My Boyfriend, dad and myself had entered our first Warrior
Race to see what all the hype was about, especially after we had already
completed 2 Impi Challenges (we compete under the name ‘Pea Pods’ as my dad and
I are like peas in a pod and we are the ‘founding members’). The warrior was half
the distance but full of obstacles that provided non-stop action – The distance
was not an issue as we are all regular runners, but it was the upper body
strength that would really test us.
It’s not all bad, most of it is just a matter of teamwork and overcoming fears
to realise a rush of adrenaline that keeps us going back for more. The
highlight for me was on a mud wall we needed to climb with a rope. I went to
the far right while my teammates went left. My first attempt saw me in the
water with a cut on my knee after the knot in the rope I reached for wasn’t
actually there. In my mind I pictured my teammates laughing at me at the top
after this fail. I dug in deep and managed to climb up the second time, only to
find my teammates were still struggling at the bottom in the water. It felt
good to be able to help my teammates up, instead of them always helping me.
My
favourite thing about these events is that we get to learn about ourselves and
our friends and family, the strengths and weaknesses, and we all have them, and
when working in a team our strengths come out on different obstacles. For my
boyfriend, he has the strength in his arms, which helped my dad and I up on a
lot of the obstacles. For my dad in his determination to overcome some of the
most difficult obstacles like the half pipe, which took about 3 or 4 attempts
(after that a woman commented that he was putting people half his age to
shame).
I think everyone should try an obstacle race at least once, because
afterwards there is a lot more sense of achievement than any gym session can
bring.
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