IronRun - Mud, Sweat and Aching Limbs

It's been four days, and I'm sitting here in the office, and my hamstrings, calf's, thighs and most other muscles for that matter are still a little sore. It's been four days since myself, Ian, John and Katie from the office took on the behemoth that is and was IronRun. We'd all put in a decent amount of training over the last few months, some more than others I have to admit. But by the time Saturday came around we all felt ready and excited for the challenge ahead. The IronRun course consisted of 7 miles of off country terrain, 52 different obstacles and a hell of a lot of mud! A lot of us had only really concentrated on trail and road running to get ourselves prepared, but in hindsight, a bit more upper body and specific leg work wouldn't have gone a miss!

And we're off!

The hour or so before the start dragged somewhat, as soon as we had arrived on site we were ready and raring to go! Once we'd registered ourselves, got our numbers and handed in our disclaimers signing away our bodies to the whims of the course, we headed over to the start point to stretch and hydrate. We thought it might be wise to get ourselves to the front of the pack for the actual start of the race, avoiding any possible bottle necks that might build up over the first few obstacles. We were a bit of a walking advertisement for Salomon as well, we all turned up in some form of Salomon trail shoes! The first couple of kilometres were fairly easy going, over grassy and flat terrain. Then the first obstacles hit, a few jumps, cargo nets and then a dip into a cooling river and a climb up the hill. It was at this point we started to feel our muscles being tested, the majority of the course from around 3 miles onwards mostly consisted of inclines and swamp like conditions, which sapped the energy in your legs and then some! The obstacles kept coming; tyre runs, A-frames, spider traps. We seem to be in agreement of our favourite obstacle though, the water slide. The quickest way to get down a hill, lie back and let the slide do the rest of the work! Until you hit the mud pond at the bottom however, then it was up to us to get ourselves off our backsides and continue running...

One thing in particular that hits you at this type of event is the camaraderie between participants, if someone falls over there's always a helping hand to get them back on their feet, I was even helped by two 118 runners (afro hair and all) as I slipped on the cargo nets!

Nearly there

We all predicted at the start, that at some point during the middle of the event our bodies would just acclimatise to the conditions and get into a rhythm. It's the same with long distance running too I've found, once your body get itself into that natural rhythm, you don't have to think about it anymore, and invariably any aches and pains you have tend to push themselves to back of your thoughts as you plow on. There were a couple of drinks stops on the way round too, which were much needed, especially as the sun was out all day and temperatures were hitting around the 20C mark at some points. But to be fair we had the cooling aid of gallons and gallons of mud at our disposal, if it's good enough for elephants it's good enough for us!

We've done it!

Unless your an elite athlete, the majority of people aren't two concerned about their race time, it's more about enjoying it and just making it to the finish line! We all helped each other around the course and finished at the same time as well, so it was more of a group effort all in all. The finish line was a tad cruel mind, having to climb up a 3 storey haystack and then down to finish the race, but quite frankly, it was all worth it!

Muddy and knackered, but well, well worth it!

It's pretty awesome to be able to say "I completed the IronRun", but it might not even be a one off, at this very moment we're waiting with baited breath for the announcement of the next one! The only downside is that there wern't any proper showers to clean ourselves off in after the event, there was a hose to get the worst off, but to be fair, it just made that hot shower when we got home even sweeter!