Intrepid Race - Stage 1

I signed up for an obstacle race I stumbled upon online. It was quite secretive and different. It's a race organised by ex-marines and special forces commandos. The only things I knew were the date, location, and that it will be an 8 mile obstacle race + the PIT. They didn't really mention what the PIT is, just that there will be some exercises involved to really test us. Also the format is a two-person team. You run with your team mate and the Top 20 teams will get through to Stage 2 later a few months down the line. I found a mate to do this with and we both signed up.

Time is getting closer to the event and I'm smashing my training. Running, cycling, doing some seriously intense boot camp stuff early mornings twice a week. A few weeks before the event my teammate says he has really hurt his back in training and probably can't do it. Damn. I ask some people around but don't really know people who do OCRs. Through a running contact I'm able to reach out to this serious OCR guy and he's super keen. Great, we're good to go. One week before the event we get the final email from the organiser. Not a lot more knowledge, but the race start is at 4am on the Sunday. What the hell kind of event is this? My new teammate bails. I try to convince him but he is not having it. Damn it. I won't be able to go. I happen to mention it to my mates as a last resort and an absolute hero, Ricky, steps up for the challenge. Alright, we're back in.

We drive down to Hampshire on the Friday evening so we can camp out instead of having to drive in the night. There's a bonfire, everyone is all smiles. Ricky and I have a few quiet drinks before heading back to the tent to get some short rest.

If only we knew what awaits

We set our alarm for 3am. The sleep is so and so. There are fireworks going off every so often, there are speakers not far from us playing sounds of babies crying, wolves howling and some ominous tune I recognise from some YouTube conspiracy videos from years ago. At one point some people walk right up to our tent and yell out loud while pointing a flashlight trough the tent canvas. I keep falling asleep again like whatever, but there are constant interruptions all night. The alarm goes off and we start getting ready. It's 2nd of April and it's fucking freezing outside. There is frost on the ground and the temperature should be like 4-5 Celsius. I put on my base layer and a short sleeve top. After eating a banana we walk over to the start. It's pitch black outside. A cool view appears of a lot more competitors descending the slope from the car park with their head torches lighting up the area. There are at least a hundred head torches heading down through the darkness. I guess these guys might have had the right idea. No sleep deprivation for them and a comfy bed probably. Everyone gathers up by the bonfire and there's a race brief. The directing staff (DS) address their disappointment that out of the 300+ teams that signed up only about half decided to turn up. There's a motivational speech from Coach Pain, some training coach for the US special forces or something. After some nice words he tells us he doesn't give a shit who you are. Gym rat, seasoned OCR athlete, an Olympic champion. Today is going to test you like nothing else ever has. You have not prepared for this, whatever your training has prepared you for. Honestly, in my head I'm thinking yadiya, OK pal. Whatever you say. I'm sure it will be alright. Just bigging it up. They get everyone to walk into the PIT, about a 50m wide square area surrounded by barbed wire. The head DS, Si, is standing in front of us on a flipped over hay bale, with the rest of the DS all around us. The PIT is filled with smoke coming from various oil drums dotted about and blue lights rhythmically flash across the sky from the medic team on stand-by. It all feels a little surreal and ominous. By the entrance there is a bell. Everyone was given an arm band for the race. If you want to quit you ring the bell and throw down your arm band. OK let's get going already, it's cold outside. All the head torches are turned off apart from the DS. Si explains that all of the DS are to be addressed as 'Staff' from now on. After his short brief a funny comment comes from the crowd. The person gets called out and is taken to the side for a beasting. I don't see much joy in his face when he is allowed to return. The next thing out of the DS' mouth is, everyone give me 300 squat jumps. And go! I start doing squat jumps thinking yeah right, we will stop at like 50 probably. Ummmmm no, am I mistaken. 5 minutes later it's still going down and I hear the first bell being rung already. Oh man, these people paid to be here and they quit already? Our legs are burning up and people take short breaks now and again. Those breaks are very short lived. The second the staff glance their gaze over you gotta get back to it. You'll likely get sprayed through a hose of cold water if you're caught slacking. It's already a cold morning, screw getting drenched. Some unlucky folk are getting rinsed anyway. One guy gets rinsed and he lets out a funny squeal. That just attracts the staff and they keep rinsing him for no reason even more. You gotta not stick out or attract attention. People are just getting picked on randomly, or not so randomly. Some guys take a slightly longer break and they are forced to go dunk themselves in a skip full of freezing muddy water. This goes for the team, one person slacks off they both have to go through the skip. Screw that, the skip is the final thing I need right now.

Drone shot of the PIT

The bell is ringing every once in a while. People are dropping out. We finally stop with squat jumps after maybe 15 minutes. We probably have done 300 squat jumps, Si wasn't kidding. Shit, these guys are for real. Then we get to jog on the spot. We need to put our hands up and keep them there. A few minutes go by and these hands are starting to get heavy. We are not allowed to let them drop below our heads. If you do, the skip awaits. Eventually you start thinking the skip might not be the worst thing since you get a short break while you walk over there and back again. But then you're straight back to jogging on the spot with your hands up whilst also wet. The DS say this is gonna go on for 30 minutes. 30 minutes! We're like 10 minutes through and my arms have never burned like this before. People keep getting hosed, us included, the bell keeps ringing. We somehow manage to get through this 30 minutes of insanity. More pain to follow. Endless pressups, burpees, back to back squat holds with your team mate, piggy backing your team mate around. Finally everyone is told to stop. We all queue up and have to go through the skip next. Damn it. Ricky and I have managed to avoid the skip so far but doesn't matter anymore. We dip under, head and all and get out. It's not warm that's for sure. Some more exercises and then back through the skip again. I take off my short sleeve top and wring it before putting it back on again. It actually feels a lot nicer removing all that water away from my skin.

The infamous Skip

Then it's time for everyone to line up, link arms and do low squat holds. This is a pure mental game now. When will we do the obstacle course? When will it get light? It's still the middle of the night. I'm telling myself, we can't quit before we've even had a go at the obstacle course. I'm thinking I'm so glad my original team mate didn't come. With his back in bits we'd already be on our way back home. This has been going on for over an hour now. Just non-stop stress positions and everyone getting beasted. I'm feeling like Coach Pain was right. This day will test you indeed. I'm in agony. People are groaning and moaning left right and centre. Time just ceases to exist and you have no idea how long you've been doing something.

Catching a break from the squat holds

People are getting med dropped by the medics. Hypothermia etc. The medics on site are going around checking up on everyone. Time for more jogging on the spot, this time with our arms extended to the sides. They tell us it will be another 30 minutes of that. Fuck sake. It feels easier than arms up but not for long. Coach Pain is chiming in saying 'right now you are holding nothing but air. You aren't even holding anything. There are people with their arms blown off who aren't able to hold anything, and you guys are bitching about holding air'. I'm like fuck this guy, you come and do this shit. I don't believe it but 30 minutes are eventually up. The DS say not enough people have dropped out. We will keep this going until another 20 teams drop out. 5 minutes pass and the bell doesn't ring once. For fuck sake. I'm just stuck here with another load of stubborn bastards like myself. Some people eventually drop but not that many. Maybe another 10 minutes and they let us take a quick break and go grab food, water, whatever from our bags that we have stashed at the sides.

Coach Pain in the limelight, everyone huddling to keep warm

Finally, we are told that it's time to get on the obstacle course. Yes, we held strong. Also it's just about getting light so we can actually see where to go. I'm beyond excited and proud thinking we're though this pain. They tell us a little more of the race format. So there's an 8 mile double lap obstacle course. We need to get around it in pairs while carrying one, maybe 15-20kg, sandbag between us and take it over all the obstacles. In the end, the first 20 teams qualify for Stage 2. We all line up with our sandbag and take off. Man running feels great. Oh how I miss running. We keep swapping the sandbag so one recovers while the other puts in work. The obstacles aren't anything too serious, just a load of low walls, few bigger frames where the bag has to go over the top and at one point even a big slide to go down. Ricky and I are really pushing the pace and we are somewhere near the Top 10. I'm feeling pretty good and take longer turns with the bag. We finish lap one and they tell us to drop the bag and start crawling up this hill. Not allowed to lift your bum, arms only.

At least the Sun is out

I'm struggling and falling behind. I swear everyone around me is cheating a bit and not only using their arms. This is followed by a load of duck walks, up and down, up and down. We get told we will do this until everyone finishes lap 1. Fuck sake, we've been tricked. It's time for more painful shit and this lap didn't event count for anything. How will they decide the winners? Everyone who pushed hard in the run just has to do extra crap while we wait for the slowest people to catch up. Once that happens, we get split up into groups with different staff members. Ricky and I get split up. I see some people doing monkey bars, my group gets put through a serious core workout. Flutter kicks for days, V-shape holds, planks, whatever else. I'm in so much pain, having to drop my feet all the time. Then picking them up again hoping I don't get disqualified. Then we all join up again for more jogging on the spot with arms up amongst other things. I'm done. I'm fucking done. Why am I here at 7am on a Sunday? I look over towards Ricky, praying that he turns to me and asks whether I'd be alright to quit because he is done too. I'd be so in straight away to just leave and get a big breakfast somewhere. He never turns and I feel too embarrassed to quit if he is still going. I don't want to let him down, so I look up and just keep grinding. We get split again for more core shit. I tell myself that if anyone ever asked me to describe hell, this is it. This right here is hell. How can it get worse than this?

Little Sunday core workout

I'm just on survival mode, stumbling over to the next station to do whatever. No emotion in my face, just a thousand yard stare going on. I don't want to be here. There is no end. What did I sign us up to? My ego from the morning has been stomped down. I get it, an Olympic champion probably doesn't indeed train like this. This PIT round 2 goes on for an entire two hours again. That relief when we get called away from what we are doing and they say, go warm yourself up by the fire and we will start the final obstacle lap in a bit.

The morning is slightly warming up and it's not too cold anymore. No idea how many competitors are still left, but the bell has rung so many times through the night yet at least 50 teams are probably still there. We are told that it is time for the final lap and this time the first 20 teams back are the ones to get to Stage 2. Pick up the sandbag and it's go time again. Everyone takes off in a slight jog. Ricky and I are not near the front. This challenge has been purely about finishing for ages now, but now that we are actually nearing the end, that qualifying spot sounds amazing. Ricky is motivated and is bloody sprinting with the bag, passing multiple teams at the same time. Whenever I take the bag it's all damage control. Try not to let the same guys gets past. I was loving lap 1 and feeling strong but not this time round. It's such hard work. Ricky is definitely doing more of the leg work here. After letting him run for quite a while he says, at the next corner you need to take the bag man. I really don't want to as I haven't recovered but there's no choice. But I fight the fatigue and do manage to pick the pace up. We're not doing too bad. I can see all the competitors in front and we are in the Top 20 I think. We reach the final mile and we need to keep fighting to not lose position, but hell, this is going alright. We go down the slide again. climb the frames and hold on. Suddenly the realisation starts hitting that we are almost done, we're there. Not only will we finish but we will qualify for the Top 20. I want it, but at the same time want to stop running so I don't make it. Stage 2 - we get to do this shit again and probably even worse? My mind is at battle. It's not like we actually have to turn up to go do Stage 2 I guess if we really don't want to. Yeah, that's it. Let's finish Top 20 and not do Stage 2. Perfect. That doesn't sound so bad. Alright, it's the final stretch, jump through a muddy skip and we're done. Holy shit, we're done.

Finish

We both feel like heroes crossing that finish line. I can't believe I've endured all this. We never gave up. This is by far the hardest thing I've ever done, especially from the mental aspect. It has just hit 9am and we've been through five hours of hell. And we've qualified for Stage 2. We wait for everyone still going to finish. I would applaud the last team as if they were the first. Every team that is still going after all this deserves a medal. Everyone here is hard as nails. Fair play. The Top 20 are gathered separately and are told that we will hear further regarding Stage 2 in a few months' time.

Just a couple of heroes

The winning team gets called out. Some navy deep sea diver and his mate. The staff ask them how they found the day and they don't even seem overly fazed. Apparently used to stuff like that and they do even harder things at their navy training. Jeez, I'm surrounded by some absolute beasts. Army guys, PTs, whoever else. I feel proud to stand line with them.

Stage 2 qualifiers