The Monster Race is an obstacle event which takes place in April and October and offers a 5km and 10km course, promising to test all elements of your fitness whilst having fun getting muddy and wet. I entered for the 10km course in early January with a group of friends I work with. As it came closer, I realised that this was actually 6 days post-Paris Marathon! Despite my knee troubles, the stubborn side of me refused to pull out though and wanted to go along and experience the event.
The actual day of the event was freezing. The wind was pretty chilly and I can't deny that I was having second thoughts. Race registration was very straightforward, with a timing chip attached to your shoe and your number written on your head with permanent marker.
A warmup was held about 10 minutes before our start time of 10am. It was a bit cringy. We had to partner up and do strange things like jump on each other's back, but it definitely got us moving, so mission accomplished I guess?!
Cornbury Park near Whitney hosts the April race, and is the same place that holds Cornbury Festival. It is on a massive estate and provides plenty of hilly fields, rivers and trails; perfect for an obstacle race! The first few kilometres are fairly obstacle free, which I believe is to avoid bunching and queueing. This worked pretty well, but we did have to wait a few minutes at times.
The obstacles were massively varied. We were faced with:
- 'Monster Slushies' (skips filled with icy water!) to swim through
- Climbing frames
- Walls
- Rivers to cross
- Monkey bars
- 'Walk the plank'
- Tyre walls
- Streams
- Muddy bogs
- Barbed wire crawls
and many others!
The obstacles weren't as challenging as some I have seen in Tough Mudder and other events like this and I made it through most of them unaided. Each obstacle had an official volunteer on hand to help out and make sure everyone was ok. We did a 5km loop twice and therefore had to face each one twice, so I was pleased that they weren't as bad as I had imagined they could be!
The water was almost icy which was probably my lowlight of the day. We had to swim underneath barrels at one point and the cold made me go into a bit of a panic. My chest tightened and my breathing was uncontrollable. After a minute I was able to calm myself, but it was pretty scary! If there's any obstacle you don't want to take on you are free to skip it. If you are hesitant about entering a race like this, don't be! It's all about pushing yourself to your own limits and there's no pressure to do anything you don't want to.
The water was almost icy which was probably my lowlight of the day. We had to swim underneath barrels at one point and the cold made me go into a bit of a panic. My chest tightened and my breathing was uncontrollable. After a minute I was able to calm myself, but it was pretty scary! If there's any obstacle you don't want to take on you are free to skip it. If you are hesitant about entering a race like this, don't be! It's all about pushing yourself to your own limits and there's no pressure to do anything you don't want to.
The Little Photo Company had quite a number of photographers around the course and took a ton of photos. All credit for the photos posted If you fancy looking at the carnage that went on you can see them all in the galleries here.
The monkey bars over the river were my absolute favourite. I pretty much lived on the monkey bars as a kid, so it was a bit of a flashback to being 5. Another highlight was the huge water slide at the end of the course. It was probably 25 metres long and positioned at just the right angle to launch yourself down and gain some serious speed. The water at the bottom was filthy and stank from everyone's mud by the time we got there. Fresh water would have made me feel a lot cleaner!
For a first obstacle run this was great fun. The obstacles were at just the right level of difficulty and I really enjoyed it. As long as I'm running marathons I think I'll avoid another one due to the injury risk, but it's definitely something I'd recommend. The October race may be even better if the water is a little warmer too!
Quick Hits
The Good Bits
- A medal at the finish (not always the norm for mud runs)
- Great obstacles
- Decent race village with lots of food
The Not So Good Bits
- The water was freezing!
- Expensive entry
- No race t-shirt (however the organisers had explained that this is to invest more in obstacle construction).
Have you ever tried or been tempted to try a obstacle run? What did you think?
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