It's been a whole 10 days since the Banchory Beast Race, and I think I may have finally recovered!
This was my third year in a row tackling the 10km obstacle race, and I loved it just as much as the first time. Weather warnings played havoc with my nerves all morning but luckily the wind had died down by the time our wave started. I was gutted however to find there was no silent disco to warm us up this year! Once the adrenaline kicks in it's all good anyway... The dreaded uphill run at the beginning wasn't as muddy as usual, despite us being in the penultimate wave, and somehow it felt quicker. Either it isn't actually as bad as I remember or I just sadistically enjoy it! It's definitely nothing to do with any improvement to my cardiovascular fitness!
25 challenging obstacles awaited us around the course, with the majority of them still being in the last 5km. There's the usual hay bales, muddy cargo net crawls and wall climbing, but the Beast is best known for it's clay and bloody freezing water obstacles! The clay was actually much deeper this year, meaning you could just duck underneath the barrier, rather than crawling through face deep! A few new additions were a nice surprise - the tyre squeeze, sand bags to carry up and down the sand hills and the rope climb across water! I didn't event attempt this one - I'm about 95% sure I'd of ended up drowning! Luckily the water depth was low enough that an "easy" route was offered and you could literally just walk across it.
That's the thing about these races - as much as it's great to challenge yourself and tackle every obstacle, you really don't have to. You can take an easier option or just skip it all together. I always say this to people when they don't feel confident enough to complete an obstacle race - you don't have to stay there forever, there is a way round! You'll see all shapes and sizes and fitness levels tackling the beast. At the end of the day as long as you enjoy the experience, that's all that matters. Of course having a great team for encouragement and banter along the way helps too. Big thanks to my team mates this year: my sister Laura and Amey from Teacups & Buttondrops!
Check out my GoPro video from the race below to see how we got on!
I received a free entry to the Banchory Beast Race this year, in exchange for social media coverage.
As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own and 100% genuine.
Well done you guys for doing this! It looks hard work to me, I'm knackered from watching it :D xx
ReplyDeleteHard work but good fun! You in next year?!
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