Date: 16.08.14
Location: Royal Victoria Dock, London
Challenge: 10k
The Course: flat running, water obstacles and kayaking
The River Rat Race was in East London along Victoria
Dock. I was following the posts on Twitter about setting up the course the
night before. Very excited, my day started really early at 6:30am. Remind me!
Why did we sign up for the earliest wave? Ah, yes sure, we had Andre in our
team who is a serious racer. Don’t get me wrong, I was also running as fast as
I could but also wanted to stay with my colleagues if any support was needed. If I review the
time now, it was the best wave to start, as there were no cheques at any
obstacles. Just when the 2nd wave was on the course and I ran up the
stairs to cross the bridge again, it was busy.
Pic courtesy Rat Race: Obstacles indoor at start and finish.
I loved the obstacles and for my taste there could
have been more. Great fun and challenging were the pumped up inner car tires.
They were tied together in a line and we had to crawl on them to cross over to
the other side. I felt off a few times. Dipped myself into the river. I think I
was actually wet the whole race.
Pic courtesy Rat Race: The car tires
Oh, this one was scary!
Scary, but we all did “The Big Jump” (ca. 5 meters
high).
Everyone got a swim vest on. At the edge, I looked
down and got scared. I never did a jump high like this one before. A few big
guys nearly chickened out. No, I never thought about skipping this one. I
ignored my fear turned around to my colleagues to motivate them. “Yes, we can
jump together!” We all lined up, crossed our arms in front of the chest and
counted 3,2,1…
Pic courtesy Rat Race: The Big Jump
With a big step looking straight ahead and stiff like
a pencil, I did it! It sounds boring but this is the safest way to do it. Wow,
I was impressed what I can do by supporting each other. Or was it the pressure
of the peer? We were all happy we did it and were back on the course running to
the next obstacle.
Pic courtesy Rat Race
Other obstacles:
– water pools to
crawl though
– road barriers to
climb over
– metal bar
instead of the typical monkey bars
– sallow water to
get into to dive underneath an air-pumped up obstacle
– The Hamster Wheel but to craws though and swim after wards
– 2-3 meter high
slighting down with a meter drop into the water
– Kayaking: quite
a decent distance
Pic courtesy Rat Race: The Hamster Wheel
Very well organised at few obstacles the timing
chip as signed out and back in again due to expected waiting time. Looking at
my result sheet now it seemed like it didn’t work as well as it was planned.
But it was a good idea.
There was a lot of running of cause as it’s a 10km
race. Running in wet feet the whole time might cause a few blisters if you
getting them easily. I only suffered from bruises at my arm and legs. Overall definitely a great race and I fancy
dong it again next year.
Team: Jamie, Lauren, Sophia, Sabine and Andre
Cool, few month later I opened the email and saw me on the promo 2015 pic!