Paras 10 Endurance Race
What have I been doing since my last blog hear you ask, well following my 2nd knee operation in as many years I have been training..."ARMY TRAINING SIR!"
Sempai Peter suggested we enter a team into the Paras 10 Endurance Race, a 10 mile race carrying a 35lb military bergen (thats 2 1/2 stone) across the army training ground in Catterick Garrsion, North Yorkshire.
Getting a team together would be easy, there'll be plenty of volunteers in the club but I wanted to get in touch with an old associate of mine as I knew this event would be close to his heart, Gary an ex-military man himself and my old training partner and colleague from our CP days.
Tony jumped on board straight away and Sempai Eugene was already in training in Okinawa, Japan.....Thats was it, we had our four man team and 1 reserve perfect.
So training began, first off I needed to get back into running so myself and Sempai Peter started once a week with our old favourite six miler around Borehamwood, Radlett & Shenley...not too bad I thought, I managed to pick up roughly where I left off, 6 miles in just over an hour.
It is a hard route mostly up hill at the start and then mostly downhill at the end all on tarmac and my knees were feeling every step but when I got as comfortable as I possible could with that run we made a start with bergen running.
Lets be sensible about this...start with 25lbs and build on that, well let me tell you that 25lb on top of my 15 stone frame felt like the whole world was on my shoulders but we set off around Cassiobury Park and Whippendell Woods regardless. Our first route around was measured at 3 miles and it took me over an hour (including stoppages) Sempai Peter ran up the widow maker hill as if there was helium in his bergen...There's the benchmark.
After a few weeks of road running mid week with Sempai Peter and weekend running by myself in Cassiobury it was time to up the training.. Mark Bloom joined us for the midweek run and fitness session, a fast 3 miles followed by 1/2 hour of lung busting fitness circuits.
I was also now alternating swimming and circuit training at David Lloyd every morning, I was determined to lose weight I had dropped from 105 kgs to 97kgs but plateau'd frustrating is not the word...nothing else was shifting so to hell with the wight loss I'll just get on with the training.
I had good days and bad days carrying that bloomin bergen, I was actually running now with 25lb on my back this is great! However, the first time I upped the weight to 35lb it was like starting all over again, I couldn't believe how heavy it was I even checked the weight three times just to make sure. I trudged around 3 miles of Cassiobury Park and thought I'm never going to do this.
Tony had joined me now on Sunday mornings and we started to add laps to the route, first off was adding second lap totalling six miles and my best run so far was 8 miles in 1 hour 48 minutes, I was on target for a finish time of 2 hours 30 minutes putting me ahead of the bus of shame which came around 3 hours after the start.
My worst day ever was about 3 weeks prior to the race I headed out to Cassiobury Park on my own determined to beat 8 miles, the head was strong but the body was tired...I couldn't get around one lap, what has happened? my legs weren't working at all, I hobbled the last part of the one and only lap for that day and returned home disgruntled...I'm never going to do this challenge!
On the up side a few months had past now and I noticed my trousers were fitting slightly looser and my favourite T-shirts weren't as tight...95kgs, woo hoo, I'm liking this. So as a moral booster a week before the event the lads all took part in a fitness challenge...you can guess the result, 1st place went to Peter, second place went to Mark C and third place to Mark B with me coming in at equal 5th place...(that will change very quickly I can tell you)
The big day was looming and I said to myself be sensible there's nothing I can do now that will change the outcome of this race so i might as well rest for this week and make sure that my legs will work on the day, so for the last few days prior to the race I swam a few gentle lengths of David Lloyd's pool.
The weekend of the event, We (myself, Peter, Eugene & Tony) packed the car with our fully laiden bergens and camping equipment and set off for "The North" as the M1 motorway signs kept reminding us. Just three short hours later and we were in North Yorkshire, we pitched our tents and grabbed a cuppa whilst we waited for Gary to arrive then it was off into Richmond town for a night on the tiles...oh alright, a few beers and couple if games of pool followed by a hearty fish & chip supper. this was followed by a near sleepless night on my part, finally dropping off around five o'clock anly to be woken by my bloomin car alarm at 6am....Oh well might as well get up and get breakfast on the go.
I caught sight of Eugene at the four mile water station and called out to him, we had a quick drink and an energy gel and we set off again and soon enought he was off again but he was always in my sight and mile 6 there was a boulder where i rested the bergen on to re-adjust it and as I twisted and contorted my body there was an almighty pop and I felt the rush of warm water, i rolled up my trouser leg expecting to see my scar burst open but no, the swelling had gone and the warmness was the fluid dissipating...OH MY GOD! I can run and oh boy did I trudge liked I haven't trudged before, by now I had lost sight of Eugene and I was making slow but steady progress over taking those that had run past me earlier and were now walking themselves. I passed som poor bloke with a broken nose, there were paramedics smothering him and there was blood all over the gravel...he had fallen and smacked his face on the floor.
Mile 7 and there was another ambulance with some poor bloke being hoisted into it in pain...I saw his knee, surely it shouldn't be bending that way?...oh I see, nasty.
Mile 8 the water crossing, a recruit standing there pointing out the easy option "This way if you don't want to get wet, you don't have to go through the water!" There was no way I was crossing the finish line with dry trousers...NO WAY!
Mile 9 "Tank Hill"....YOU HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING!!! a near vertical climb up shingle & shale, I couldn't look up the hill I just put one foot in front of the other and hoped for the best...I could hear shouting, it was getting louder and louder, at the top stood a lonely Para recruit shouting encouragement to everyone as they made it to the top...he didn't stop to take a breath "Well done, keep going, you can do it, it's all down hill from here on.
Back to camp, more encouragement from onlookers as they stood there cheering you on, I entered the final straight towards the finish line, it was all grass, it looked so welcoming like a long green carpet, I over took this guy, he tried to pull it back, i had no idea where the energy came from but no way was I gonna let him beat me who ever he was, All i could hear was shouts of encouragement I nearly knocked the women over holding her timing paddle and a para had to stop me to give me my medal....that was it all over I had beaten myself and my own self imposed finish time of 2 1/2 hours.
A massive well done to Sempai Peter, who at 41 years beat the para recruitment deadline of 1 hour 50 minutes and came in at 1 hour 32 minutes, TLH followed him shortly afterward at 2 hours, Eugene came in at 2 hours 12 minutes and I followed him in at 2 hours 17 minutes, gary completed the set by finishing in 2 hours 25 minutes.
After a quick photo opportunity and a well deserved beer (or two) we watched the Red Devils Parachute display team and headed off for some scoff...Big Mac Meals all round please. All that remained was the 230 mile journey home.
All in all it been a very exciting few months finished off with an amazing weekend and I can't wait to do it again next year.
Sempai Peter suggested we enter a team into the Paras 10 Endurance Race, a 10 mile race carrying a 35lb military bergen (thats 2 1/2 stone) across the army training ground in Catterick Garrsion, North Yorkshire.
Getting a team together would be easy, there'll be plenty of volunteers in the club but I wanted to get in touch with an old associate of mine as I knew this event would be close to his heart, Gary an ex-military man himself and my old training partner and colleague from our CP days.
Tony jumped on board straight away and Sempai Eugene was already in training in Okinawa, Japan.....Thats was it, we had our four man team and 1 reserve perfect.
So training began, first off I needed to get back into running so myself and Sempai Peter started once a week with our old favourite six miler around Borehamwood, Radlett & Shenley...not too bad I thought, I managed to pick up roughly where I left off, 6 miles in just over an hour.
It is a hard route mostly up hill at the start and then mostly downhill at the end all on tarmac and my knees were feeling every step but when I got as comfortable as I possible could with that run we made a start with bergen running.
I was also now alternating swimming and circuit training at David Lloyd every morning, I was determined to lose weight I had dropped from 105 kgs to 97kgs but plateau'd frustrating is not the word...nothing else was shifting so to hell with the wight loss I'll just get on with the training.
I had good days and bad days carrying that bloomin bergen, I was actually running now with 25lb on my back this is great! However, the first time I upped the weight to 35lb it was like starting all over again, I couldn't believe how heavy it was I even checked the weight three times just to make sure. I trudged around 3 miles of Cassiobury Park and thought I'm never going to do this.
Tony had joined me now on Sunday mornings and we started to add laps to the route, first off was adding second lap totalling six miles and my best run so far was 8 miles in 1 hour 48 minutes, I was on target for a finish time of 2 hours 30 minutes putting me ahead of the bus of shame which came around 3 hours after the start.
My worst day ever was about 3 weeks prior to the race I headed out to Cassiobury Park on my own determined to beat 8 miles, the head was strong but the body was tired...I couldn't get around one lap, what has happened? my legs weren't working at all, I hobbled the last part of the one and only lap for that day and returned home disgruntled...I'm never going to do this challenge!
On the up side a few months had past now and I noticed my trousers were fitting slightly looser and my favourite T-shirts weren't as tight...95kgs, woo hoo, I'm liking this. So as a moral booster a week before the event the lads all took part in a fitness challenge...you can guess the result, 1st place went to Peter, second place went to Mark C and third place to Mark B with me coming in at equal 5th place...(that will change very quickly I can tell you)
The big day was looming and I said to myself be sensible there's nothing I can do now that will change the outcome of this race so i might as well rest for this week and make sure that my legs will work on the day, so for the last few days prior to the race I swam a few gentle lengths of David Lloyd's pool.
The weekend of the event, We (myself, Peter, Eugene & Tony) packed the car with our fully laiden bergens and camping equipment and set off for "The North" as the M1 motorway signs kept reminding us. Just three short hours later and we were in North Yorkshire, we pitched our tents and grabbed a cuppa whilst we waited for Gary to arrive then it was off into Richmond town for a night on the tiles...oh alright, a few beers and couple if games of pool followed by a hearty fish & chip supper. this was followed by a near sleepless night on my part, finally dropping off around five o'clock anly to be woken by my bloomin car alarm at 6am....Oh well might as well get up and get breakfast on the go.
We started race day with tea and dodgy porridge before heading off to Catterick Garrison where we were weighed and herded off to the enclosure whilst we waited for the start, which was now delayed until 10.30am, for some people they had been waiting longer for the race to start than it would actually take them to complete the course.
10.30 this was it, the claxon sounded and we were off, as we shuffled throught the crowd.. I shouted "I've peaked!" which raised a few smiles. first out of the traps were Peter and Tony and all I could see was there dust, that left me Gary and Eugene and he soon made a break as well. Gary & I stayed together for the first two miles then I found my rythm and I started to break away, then there was an excruciating pain in my left knee, my knee had swollen to the size of a tennis ball again....I couldn't believe it I was now hobbling along trying to ignore the pain, there was no way I wan't going to finish.
I caught sight of Eugene at the four mile water station and called out to him, we had a quick drink and an energy gel and we set off again and soon enought he was off again but he was always in my sight and mile 6 there was a boulder where i rested the bergen on to re-adjust it and as I twisted and contorted my body there was an almighty pop and I felt the rush of warm water, i rolled up my trouser leg expecting to see my scar burst open but no, the swelling had gone and the warmness was the fluid dissipating...OH MY GOD! I can run and oh boy did I trudge liked I haven't trudged before, by now I had lost sight of Eugene and I was making slow but steady progress over taking those that had run past me earlier and were now walking themselves. I passed som poor bloke with a broken nose, there were paramedics smothering him and there was blood all over the gravel...he had fallen and smacked his face on the floor.
Mile 7 and there was another ambulance with some poor bloke being hoisted into it in pain...I saw his knee, surely it shouldn't be bending that way?...oh I see, nasty.
Mile 8 the water crossing, a recruit standing there pointing out the easy option "This way if you don't want to get wet, you don't have to go through the water!" There was no way I was crossing the finish line with dry trousers...NO WAY!
Mile 9 "Tank Hill"....YOU HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING!!! a near vertical climb up shingle & shale, I couldn't look up the hill I just put one foot in front of the other and hoped for the best...I could hear shouting, it was getting louder and louder, at the top stood a lonely Para recruit shouting encouragement to everyone as they made it to the top...he didn't stop to take a breath "Well done, keep going, you can do it, it's all down hill from here on.
Back to camp, more encouragement from onlookers as they stood there cheering you on, I entered the final straight towards the finish line, it was all grass, it looked so welcoming like a long green carpet, I over took this guy, he tried to pull it back, i had no idea where the energy came from but no way was I gonna let him beat me who ever he was, All i could hear was shouts of encouragement I nearly knocked the women over holding her timing paddle and a para had to stop me to give me my medal....that was it all over I had beaten myself and my own self imposed finish time of 2 1/2 hours.
A massive well done to Sempai Peter, who at 41 years beat the para recruitment deadline of 1 hour 50 minutes and came in at 1 hour 32 minutes, TLH followed him shortly afterward at 2 hours, Eugene came in at 2 hours 12 minutes and I followed him in at 2 hours 17 minutes, gary completed the set by finishing in 2 hours 25 minutes.
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| A very Happy Chappy |
Bloody well done Sensei and to the rest of the team too. A great effort and a good read, thank you.
ReplyDeleteGreat read Mark, I can't wait for next years, i'm on that!
ReplyDeleteI need to start the running training with weight on. How did you weigh your bergan for the 35lb?
Let me know if you got any tips etc, cheers mate!
George