“An endurance OCR? What a great and fun idea that is!” is what I thought back in April after I’d just completed my half marathon and was looking at my next race. By then, I’d booked my Spartan Races and was looking for the next milestone after that. In all honestly, at the time I felt this was the lesser of the two evils as my eye was also on the London to Brighton ultramarathon. Which race had I decided to sign up for? Nuclear Races Oblivion Extreme. What does this race consist of? It’s the joyous experience of completing as many laps of a 12km (7.5 mile) lap, each containing 90+ obstacles, in 8.5 hours. Sounds fun right? Well… it was on the most part but we’ll get into that.
However, as the time got closer and closer, the nerves and size of the task that I was taking was starting to really set in as each day went by, I could feel my mental preparedness slowly ebb away until we got to the night before and I was in that state of nerves and excitement, usually stopping you from getting the sleep that you critically need for the day ahead.
The day of the race was like any other in the sense of getting yourself fuelled, getting to the race, grabbing your registration pack, dropping your bag at bag drop and then warm up. However, this wasn’t any other race and that’s where the similarities stopped. At no other race have I had to set up a support area to keep me moving forward nor have I had to wear a personalised vest for identification. One other last minute change that we faced before lining up at the start line was the handing out of small orange bands to annotate that we were aiming for OCRWC qualification. This band was only kept if you completed all the obstacles or their associated penalty obstacles.
Then just like any other race, I warmed up, got myself to the start line and then received the race brief before the fun began…
Lap One
Stood on the start line, I really didn’t know what I was letting myself in for but I felt ready and was going to take each obstacle as it came and just work through the miles towards my target of 22.5, equating to finishing three laps. This was completely uncharted territory for me as the furthest I’d been up to that point was the 13.1 miles of my half marathon and longest I’d been out running was the 3.5 hours I’d done in the Lake District a few weekends before. But like I said, I was ready, I believed…
It was a bit of a challenge to have to hold myself back and let the adrenaline run away as I knew that pacing myself would be key for this sort of task. I made sure that I didn’t get carried away with the leaders and ran my own race, taking each obstacle as they came. They were all ones that I’d tackled before and managed to boost my own confidence with some personal wins of actually doing the rope climb successfully! Even though there was the greater goal, I was still taking the positives from completing the small things that I was fearful of failing and that’s how I took each one.
One thing that I enjoyed was the variety of obstacles that were on offer at Nuclear Races, some very technical, some your usual things, some you’ve just got to brave it out and get through and one where I got to throw an axe! How cool is that?! Though one of the downsides, based on the competitive nature of the race were the penalty obstacles. On the most part, I felt they were proportional to what you’d just failed. Sometimes though, they were ridiculously easy! They were meant to 3 to 4 times harder/longer to complete than the obstacle themselves but all you’d have to do is run 50m with a lightweight pipe or running 20m with a ball on the end of a pipe. I think that was my only negative of the day, which is essentially me saying that it should have been harder but I think it’s within reason.
As I climbed over the top of the final wall, I crossed the line to indicate I’d finished my first lap and was able to head to the transition zone to attack my supplies. Taking in a combination of gels and energy bars from my favoured brand of High5, I felt revitalised and ready for another round so set myself up and headed out for lap 2. With only a fail on three obstacles, I was confident that the next two laps were certainly doable and having been through the few penalties that I had, I felt like I was able to tackle them easily if I needed to.
Wristband status? Got it!
Time: 2 hours 13 minutes 24 seconds
Lap Two
Lap one gave me a false sense of security and lap two was where a lot of things lined up to, slowly picking apart my race place, my ability physically and my focus mentally. It’s crazy how something little can knock you off course mentally and you lose focus. For me, that first thing was my zip jamming on my shorts that was holding my gels for the lap. Knowing how vital they would be to keep me moving forward well and not really planning for this predicament, I expended far too much energy trying to get it working again and should have had a fall back. This was only the start of the downhill!
As for the course itself, I noticed very early on that the course was busier with the later 12km waves and it was definitely a lot muddier across the board. What did this mean? The obstacles were going to be a lot tougher to grip and manoeuvre across. It was all well and good that they provided sawdust to try and dry your hands, to aid with your grip but it was no use as it was only offered to the Oblivion runners, meaning everyone else had caked it in mud and water… This soon materialised with me having to do more of the penalty obstacles as I went round and those that I could do, my grip was fried from having to try harder to hold on. I was determined though to keep the wrist bad and keep moving to get the result that I wanted.
A lap of toil and having to fight my way through but I climbed the finishing wall for a second time, glanced at the appealing sight of the finish line and turned right at the fork in the path to head down to the transition area for at least one more lap of fun and games, knowing that I was well over halfway but still doubt in my mind. It was time to face up to that doubt and fight on!
Wristband status? Just about there!
Time: 3 hours 16 minutes 25 seconds
Lap Three
This lap was a tough grind mentally and physically. It was one that I wasn’t ready and was never ready for as I went round either. I realise now that dehydration and lack of calories was what was causing me to suffer at the back end of lap two and had left me a tired, wet, cold, muddy mess that was feeling sorry for himself. There was a serious consideration, especially as I watched those around me pack up and leave, of finishing it at two laps and going home as I’d done enough for the medal but I knew I wouldn’t have lived it down.
There I was, standing with my kit and my cold, wet vest on the floor whilst in the comfort of a fresh, dry t-shirt and hoodie on, looking from the finish line to the start of the next lap and back again, contemplating what I was doing, what I was going to do and why I was doing it. After a few minutes of debating this, whilst trying to rehydrate and refuel, I didn’t let the devil on my shoulder win. The hoodie came off. The vest went back on and it was go time. It was only 12km anyway, how hard could it be…?
It was clear to me from an early stage that this was going to be a tough lap, as my running was not up to speed and felt like a grind, alongside struggling with the simple things such as getting over a 6 foot wall. From here, it just continued to go downhill. Simple obstacles were getting tough and zapping all my energy, leaving me fatigued and having to really dig deep to be able to just keep moving forward. There were many moments where I had to have a long, hard talk to myself to stop myself from quitting.
About a third of the way around, I came to the low rig obstacle that I had been struggling with. Taking one look at it, one look at the weaver penalty, knowing that I’d already qualified for the OCRWC and knowing that if I put myself through the weaver I’d not make it either through running myself into the ground of being timed out, I decided to hand over the wristband. Looking back, it was a moment of weakness and one that I’m not proud of. I didn’t apply anything I’d read in books like Can’t Hurt Me and I lost the mental battle.
Once that wristband was gone, the goal was to just get to the end of this lap to know I can at least cover the distance, performing every obstacle and penalty that I could, whilst making a note of how I felt, what I missed and use it as a learning experience from the disappoint I felt in my performance and myself. If any conciliation can be salvaged, I made it over the final huge wall without any help and crossed the line to finish my final lap. I think the picture below tells the whole story of how I was feeling at that moment.
There I was though, done. One of the 59/250 that managed to finish three laps, finishing 49th overall. Up there as one of the toughest challenges I’d faced and one that I was going to learn from after having to dig deep to be at that finish line.
Wristband status? Gone…
Time: 3 hours 14 minutes 06 seconds
Total Time: 8 hours 43 minutes 56 minutes
Lessons Learnt
In the eyes of some, my performance in this crazy race was impressive but for me, I didn’t perform to the level that I wanted to and because of that, I look back on it searching for the lessons I need to learn for the future. This race was a very steep learning curve for me with it being my first ever endurance race of any kind, never mind it being an obstacle course race on top of that.
Nutrition
At the time, I wondered why during my third lap I crashed so hard but looking back, I know why. I wasn’t eating enough on a regular basis to keep the constant flow of calories into my system. This meant that I was pretty much running on empty for that last lap and would explain why my energy completely zapped from me, meaning I was a lot slower in real terms. Where I went wrong was miscalculating how long I expected it to take to complete a lap and the amount of calories I wanted to get in every hour. Once that was gone and I was stuck with my system (see the point about Prior Planning), it was a case of just pushing through for as long as I could.
Another mistake wasn’t just on the calorie front but I misjudged my hydration and this would explain why at times, I didn’t want to eat at the end of laps. Relying on the water stations, often thinking I’d drunk more than I had, and my supply of water at the main transition area, hindsight has shown me that I just wasn’t drinking enough! This will attribute to me completely losing all drive and speed on the last lap.
Prior Planning
I underestimated the size of the task, like most newcomers, paying the price mentally and physically. If these preparations had been conducted better, I feel that I could have performed a lot better and lap three wouldn’t have been so miserable. I miscalculated, I took what I thought was the minimum and didn’t give myself any leeway should things not go to plan. Part of this is the situation that I put myself in by needing to travel 3 hours straight after, limiting my space to carry spares, leaving me with only the essentials.
Alongside this, I didn’t adequately prepare the day before and rushed it in the morning, not having time to properly separate my nutrition down and putting it all in one bag. This left me with only have one set of supplies at the transition area of the start/finish of each lap and not utilising the secondary position halfway around the lap, which could have easily alleviated the issue I was having with my nutrition and hydration.
You Can Keep Going
Though I didn’t perform how I wanted to and gave up my wristband, showing some mental weakness, the day showed me how much you can still keep going when you’re tired, dehydrated and low on nutrition. At the start of lap three, I didn’t feel like I could finish, I was able to have a serious talk with myself and bit by bit, pull myself through. I thought the tank was empty but as David Goggins will vouch, this is just the 40% marking there’s so much more left. So this is a lesson both for myself in the future and for anyone else that even though you think you’re at the wall and can’t go on, you easily have another 7.5 miles and 90 odd obstacles in you, in my case.
Finally, should you have any questions drop me a comment, send an email or drop me a message on one of the social media pages and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!
Thoughts on Nuclear Race
One thing I must talk about here is my experience of Nuclear Races as an organic race, rather than the OCRWC charity race that I did last year. I can definitely say that Nuclear Races is a very good race to enter and this is only backed up by the multiple awards the organisation and race have collected. Even if you’re a beginner, they have races of shorter distances to enter and the ability to head up there and train! So don’t worry, you don’t need to throw yourself into an 8.5 hour race like I did, if 7km is enough for you then Nuclear Races can provide that.
From what I found, everything was smooth and well organised, with this starting with the booking of the race, followed on through the multiple emails providing the rules, advice and instructions several times up to race day and then finally, on race day itself. At no point did I not understand what I needed to do, where I needed to go or anything of that nature. everything was laid out simply and thoroughly from the moment that I signed up.
During the race, the same organisation and attention to detail was provided and the support structure put in place for the day was incredible. I admit, they could have changed over and back again as I went round but it seemed the same marshals stood on the same obstacles for the whole day whilst the Oblivion runners were going and every time I encountered them, they were always smiling, happy, motivating and helpful in whatever way they can, including the odd jelly baby or sweet here and there. I truly take my hat off to them as they helped me and no doubt so many more through such a challenge.
Talking of the obstacles, as much as I didn’t enjoy some of them, they were varied, well constructed, challenging and one way or another, pretty fun. Apart from Ebenezer! Nothing about Ebenezer was fun and never will be fun! At no point, excluding the number of slides (and the fact I did three laps), did you feel like you were repeating anything again and again. Unless you had the pleasure of the weaver for the penalties…
After the race, the care given with the cups of tea, the warm shower, the route out of the finish area taking you past the bag drop and the covered areas to get changed were the icing on the cake of the whole experience. Not only that, you have a variety of food trucks you. can delve into to start the process of refuelling after the challenge.
I would highly recommend checking out Nuclear Races if you wish to get into OCR or looking for new race to do, as the day is thoroughly enjoyable!
And that rounds off another blog from me. This experience of Nuclear Races Oblivion Extreme was a fantastic one and an enjoyable one, now that the pain has left my body and I’ve finally got all the mud out of my skin, clothes and places you don’t want to know about! I learnt a lot of lessons from it for future races and as crazy as I sound, I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into another one of these challenges, which I’m already eying up so stay tuned for those.
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