28th August, the last entry in the Purple book and the fact the gap has been so big has pretty much summed up this year so far. Despite the epicness of Peru and the challenge of the Ridgeway, it's been far from a vintage purple year with various problems with the family rightfully overshadowing any thoughts on writing new chapters in the book. December would finally start to get things back on track though with a delightful entry I'd been promising myself for a while...
At work around a month ago, Carol, a teacher and ex-army PT instructor was trying to convince a couple of people to do a challenge up her neck of the woods over in Aldershot. The challenge was 'GRIM', an 8 mile slog over an army training ground. The location is used to test army 4x4 vehicles as it has a variety of hills, ditches and whatever you call something that's bigger than a puddle but smaller than a lake (I'll call them 'Luddle's' until I'm corrected). A friend of mine Sarah was already up for the challenge and knew i'd be up for it as well, it was obvious there wouldn't be a crowd of us doing it as we gained the usual looks of bafflement and befuddlement from everyone else! Sarah share this unique bond of being very distinctive in our sizes and having a passion for most things random and purple tinted. We've already done two Color Runs and an activity day together and would now be getting ourselves caked in mud. We were to be joined by Elizabeth, arguably the most awkward person I've ever met but always a delight to hang out with. She said she was up for the challenge as well so our team of three, the Ghetto Badgers, was good to go.
The closer we all got to Sunday 1st December the more apprehensive we became. When we all signed up the weather was mild and the date was still a few weeks ahead. The weather was now cold, our fitness was far from perfect and the videos of the water and mud from previous races certainly wasn't helping. I had my usual training regime of basketball and kung fu once a week and nowt else. There are sports men and women and there is me. I will always happily suffer just for the day and ache up to a week afterwards to do such events rather than spend weeks doing that most loathsome of activities - exercise! I have seen jogging cause the dislocation of my friend's shoulder and the crippling of many more so will be having none of it thank you very much. If I do ever get into the London Marathon I'll have to find some other way of getting myself ready...
The morning of the first day of December arrived. I was designated driver for the day and first up was to collect Elizabeth who lives just around the corner from where we work. Being awkward as ever she needed an early pick up as she had not managed to register on the race like everyone else and took 10 minutes to get out of her flat. A good thing we all love her to bits! A few minutes down the road we picked up Sarah and made our way to Aldershot. We couldn't have asked for better conditions, clear skies, a cool temperature and no wind. We pulled into the venue and I started to recognise it from the Night Terror race the year before. The route would be different and much more challenging as the GRIM course is more treacherous and so inadvisable to complete it at night. This time though there would be no need to break any ice in the 'Luddles' like there was last year! We parked up and started to kit up. I had a head cam with me this year, someone had mentioned it would be a cool idea to have one for the event and I wished I'd got one sooner. We spent the hour or so before the race warming up and trying to work out how to switch the head cam on. I had no idea if it was on, how long the battery would last or how much the memory card would hold but it seemed to be doing it's thing so I tried to make sure it was pointing in the right direction and getting as much of the atmosphere as possible.
You could say the Ghetto Badgers were one of the more distinctive teams running that day. I doubt you would have found another group containing a 6 foot 6 skinny man, a short large girl and possibly the only black woman within 5 miles. Elizabeth spent the first few minutes looking for anyone else who wasn't right. She was right, not only did we only see a couple of other ethnicities that day it seems that usually only white Brits, Aussies and Americans are crazy enough to do events like GRIM! We did have plenty of weird looks as we made our way to the start line, I don't know which of the three of us had the most attention! It made a change from me getting all the glances though ;) That eventually stopped was we were among the masses. We could see the pros from the rest, the ones who had all the lycra, head bands and running tops and doing all the right stretches and exercises. They're always welcome to rush off ahead and get their record times, I kinda think they lose an essence of what the event is about as most people just love the thought of doing something daft and not what time they do it in. A few minutes to start time they had two enthusiastic girls, one with a mega phone doing the pre-race warm up. Sarah was happy enough until they started doing the star jumps, it was the first time Elizabeth had joined us for one of these so it was great to see her so up for the event. I had the camera turned off as I'm guessing any audience would have had vertigo watching everyone jumping up and down!
The race was just about to start, we had another warm up and another countdown and eventually they started the race. The camera was switched on, it was flashing so I guessed it was doing it's thing. The pre-match banter was about Elizabeth racing off ahead and we and Sarah bringing up the rear. As i'd done zero jogging training I had no idea what sort of pace i'd be doing and had stuck with Sarah on the two Color run's we'd done. It was clear after a while that the distance and terrain was going to be much more of a challenge than she'd expected so she stayed near the back and I went off ahead with Elizabeth. We came up to the first small bit of mud and that set everyone off. In all the races like this I've done the first sign of anything wet or mucky gets a reaction from people. A few of the blokes jumped through the puddles and kicked water over people with the chorus of "Run through every puddle". We were passed by the three wise men and some shepherds who called me their Jesus because of my face fuzz, a few super heroes and the cast of Baywatch also rocked past. There was a bloke in a wedding dress and all together way more people dressed up than there was for the night terror the year before where dressing up was encouraged. I was feeling a lot fitter than expected so stayed with Elizabeth who was setting a pretty good pace.
The course started off easy in terms of obstacles which of course was my Achilles heel. The reason I do events like this is BECAUSE of the obstacles. The obstacles are what make the event memorable and exciting and also offer a breather from the jogging itself which is my weakness. About halfway through the race though they started to introduce the 'GRIM' aspect of the course. The Luddles came thick and fast and got deeper as the race went on and the mud became thicker and more common. At one point the water came up to the top of my thighs, I remembered thinking if i'm having trouble getting through this stuff then how the heck is everyone else getting through it, especially our vertically challenged but horizontally unchallenged Sarah. In the deepest Luddle section of the rest there was a large group of people cheering us on. A group of them were also chucking small rubber ducks at us for some reason so of course I snuck one of them as a cool souvenir (yoink!). The marshalls were egging us on and having a right go if anyone took the easy option when faced with a water or mud section. It was great having a mixture of coy people trying anything to stay clean and the nutters doing the exact opposite. The water sections were easily the best part as they cleaned all the mud off your shoes and legs (even though you could hardly feel your toes afterwards!). Between miles 5 and 6 I was feeling knackered but managed to find something of a second wind after that. I wanted to catch up with Elizabeth who was a couple of minutes in front but in the end was happy enough were I was, the banter was great with the people I was running with especially the brother and sister team with the 'sibling rivalry' t-shirts.
Right at the end I was feeling knackered but eager to run across the line after the final water section. I'm no athlete, and times mean nothing to me but when you are surrounded by the same group of people near the end of the race it's always great to finish ahead of them, especially when 3 of them had t-shirts saying 'I run like a girl, keep up' ;) We all had timing chips around our ankles and a nice touch about this race was the fact the guy at the finish mentioned everyone's name as they crossed the line so I waved my arms in the air when I heard my name. I couldn't find Elizabeth so darted straight to the car to quell the inevitable pain that I knew would be on its way. I'd finished the race without any incident but knew what was coming; whenever my knees get cold and wet they always end up in pain. The adrenalin of the race eventually wore off and, as expected, painful knee syndrome popped up. A quick change of clothes and frantic knee drying got rid of the worst of it, as soon as I was dry I went on the look out for Elizabeth as I knew Sarah wouldn't finish for a while to come. I found Liz rapped in foil at the finish, she'd finished a minute or two in front and was obviously competitive and she was unhappy with her time and was already discussing smashing the time next year. We waited at the finish line waiting for Sarah, plenty of people came and went but still no sign of her. A few minutes of stragglers but still no Sarah. Eventually, a very tired and muddy looking Sarah staggered towards the finish. She still had the final water section to go through and was in no rush to go anywhere. Elizabeth had a word with the guy with a Microphone and ensured she got a great reception when she crossed the line. She was head to toe in muddy water, with a big tear over her leggings where she'd obviously tripped up somewhere. She had no idea she's cut her knee until Elizabeth told her. We all limped back to the car got changed and took Sarah back to the first aiders who padded up her knee, nothing too serious although the advice of "go to the doctor if you experience any flu type symptoms didn't help".
A fantastic day. The weather was perfect, i'd done a great event i'd been meaning to experience and document for a while and done it with two people who are fast becoming great friends. We'd all seen Carol, the woman who had given us the idea, a few minutes into the race and she'd taken our pictures. The head cam was a great success, i'd heard it bleeping at me around mile 7 so reckoned that a) there was a good chance it had worked and b) that noise was it switching itself off. The following day everyone was eager to hear how it went. Most people are aware of my purple antics and this time it was even better as three of us were involved in it. Sarah who had been through the worst of it diring the race had the last laugh. Finishing the race after most people has it's advantages. The official race pictures of me and Elizabeth were at best average but all of Sarah's were perfect! Stood alone covered in mud the camera man must have had a field day with her and it is pictures like these which make it all worth while. It's the question most people ask with events like GRIM "Why on earth would you want to do something like that?" When most people were running on auto pilot on that Sunday doing normal everyday things, we were having a great time doing something so different. When we look back on pictures like Sarah's we are reminded that there is something more to life than the rat race and in my case it's the book that has been re-opened by GRIM.
Rossifer x
Results: -
The winner - 43 minutes 28 seconds (show off!)
Elizabeth - 1 hr 26 minutes 28 seconds
Rossifer - 1 hr 27 minutes 44 seconds
Sarah - 2hr 11 minutes 46 seconds
Just in case the video's don't link up properly, here are the links: -
Pre-race banter -
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152384843294409&l=2363459057693914830
Wet wet wet -
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152393493539409&l=4988751006731009943
Bring on the mud -
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152393527524409&l=2478416107983444411
The closer we all got to Sunday 1st December the more apprehensive we became. When we all signed up the weather was mild and the date was still a few weeks ahead. The weather was now cold, our fitness was far from perfect and the videos of the water and mud from previous races certainly wasn't helping. I had my usual training regime of basketball and kung fu once a week and nowt else. There are sports men and women and there is me. I will always happily suffer just for the day and ache up to a week afterwards to do such events rather than spend weeks doing that most loathsome of activities - exercise! I have seen jogging cause the dislocation of my friend's shoulder and the crippling of many more so will be having none of it thank you very much. If I do ever get into the London Marathon I'll have to find some other way of getting myself ready...
You could say the Ghetto Badgers were one of the more distinctive teams running that day. I doubt you would have found another group containing a 6 foot 6 skinny man, a short large girl and possibly the only black woman within 5 miles. Elizabeth spent the first few minutes looking for anyone else who wasn't right. She was right, not only did we only see a couple of other ethnicities that day it seems that usually only white Brits, Aussies and Americans are crazy enough to do events like GRIM! We did have plenty of weird looks as we made our way to the start line, I don't know which of the three of us had the most attention! It made a change from me getting all the glances though ;) That eventually stopped was we were among the masses. We could see the pros from the rest, the ones who had all the lycra, head bands and running tops and doing all the right stretches and exercises. They're always welcome to rush off ahead and get their record times, I kinda think they lose an essence of what the event is about as most people just love the thought of doing something daft and not what time they do it in. A few minutes to start time they had two enthusiastic girls, one with a mega phone doing the pre-race warm up. Sarah was happy enough until they started doing the star jumps, it was the first time Elizabeth had joined us for one of these so it was great to see her so up for the event. I had the camera turned off as I'm guessing any audience would have had vertigo watching everyone jumping up and down!
