Different Perspective Sports Magazine Issue 3 | Page 38

crawl up on your hands and knees grabbing onto tree roots to aid your progress. Coming
down was the worst part for me due to my knee reconstruction. I am ever conscious of
slipping and injuring myself again so am particularly careful. There was one descent that
presented no option but to slide down on your bum and back. There was no way you could
consider running down it as it was so steep and slippery. The thing that got me was the
unrelenting nature of the steep climbs. The course organizers would send you up one, only
to bring you back down it and then immediately up again just a few meters along. It was
simply cruel! They were an ever present obstacle with the only relief being the occasional
traverse to another section of the army training ground.
The water levels on the course were unsurprisingly high with the water making this one
of the hardest Hell Runners ever . After the second hazard ankle and shin deep bodies
of water became the common place. I became acclimatized and embraced them - after
all this is what we signed up for and little advantage was to be found by circumnavigating
them.
Surprisingly I was not too cold which I found a bit odd. It is not my torso that usually suffers
but my toes and fingers, so I saw this as a bonus. I was grateful for this small comfort as
a constant concern in Cross Country races is my shoe laces coming undone with fingers
so cold that they cannot be done up again. I am not sure why though as above knee deep
water hazards had become common place. Maybe it was adrenaline flowing through my
body or the constant mental battle to get up the hills and not slow down the person behind
who is trying to race (there were two waves behind us).
The main obstacle on the course is the Bog of Doom. A 30 metre stretch of neck deep
bog water that is relatively thick with mud and freezing cold. It is located near to one of
the car parks so at least you know that once out you are only a short distance from the
finish, can dry off, change, have a cup of tea and warm up. The entrance to the Bog of
Doom is very dramatic and theatrical with burners throwing out flames high into the air and
smoke machines billing out faux fog. No one that I was running with held back with fear.
Acclimatization to the coldness of the water happened 6 miles before eliminating the shock
value so everyone went straight in with confidence. The crowds were at their largest here
adding to the pressure not to show any sign of fragility. At first you wade through the waist
deep gloop only to see people suddenly plunging downwards up to their necks. This did
produce a variety of vocal responses, more to shock of the sudden drop than anything else.
I described the Bog as having the consistency of “gloop” as it is so hard to articulate exactly
what it was like. The closest I can get is a combination of water and mud that reminded me
of my childhood when I used to love digging a deep hole and filling it with water. It soon
took on a mud soup consistency and this was no different. I suspect that the spectators
had a great time here seeing everyones emotions and faces who had actively paid for this
punishment in the middle of winter. Whereas in previous years you could wade neck deep
through the bog the rain had increased the depth to over 7ft. This meant a full on swim
was the only way across. It was at this point I was so pleased to have been on that prechristmas swim at Holborough Lakes even if I did have the luxury of a wet-suit then. I have
never found swimming to be so arduous - it was so hard to move the water beneath you
and kick due to the thickness of it. What would usually take me 30 seconds to swim must
have taken 2 or 3 minutes and being ever conscious of my core temperature dropping and