This was to be my second Rock Solid Race - the first having been Milton Keynes last year, where Muddy Race spent the day helping people over the final wall (as well as running the race)
For this race, Team Muddy Race were on registration so registration was, of course, slick and fast - there had been one or two hiccups in actually getting in to park the car (exact change only for parking was not a popular discovery for many racers), but once that was sorted things went smoothly. This time I had brought my family along too as my 9 year old son was going to run the kid’s Rock Stars Event later that day.
The event village was humming even before the first wave, with the Rock Solid Arms already doing a roaring trade and the obstacle course race stands, charity stands and food/drink vendors vying for custom. MC Muddy Highlander Mark Leinster was on the mike and got both the racers and the crowd buzzing while the final course checks were undertaken.
The warm-up was bootcamp-style, led by the PTs of FitMK (aka “Rock Solid Fitness) - although as I tried to get my breath back I did notice that the elites had remained standing nonchalantly next to the start line while the rest of us were doing burpees…
Rock Solid are famous for running 5k, 10k and 15k races in parallel and on the same course - this was no different and all distances set off together to run the same first few km.
For a split second I was wondering whether Julie Andrews was about to skip up and start singing as we ran down a lovely grass slope, but we were then onto a track and over some hay bales as our first obstacle. From here we trotted off into the woods, skirting some log stacks, and met some mud for the first time.
This was the Soap Dodger - several racers were teetering around the edge of the pit - but fellow Muddy Racer Nick Taylor-Komar and I looked at each other and grinned “This is what we’re here for” then ploughed through the middle.
From here we had a series of leafy hill switchbacks then back to the mud for an under-wire crawl, through a trench and up some incline tunnels (with a rope halfway up to help, once you reached it).
A short run up a muddy trail led us through some tank-busters to a short-and-sweet log carry then to the first course split, from here I’m not sure what happened to the 15k-ers as those of us on 10k were diverted to our first total immersion under a log - the Muddy Dunk. The thoughtful RDs had laid on a water station for us to rinse our eyes out afterwards too!
Into the woods we went and were confronted by an 8-foot wall, a vertical cargo net climb, a hay-bale climb and a further wall. This was the point at which the leaders of the 15k pack first caught me up, which stung as I thought they were thus already 5k ahead of me (turns out they weren’t. Quite…)
Downhill we continued, dancing across some tyres and past the first 5k-ers we had caught up, then down into a stream before coming out to see the log stacks - and we got to climb over them this time!
After another water station we gambolled off across a lush meadow, under a low bridge and through a crystal-clear stream before coming out onto the Stepping Stones (where a group of spectators cheered good-naturedly, I suspect while secretly hoping for at least one racer to end up in the drink.)
From here we had a rope to help us up a ramp, then were back into the water for was another full immersion - with a twist! The inflatable boom we went under had a separate lip on its far side, which I spent what seemed like about half an hour trying to extricate myself from before being able to come up for air.
Out of the water we went, across a bridge then back over the stream on “Triceps Tyranny” (which, luckily, was not too tyrannical) before loping across a field to a Camo-net crawl.
The 5k, 10k and 15k courses separated again here and I nearly went for an extra jaunt down a track but was luckily stopped by the timely arrival of a marshal in an ATV who pointed out a sign directing us up the hill, which we otherwise would have missed.
This indicates what several racers complained about with regards to Saturday’s race - several 15k racers lost their way and inadvertently cut several km off their course, missing several obstacles. James Ruckley, who won the 10k, was one such!
The 5k course diverted to an inflatable water slide while the 10k and 15k courses reunited at the top of the hill for the much bigger, faster slide which dumped you into a pond at the bottom.
I realised that it might have been a mistake to go down this head first as I was catapulted out into the middle of the pond while the more savvy elite 15k racers who had come up behind me dropped neatly into the water next to where they could climb out… Face to palm? More face to water, but you get the picture!
Another Rock Solid staple is a jump off a high platform into water - The Bomb. This was waiting for us at the other side of the pond: Always refreshing! After continuing to jog around the pond we came to the monkey bars, which even fairly close to the front of the first wave were already nice and slippery so I made it about halfway across before being reintroduced to the water.
I take some comfort from the fact that few made it across (I gather, although the marshal who told me that may have been trying to make me feel better!) Next I tackled some balancing beams across even more water, then up and over a high ramp.
Trotting back up the hill was a good deal less easy than it had been to slide down, but at the top I came to the second point where the marking was a bit lacking - meeting another racer who had overshot and had to run back up the hill again, we searched and spotted the small red flags which sent us off across the grass to the sack race. Thankfully this was shorter than at Milton Keynes, but still made the calves and quads burn.
My memory of which obstacles were left is a bit hazy - somewhere around the ramp, immersion and Triceps Tyrrany we had the “Shiver Me Trainers” ice-filled skips. There was another wall and a running loop across a field then up a farm track to the edge of the car park.
More small red flags – we were on the lookout for them this time - highlighted a zig-zag course over and back down the hill to then turn to the penultimate obstacle - The Mudstacle Gladiators, armed with their pugil sticks.
A sprint up the hill took us to the Rock Solid finish - their infamous climbing wall, this time with no queue as the descent was down more hay bales rather than leaping onto a giant crash mat.
Rock Solid’s dog-tag medals were then awarded and after a quick swig of go-go juice I headed off to find the rest of my family as my son was about to run the Rock Stars junior race.
Congratulations to Muddy Race’s Conor Hancock on winning the 15k on Saturday!
Images credit to Epic Action Imagery