I can imagine many of you would prefer to be snuggled up in bed having a lie-in on a Saturday afternoon than sprinting through waist-deep lava-like-mud. However because I am absolutely mad, I decided to take on the challenge of the latter, and compete in the Rock Solid Race along with 6 other friends last Saturday afternoon at Escot Park.
This man-made obstacle course is made up of either 25 obstacles for the 5k dash or 37 for the 10k race, and is a sporting event that is very team-focused. You are required to help your teammates over the pyramid walls, through the ice bath and over the rope climbing frame, and your individual chip timer will show you later how well you did as a team. Honestly, as painful as it was getting my hair stuck in barbed wire whilst I was crawling and nearly drowning in thick mud, I couldn’t stop laughing throughout the whole race, as it was such good fun.
So with a spare change of clothes, towel and fancy dress gear in hand, we boarded the bus from Exeter Bus Station (which Rock Solid Race provides for £4 return) straight to the venue. Upon arrival, we really saw the extent of how muddy this was going to be as the bus couldn’t even get up the hill and our blinding white trainers were beginning to tarnish. Nevertheless, we were still very excited for what lay ahead and waited in anticipation for our race wave at 2.20pm.
An hour passed as we were scouting our friends in the crowd, doing a quick (we’re keen) reccy of the course and grabbing a drink before it was our turn to do what we had already watched 3 other groups do before us: jump into the hail bail ring and start getting warmed up by the South West Armed Forces. To prepare us for how muddy the course would be, we were doing push ups, sit-ups, rolling around in the mud and getting revved up for the challenge that lay ahead.
Ten minutes later, the bang of the gun went and we were off. Obviously I was the first to wipe out within about a metre of the start line but with the help of my team we carried on and faced our first obstacle: climbing over hay bails and then jumping in bogs. For many of you this probably sounds like your worst nightmare but I promise, there is a time and a place for jumping in neck-high bogs, and it was definitely here and now. 5k later we cross the finish line and get wrapped up into warm clothes as it was absolutely freezing! (The weather was definitely not kind to us).
Overall, it was such a fab experience and already my team and I are talking about doing the 10k next year, although I’m hoping for a bit of sunshine next time. Obviously £40 a ticket is quite a lot to spend on wading through mud but it’s definitely worth it. In addition, Rock Solid Race support a charity each year so a high proportion of your money will go to such a great cause: this year, Help for Heroes. There is live music played throughout the day, Timepiece bar (for those who can’t bear to miss it), the most incredible Caribbean chicken stand and a beer tent, so if it were sunny it would be the perfect place to spend an afternoon. Find out more about next year’s event on their website: www.rocksolidrace.com or try out the circuits available at the Uni Sports Centre!