TOUGHEST OSLO - Obstacle Course Race

Date: 05.09.15

Location: Holmenkollen, Oslo
Start: 12:45pm

Team name: Commando Active
Team: Maria, Lewis, Andre, Alyn, Sabine
Challenge: 8km with max. 40 obstacles

Race pack: Long compression tights, long sleeve base layer, buff around my neck,
INOV8 trail running shoes (which I used in the Jungle) and gaiters.
I forgot my glows at home but luckily could buy new ones at the race.

Toughest? “Exciting name, why not. Oh, in Oslo! I have never been. OK, sold I’m in”.

That’s what I thought 4 month ago. I watched the video and thought wow, mainly upper body to train for… Running, that’s what I do anyways.

Well, it wasn’t that easy as I thought it would be. Forget all races you have done. This is the Toughest!

The name says it all!

LONDON TRAINING

First training session was mostly fun and checking out what’s available at the outdoor gym.

FOOLING ARROUND Maria and her new Teletubbies outfit / technique to slight along the pole…

We mainly focused on Monkey-bars, …

… lots of Monkey-Bars and exercises like plank, push ups, pull ups, dips and more.

My team and I regularly met up in Primorose Hill, London to train for the obstacle race.

That hill was the killer, but worth the view. We did minimum 2 and last time 4x hill runs.

Last training session we had a lough. Who’s idea was that? MARIA!

So that was the training in London, but I also went on holidays to Frankfurt Germany and continued training along the river Main.

FRANKFURT TRAINING

The river and its city highlights. Guess what I did…

More Monkey-Bars-ish exercises and I ran 2x 10k!

Two weeks later I took part in a 24h relay race near London! Spitfire Scramble! Awesome!

Love Frankfurts Skyline!

I found a very special statue… ME! (ICH).

Nutrition is key for your training progress and future success. After long runs or intense gym session I always have a protein shake or lots of proper food.

OSLO: THE RACE

I could hardly sleep the night before but luckily our wave was midday. We stayed very central in Oslo and had only a 20 min tube ride to the race in Holmenhollen. Andre was our team captain and the reason we were all together on this trip. He found the race booked it and we all joined in. Organised like I couldn’t have done it better, Andre researched every step for the whole weekend from A- Z! We had the best time ever.

Big big thank you, Andre!

The highlight go the race!

The weather was cold, rainy and windy. Not ideal for a race but better than too hot.

On that pic I was saying “I can see the finish line!” 40 min later the first competition finished the course and we were just studying the 40 different obstacles.

40 Obstacles: WATER, FOREST, HILLS

READY TO GO!

If you think, these logs were easy, yes they were. But this was only the penalty round. At every obstacel someone was watching if you managed the obstacle successfully. If not, they made us work hard at the penalties: extra running up and down the hill/ forest, carrying sand bag, logs, or a 20 kg filled gas canister uphill.

The big jump into the cold water was my biggest challenge. First I was discussing with Maria if we do it or not. We both did this jump in another race before. It was just the cold water that was holding us standing there and talking (on the pic: pink and purple). Secondly, I was up there waiting for Maria to come up, which she didn’t at the end, so I was waiting too long. The longer you wait the more these little whisperers in my head were holding me back.

Crossed arms step, jump and I hit the bottom. But I was fine, swimming/racing to the other side where everyone was waiting for me.

Shivering we all ran off or in my terms sprinted off to the next obstacles. My team had super fast runners and I really struggled to keep up with them. We all stayed together and managed to finish the big run up the sky jump. An amazing experience. I stopped a few times to look down and up and it felt amazing. It was so steep that we had to climb up by holding onto a net. The last 6 meters was concrete and I sprinted. (first pic on this blog).