Water Wipeout

Run 3 of 3 in 3 weeks. This is the fun one of the three, after a Half Marathon and then a 10k this is a 10k mud run, or should I say water run!

This is my 3rd of the 4 events by X Runner, earlier in the year I ran (froze) doing their Winter Warrior, last September I ran their Wild Warrior, now it's the turn of Water Wipeout! I was looking forward to this until I saw the course and the obstacles. Normally these events don't bother me but when I saw 100m swim, 30m swim, wild rivers - moving water swim, and 30m swim, doing them twice with the two laps made me think why sign up for this? I might enjoy almost everything health and fitness but I'm no swimmer. Being very short sighted from a young age, school swimming lessons weren't enjoyable at all as I couldn't see the other end of the pool so ended up panicking. The only time I enjoy swimming is on holiday with a snorkel and goggles watching the fish but this event doesn't include nice fish, just a Ford Capri.

The course.

I really didn't need to worry about the water obstacles as they weren't anywhere near as scary as first thought, in fact it was a brilliant event! I would happily do it again next year. The rapids were brilliant fun and I wish I had my gopro camera with me to film it. The reason I didn't is I didn't have the float in case I dropped it (currently on ebay buying one).

I was running the event with Rob and Danny, Jo was also running it with some friends in the wave after us. So 4 members of IlsonGlowsticks were at the event which was cool. It was all of our first time running the event and it was Dannys first ever 10km and first obstacle run so a major achievement. His effort levels were amazing for the event even including a funny to watch fall on "boxed in". The three of us stayed together and finished in about 2 hours.

On a personal note I managed to finish 100% of obstacles, technically about 110% as after jumping over some incline walls I saw others struggling so ran back around to help them then jumped back over myself again.

Before the run, all nice and clean.

Obstacle no.33 and no.34, water slide to swim on lap one.

As I've already said the event is brilliant, the course was really well set out with a good mix of obstacles, The water did stink at times but what do you expect jumping into a pond and muddy water. Who cares it was great fun!

Post run  #IlsonGlowsticks we all stink!

Danny did this as his first ever 10k and his first obstacle run, the medal means so much to him but not as much as a donation to Crohn's & Colitis would mean, please visit his JustGiving Page.

Bring on Wild Mud Run in 2016 to finish the 4 XRunner events, but first I think I'm rerunning Winter Warrior with a couple of clients as a Postnatal treat!

Wollaton 10K

Run 2 of 3 in a row now. Last week was the Ramathon and next week is Water Wipeout, but this week is Wollaton 10k. Back to Nottingham after last weeks visit to Derby, all nice local runs meaning minimal travel to the events which is nice.

Last year I set a 10k PB on the course and I haven't got a clue how, it just fell into place. (Wollaton 10k 2014) I then set a new PB this year at Derby 10k so knew I was up against it. Last week in the half marathon I had slowed my pace from around 4 min 30 sec per km to around 4 min 50 / 5 min per km. I knew it would be tricky trying to get the pace back up with only 1 short run mid week to try and get the pace back.

On the morning of the event it was throwing it down! I don't mind running in the rain as I sweat buckets so it helps keep me cool but there are limits. The state I'm usually in post race is how I looked at the start line this time. It was the same course as last year and my first of the 2 5km laps felt ok, I was only about 15 seconds down from my PB time. However I seemed to just hit a wall at 7/8km and my pace just dropped for no reason what so ever! I think the last couple of km were run at about 5min per km, way down on what I needed. I finished in 47 minutes 25 seconds which I was disappointed with. On the plus side I did finish 37th of 262 runners, compared to 52nd of 477 runners last year. This shows how the weather effected the race but the turnout as well.

This years winner was Ian Hunter in 38 minutes 9 seconds, last year he finished 3rd in 35 minutes 57 seconds. So I shouldn't moan too much as the conditions effected everybody in a similar fashion.

I also had a client running the 10k too, it should have been one client but after an accident involving stairs, dog toy and falling over it resulted in a broken metatarsal a week before the run. Another client stepped up and transferred the place and he ran in her place. With minimal training time for the 10k and the shocking weather he managed a respectable 1 hour 7 minutes, down on his PB but a cracking results in the circumstances.

Bring on next year for my third year at the event.

A tad wet post run.

Great work Rob.

Robs work deserves some donations for a great charity. Please visit his JustGiving Page.

Brinsley Steeple Chase Walk

This is a 5.5 mile circular walk found by Danny. After the success of The Walk in the footsteps of D H Lawrence we backed his route finding ability and went for another one of his walks. This walk was off the Nottinghamshire County Council walks section - Brinsley Steeple Chase.

The walk starts from the public car park just around the corner from Brinsley Lodge. As expected in England on 7th February the ground was nice and soggy in places but frozen in others. This did cause some clown feet moments as mud clung to our walking boots trudging across fields. At least we were all prepared and hadn't gone out ill equipped for the conditions.

As we ventured over one of the fields we realised there was a stunning looking bird in one of the trees.

After consulting with Georgia Locock via Instagram she confirmed it was a female buzzard. I'm not going to question her credentials as "I’ve also featured in wildlife magazines, such as two of the junior RSPB ones, Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife Watch and the BBC wildlife magazine. I’ve also spoke on my local radio station, BBC WM and I’ve had photos and trail camera footage featured in various magazines and on TV programs. These include BBC Autumnwatch and Winterwatch Extra and Unsprung and the CBBC show, Wild." Taken from her blog profile, click name above to see her blog and photos.

About half way into the walk we stumbled across a park, and as always it's hard not to have a play on there if it's empty. Rob was loving life on the "springy things" as always. Check out his Instagram account for his collection of "springy things" and his walk/run photos too.

After a quick mess about it was back on with the walk, the next km is on the roads between Underwood and New Brinsley, before heading back onto tracks again. This was probably the nicest section coming up meandering along side the River Erewash.

River Erewash

River Erewash flowing fast.

Us lot walking + a bridge + twigs = Poohsticks time! The upsetting fact of 4 sticks entering the race and only 2 finishing, we never got to see who came 3rd. Sad Times!

Time for Poohsticks.

From here we then crossed some boggy land, were Sian was in her element after doing the walk in her wellies hitting the mud and puddles head on. Us in walking boots had to use the fences in places to climb our way around some good sized mud pits. Once the sun comes out to play in Summer these paths will be fine and the land will have recovered. At the minute you can tell they have been working hard to improve the area as a nature reserve and the paths have jsut become a little bit boggy.

Anybody for muddy fun?

After this it was a short walk back towards Brinsley past a brilliant phone box that is now a book hut and Brinsley headstock. Now it was time to ditch the muddy walking boots and troussers and enjoy a warming meal inside Brinsley Lodge round the corner from the cars. This seemed a good idea until we all just wanted to have a nice afternoon nap once we had been fed and watered haha.

Phone box has a new use for books.

Brinsley Headstock.

Laser Tag

I organised a trip out for fitness clients to Wild Park Derbyshire for an afternoon of woodland laser tag. 18 of us went with a mix of 9 males, 9 females, aged 7 to 59. It was a very random bunch of people and it worked perfectly. Some people had played laser quest before, others had done paint balling, but it was the first time for all of us playing woodland laser tag.

We all got issued our camo jumpsuits, vests and weapons. I added the GoPro camera to my outfit with the chest and head mount so we could get some footage of the day.

Laser Tag Fitness Day Out

They put us into 2 teams Yellows V Pinks and we had 6 different games over the afternoon. 2 x capture the flag, 2 x attack/defend the van, and 2 x bomb the fort, with each game was worth 20 points.

Yellows too an early 40-0 lead after the 2 games thanks to Simon running like Forrest Gump and capturing the flag.


If capture the flag suited the Yellows, Attack/Defend the van suited Pinks as by the end of game 4 it was 40-40. Thanks to Lexie and myself attacking and capturing the van in game 3, and Rob and Danny getting very well camouflaged and defending the van in style in game 4. This game had a van at the bottom of the hill with one team defending and one team attacking. When attacking you had 5 minutes unlimited lives so it was all about how quick you could run up and down the hill to take out the enemy and get back up to re energise before going again. It was a killer on your legs!!!

2 games left all to play for!

In game 5 Pinks were defending the fort with Yellows trying to carry to bomb into it. Things weren't going well for Pinks as all but 2 people were killed. However those two who survived turned into Rambo and took out every single Yellow as they charged to the fort with the bomb. THEN!!! Rob picked up the bomb and carried it into our own base blowing it up! Doh!!!

This had the scores at Yellows 60 - Pinks 50 because even with every yellow dead the fort was blown up, but we claimed 10 points for killing everybody.

Winner takes all in the last game!! Who will come out on top?

PINKS!!!!

With a charge from Lisa and the two little minions into the fort clearing the way, it allowed myself to use Danny as a human shield and charge with the bomb into the heart of their fort.

End Scores Yellows 60- Pinks 70.

A brilliant day out and we will definitely be back for more laser tag and probably archery too. A top quality venue for team building, parties or just a fun day out. Really good instructors and good prices.

Miller's Walk - Hollies Farm variation

On a muddy Saturday morning a nice group of 10 of us plus two small dogs all met at Hollies Farm. We were doing the Miller's walk from the Erewash walking guide. However we started the walk from Hollies Farm as it has a brilliant cafe and would give us a really nice finish to the day.

Usually on these walks we go wrong somewhere along the way but it never normally adds much to the walk, well this was slightly different. Walking out of the farm we took the wrong path from the start and after trudging through mud for a kilometre we found a more stable path. This little diversion actually ended up adding a mile to the route. Luckily most people on the walk knew the local area so it never really mattered, we all knew roughly where we were so we just enjoyed the walk and the fresh air.

The route covered some similar paths from previous routes this year but it was nice to retrace our footsteps with all the leaves falling with a nice autumnal feeling. On a previous walk we went into Hermit's Wood however we turned the other way and entered Ockbrook Wood this time and it looked beautiful with all the different colours. 

Ockbrook Wood

Ockbrook Wood

In the end the walk was just under 9km (5.5miles) and ended with a really nice bite to eat in Hollies Farm Cafe. After a cold walk enjoying a nice warm meal was perfect. If you know the area and just fancy a walk with a warm drink at the end I recommend this as a start point as you could do so many different routes from around 2 miles to 7 miles depending which routes you follow. We will definitely be back in 2015 on a made up route using our local knowledge.

There's just one walk left this year and it will be a nice post Christmas walk on Saturday 27th setting off from Nutbrook CC at 10am. There's no set plan for this walk so technically we can't go wrong. It's all about getting some fresh air and burning off a bit of the festive food.