat dog kind of attitude and good for them. They have a different agenda, and it’s one they are entitled to as much as the person who just can’t take that leap of faith. It’s your race, it’s your prerogative to tackle each element as you wish. The banter, whether you are directly involved in it or not, is still there, usually in abundance. As for friends, well, I have more ‘mud’ friends now than I had ‘non-mud’ ones. Having that common interest, and the fact you’re all just a tiny bit crazy has embedded some solid friends for life. I could go on and on, these are just a few good benefits of being involved and I’ll bet you can relate to most, if not all of them. I really can’t think of a single reason NOT to do OCR, even coming from a girl who ‘didn’t do mud.’ I don’t DO mud The beginning, in a nutshell... “ ”