Tue 05 Nov 2013
One of our parents Andy Wesson recently told us that he and a team of friends from Walkers Crisps would be taking part in an event at Rockingham Castle to raise funds for The Ashmount Appeal. It sounded so much fun we decided to enter our own team. Here is a report by Ian Scarrott a teacher from Charnwood College who took part in our team;
"Pain and Suffering race report - raising money for Ashmount:
I turned up to Rockingham to meet my fellow competitors from Ashmount School, we were all unsure of what to expect but looking forward to taking on 10 miles of obstacles... oh how naïve...
What followed was the hardest and most brutal race I have ever taken part in, it truly lives up to its name. The first part of the race consisted of a cargo net, a clamber over some tyres and a 3/4 mile cross country run. I thought brilliant if its like this I might stand a chance and lo and behold I managed to get into 1st position... for about 30 seconds. Then the second, third and 4th obstacles hit. Little did I know the marshals supervising the obstacles were asked to literally dish out pain and suffering... should have clocked on to the name of the race really, here's me thinking it'd be cross country with a tough obstacles and that would be it, I didn't take into account the fact that I'd be crawling on my hands and knees along muddy water trenches on top of rocks, which made my knees feel like they've gone 50 shades of blue. Then to be greeted by shouts of "10 press ups in the water" "get your face in the water" "grab that bucket and tip water over yourself"... the day continued in this vain.
The cross-country portions were a piece of cake, minus the ridiculous hill repeats you were required to do, most mere mortals walked. Alongside this there was barbed wire to crawl under, full water tankards to carry up and down hills, across rocks, under cargo nets in massive pools of water, carry tyres up and down a hill....
By mile 9 my leg left started to cramp which made me take a while to climb over obstacles, a highlight was when I had to crawl under a cargo net with someone bellowing in my ear to go faster whilst my other leg cramped up. At mile 10 or whatever it was, I am convinced it was longer we had to scale 6ft, 7ft and 8ft walls, thankfully being vertically challenged I was allowed assistance given I'd been covered head to toe in mud, water, etc. so scaling anything just meant sliding back down especially with both legs cramping up . After my 8ft climb I was greeted by 4 rugby players with pads, whereupon I was effectively punched in the face and have received a nice shiner.....
The end came, and I was relieved, with cramp and exhaustion set in I managed to come 24th out of 223 competitiors with a time of 2 hours 14 minutes (it normally takes me 60-64 mins to run 10 miles in a hilly race), the obstacles and lack of upper body strength showed through and proved to be my downfall. I am elated with the placing and time and hope as a result you will contribute some funds for my pain and suffering to ashmount. Just drop me an email and I'll collect asap.
Also I would say if you have a mild sadistic streak or enjoy pain, or like extreme races. This is the one for you. From speaking to competitors who have competed in other similar races like Tough Mudder, they said this one was the hardest. This makes me feel better, and today I feel like I have been hit by a train, I couldn't grip my bike brakes due to my arms cramping and have been told I look terrible... so that is surely worth a few ££ feel free to pop over if you want to see the evidence... I think I'll stick to normal races for a while ;)
Cheers,
Ian
Pain and Suffering Survivor."