Let me take you back 20 years ago to when I was 18. Through a tip off, I would go searching for raves and parties in fields. Nobody knew where they were going and there definitely were no sign posts. En route to Badass Mucker (BM), I felt like I was back in my mate’s Vauxhall Nova SR trying to find the event venue. Then suddenly on the A683 in Lancaster, I caught a glimpse of a small Badass arrow.
A beautiful setting, with natural surroundings and some good obstacles
Panic over, I found the race site, paid my £3 parking fee (all proceeds to the North West Ambulance Service so thumbs up BM), and parked up to prepare myself to take part in a mud obstacle challenge organised by a new kid on the block.
The North West of England is light on Obstacle Race’s and Eamon – Race Director of Badass Mucker had seen a gap in the market to cater for the mud runners North of Manchester. The Lune Valley incorporating the River Lune into the race route was selected to host the event. A beautiful part of the country, it is the start of Lake District territory.
The day was scorching and the event village set up as per usual with a registration tent, toilets, food outlets and a bonus for the junior obstacle runners; a mini OCR course.
Pre-race, there was a brief warm up, before the 500 participants who were split into 5 waves awaited to take on the 10km course. Eamon had placed me in the 1st wave with the majority of the ‘elite’ runners. There were familiar faces from the Northern OCR scene and this included local fitness legend Russell Parrington. Even though the event wasn’t timed, he was the quickest in the wave and declared the fastest runner over the course. Expect to see Russell on the podium in many of the OCR’s he’s entered this year.
The thermometer was reading 26C and after climbing a monstrous hill, you could have fried an egg on my bald head.
During the warm up, the P.A. system was clear and audible but further away where the start pen was, the starter’s instructions and countdowns were not particularly loud. I couldn’t help but comment to a co-runner that they should have invested in a Spinal Tap amplifier and pushed it up to 11 (louder than 10). Still, we started and followed the edge of a forest. After 300m of tree lined running a sharp left turn revealed described in video game terms as a boss stage; a monster hill with a cargo net. I’ll estimate it was 1:4 and 400 feet high. Reaching the top, I wasn’t the only one with lungs on fire. The thermometer was reading 26C and after climbing this hill, you could have fried an egg on my bald head.
Continuing with less severe gradients but still climbing for approximately 2km, the runners were diverted through agricultural fields with sheep and cows looking at us like we had death wishes. Natural rock crags and pits were used to break the running up and as the run continued to the summit of what appeared a never-ending climb, the steep downhill was most definitely welcomed.
Unfortunately, the direction markers were become scarcer. I myself took the wrong route here and again later on the course and many of the participants also encountered this. Still back on track, there were many man-made obstacles to encounter including skip dips, hurdles, climbing frames, a rope climb down a steep banking and a log carry. Not every obstacle was marshalled and this is a major safety oversight that BM must rectify for any follow up events.
Back to the race, the course continued across the fields until at approximately half way, I encountered a woodland area where the BM team had set the route to go through several natural ponds full of reeds and lilly pads which were very stinky but cooling.
Following the water and out back into the fields, the local farmers had helped set up a highlight obstacle; Bale Out. A pyramid made of hay bales very high (20 feet) to climb over. Welcoming me on the other side was a large trough of bottled water. Credit to the organisers who had 3 water and a jelly baby station on the course. They had taken into account the extremely hot conditions.
As the run continued across undulating land, so did the obstacles, where I encountered a cargo net and a spider’s web frame. Out of the trees and I was running along-side the river. In the build up to this event, BM had boasted of a double water slide (400 foot) . The river flows in the lowest part of the valley, therefore there was only one way of getting to the top of the slide; run back up the lung burning hill where it was housed. Out of breath but ready, face first I wizzed down the first slide, then the second. However, not everyone was a fortunate as me. Runners in later waves were reporting the slide had run out of water and the tarpaulin had ripped. Local farmers helped by supplying 1000litre water bowsers, but the slide malfunction was the major disappointment of the event and not everybody got to have a go.
Back in the valley and concluding the run was a multiple climb over plastic wrapped round hay bales, a double crossing of the River Lune (thanks -I was so hot I could have stayed there all day) and an ambitious and well-constructed half pipe to run up. I crossed the line with Rob Myers whom recognised me from the Muddy Race website. Together we had run pretty much the whole race. The reward for completing was a cotton Badass Mucker t-shirt and great medal, but strangely no water without buying some.
The verdict
So there were many teething problems. Eamon acknowledged this when I chatted to him after the race, but he’s a good listener and within 24 hours has been on social media taking constructive criticism and praise (plenty of positives) about the event.
Good bits
- Beautiful setting, made great use of the natural surroundings
- Tough course – hilly, ambitious
- 3 water stations – needed on a hot day
- Decent well-made obstacles especially Bale Out and the Half Pipe
Improvements needed
- All obstacles need marshalling, serious safety implications
- Clearer sign posting on the roads and on the course. BM said sheep had destroyed many on Friday and they had to use emergency markers
- Test all obstacles and ensure that they all work
- Water at the finish
- Present medals when participants finish. I had to go back to the finish later to get mine
The fact that Eamon has welcomed a faults and improvement discussion shows he wants the next event (pencilled in for February 2015) to be problem free. BM have an excellent skeleton and their efforts must be applauded especially working 18 hour days in the lead up to their debut event. People shouldn’t be put off by the teething problems, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the North West needs to support the OCR scene as events are not as regular as those in the Midlands or South of the country.