Weekend Antics as Hell freezes over at Muddy Hell...

By volunteering this afternoon at Muddy Hell at the Inverse Tyre Wall I saw a completely different side to obstacle racing. I saw people who wanted to give up just keep going, I saw people that tried and failed but at least gave it all they had. It was amazing to witness someone's sheer determination and will in order to conquer and achieve something.  To the amazing man that on his third attempt did it, when there was a moment he said he couldn't do it but he did.

It amazes me when you see the distraught in people faces when the find out what they had to do. To have that moment of self doubt when you start to sych yourself out. Your shoulders drop and you feel in your heart you can't do but you still get up and give it a go.  The scary thing is, I know that feeling, I remember approaching obstacles where your heart just sinks, those moments of self doubt set in and you fail the obstacle before even attempting it.  It is a scary prospect and it takes so much strength and the courage to break through that barrier and step up to the mark and conquer your own fears.

A collection of photos from Muddy Hell Photos Inverse Tyre Wall are available on the Enduro24 Facebook page.

Inverse Tyre Wall 12pm - 4pm

Posted by Enduro 24 on Saturday, July 4, 2015

It would not have helped that it was cold and wet, but the first step was signing up in the first place and then getting through the course.  Everyone has had their bad days and everyone has those demons, it how you conquer them that makes you stronger.  

Unfortunately, I do still have them too, in which cost me 120 burpees in today.  Still hitting those demons and moments of self doubt.  However, I will conquer these demons and will keep trying and one day I will do it, it may not be tomorrow but eventually I will get there.  I know this as I had these same thoughts and feelings when it came to the rope climb and walls.  I can do them now, probably not in the quickest and smoothest of movements and again this will come, but I can DO IT.  So if I can do it, so can you, all you need to do is give everything a go, it doesn't matter if it doesn't work out the first time, but keep on trying and you will be able to do it.

The Muddy Hell course is a tough course and I sort of got confused as it was a different set up from when we did it in January.  Being Winter it was a lot colder and wetter then of course the Summer, so it takes a lot more out of you when you when you are cold and wet, your energy levels do drop a little bit more than normal. 

It didnt take long for me to start to lag behind at the start but soon caught up again at the tunnels, as always it usually takes me a little while to get settled in as the nerves start to diminish and adrenaline takes over.  I was happy to get over the walls, not as smoothly as I liked but considering 6 months ago Dave was helping me up and over, I was happy to be able to do them.  There was of course the tyre squigger, when you pretty much get wedged in-between some tyres, at this point trying to get through it, I was more worried about kicking someone in the head as I squeezed, moaned and groaned my way through.  Another obstacle that I was dreading was approaching and I did fail on 6 months ago was the under and overs, an A Frame in which you have to go under and over (they had put a safety net underneath this time, to maybe self consciously I felt a little safer).

For some reason the course came and went in a blur, there were other obstacles where doing alternative training kicked in, by doing the Heavy Haulers Good Friday appeal and learning the correct technique of pulling tyres, I found that this technique subconsciously came in.

Some parts did seem a lot harder just because it was wet, surfaces were slippy so I found that I had to slow down and concentrate rather than try and rush through it, otherwise this is were I would have made some more mistakes.  Just concentrating on the balance beams with the incline and decline, plus a few other wood obstacles found that you could quite easily slip off.  Which did happen on wall traverse costing me 30 burpees and the last wall, I did eventually whilst gritting teeth, but I did have another 30 burpee penalty, I I did fail it twice.  I still need to work on my grip strength especially with my age old nemesis the monkey bars and rings, they both cost me another 30 burpees each.  The burpees do start getting harder and harder the more you do, but that is the penalty for failing an obstacle.  With the fails of course there were some triumphs too in which my biggest achievement would have been the rope climb, I find it amazing that 6 months a go when I attempted that same obstacle I failed dramatically and after some great coaching from Clem and Allyson from The Compound, I hope that the next time I do this course, I will be able to conquer the obstacles those that cost me those dreaded burpees.