SPRING WOLF RUN

[Mike_Bravo]

Wow.. What to say. If you've had a go at this I'm sure you have had a similar feeling. I'll have a go at putting it in words but it'll be a long post.

Well, as always, thanks for your time in advance!

So I completed the above on Saturday 9th April. See the following link for more info on what it is:

thewolfrun.com/info/ 

It's 10 kilometres long with around 25 obstacles between. This one was based in Warwickshire. The obstacles range from running up very steep slopes, wading or swimming through water, going/ crawling through tunnels/ wire, and anything else they can think of to challenge you. It's all in fields/ woods/ gravel paths with no road and there's a lot of mud.  All obstacles are avoidable if you don't feel up to it at the time.

You can see how long it takes me to run 10k (or at least when I did 6 months ago) by reading this post:

healthunlocked.com/couchto5... 

It took us (me and 4 members of partner's family inc my partner) around 2 1/2 hours to complete. It isn't designed to be competitive and the helpfulness of everyone reminded me of when I volunteered for Cancer Research's race for life. I suppose you could race/ time yourself but it's much more about reaching the end and achieving more than you think.

We were absolutely knackered and freezing on reaching the end (see next paragraph). Foolishly we just got changed and into a warm car for the hour drive back and didn't at any point stretch. This meant that evening and on Sunday we very much needed repairing. My inner-left thigh left me empathising with older people whom have arthritis etc. Just walking up and down stairs was a task I'm not used to it being.

I was the only of the 5 of us that decided to do the 80m-ish swim in the latter half of the course. My main motivation was 'well I've come this far and might not do another one' (now decided we are). The swimming itself was lovely, it was nice, clear (rather than stagnant muddy) water and, despite having heavy muddy shoes, wasn't too hard. It did however leave me fully wet trying to run in cold windy weather and took more out of me than I thought, which I only really appreciated later on.

I would recommend it to anyone that feels they should be able to manage it. Please peruse the website and look at the FAQs for more info. There were people of all shapes/age/sex/ability etc but it's probably more suited to people with some upper body strength who can jog 10km, in whatever time.

I thought I'd jog the 2km-ish to Halfords this evening (to pick bike up) to see how I managed it after the above and managed average of 4:50km/hr taking 09:42. Thankfully I'm not too broken

Will try to add pics taken of the event asap. If you've done this or are thinking about it, please comment and/ or ask whatever Qs you might have.

Thanks again,

Mike

[goonkeepgoing Graduate10]

Hello - I did it too!!! I posted yesterday if you want to read my experience. I totally agree that being cold and wet just totally zaps you! Well done on getting around (especially the swim). You're a Wolf Runner now and you can wear your t  shirt with pride

[goonkeepgoing Graduate10 in reply to goonkeepgoing]

BTW Your description of the swim as lovely makes me smile. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done! You must be a super strong swimmer!

[nhs2015 Graduate10 in reply to goonkeepgoing]

Photo please

[goonkeepgoing Graduate10 in reply to nhs2015]

I think they get released today so hopefully we can see if there are any good uns. My usual experience is I'm hidden by others. I'm pretty sure I grumbled at the photographer at the end to hurry up as I wanted to get warm again so I'll probably look grumpy on that one

[nhs2015 Graduate10 in reply to goonkeepgoing]

Never mind, it will be hiden by the mud. 

[goonkeepgoing Graduate10 in reply to nhs2015]

Photos are out! I do look grumpy on the end one but there are some good alternatives. Once I've decided which one to invest in  (£8.50!!!!!!) I'll post

[goonkeepgoing Graduate10]

Did you get any good photos?

[Mike_Bravo Graduate10 in reply to goonkeepgoing]

I wish I'd written my number on my head! Looking through the pages from 293 to 187 (where I'd found a picture of us, looking suitably tired, at the end just before picking up the goody bags) was no fun at all and might have distracted me more than I'd have liked at work yesterday!

One of the others in our pack has found a few and popped them on Facebook, shame this site doesn't have that facility, sometimes you need more than one picture to illustrate a particular running experience!

[goonkeepgoing Graduate10 in reply to Mike_Bravo]

Given how long it took me to scrub my number off of my arm I'm not sure having it on your head would have been a good idea ☺

I had the 'benefit' of being in the last wave so I just filtered by location and started at the back. I found all of ours quite quickly whilst on a conference call at work.

[Mike_Bravo Graduate10 in reply to goonkeepgoing]

A benefit in many ways but not for the weather! We started at 11:30ish (the 2nd or 3rd wave I think) and saw people just starting as we finished and the weather was making a turn for the worst. We were definitely lucky with the weather for the first half of the course. Glad you found your pics nice 'n' quick.

The stamp we got just to be let into the warm up (and release) area stayed on my hand for a good few days despite rigorous scrubbing. Maybe not so good on head if I'm back in the office two days after the event!

[goonkeepgoing Graduate10 in reply to Mike_Bravo]

Yep - the weather certainly turned. All good fun