Royal Marine Commando Challenge 3-miler
30 October 2003

 
Registration tent and - worryingly - ambulance at  Bicton Arena

In a word: fantastic!
But the longer version goes like this: arrived in Exeter and my taxi driver to the hotel was an ex-Marine. Rather worryingly, he said he admired anyone doing the race, but he also gave me a few pieces of good advice:

- run down and straight but not uphill
- just get on with it
- buy socks and cut the toes off to make useful knee protectors.

The wonderful front of Exeter Catherdral

I spent a great afternoon in Exeter and bought a multi-pack of socks and tiny scissors. Helen had a horrid 8-hour road journey, but turned up in time for prawn- and Czech beer-loading at the next door pub.

Saturday was perfect weather: no wind, clear and warm in the sun. 

Fran and Helen before...with Helen in her fetching David Icke outfit with wading bird leggings and Fran with knee protectors

We turned up at the course early, and got shipped out to the start where some fine Marine PT instructors told us not to jump into deep puddles (for fear of what we might find) and led some warm-up exercises. 

A team of very young women joined us to discuss the obstacles, and told us that they would hang around to wait for us if we got stuck. At which point iron entered my soul, and I turned to Helen. She said to me, "Not that we're competitive or anything..." so the objective was to beat them.

Soon we were on our way, and we ran the first part of the course before going through the first tunnel. 

Pitch dark in the middle, but we were soon through. The next obstacle was Peter's Pool - chest high cold water. 

Helen and I forged forward, and I got a bit winded with the temperature of the weather. But it was amazing how quickly you warm up. Lots of mud and hill and another tunnel, and then we got to the submerged water tunnel. 

This was the one I was dreading, but there were Marines in wetsuits at either end, and as Helen disappeared through the right hand tunnel, there was no time to consider if this was a good idea. Helen emerged grinning! My turn...

The Marine grabbed hold of my waistband, shoved me through, and after some desperate scrabbling, I grabbed a hand at the other end and gasped for air. 

Why do I look so happy??

Then it was on to the mud...lots of black mud, then some very very sticky black mud and poor Helen got a foot badly stuck. 

As I was on the other side by then, a passing team yanked the poor limb out, and we proceeded up the muddy bank. Helen's wading bird leggings were working against her, so we spent a few minutes yanking them off.

There were two tunnels left to crawl through, but the taxi driver's tip paid off, and we emerged, soaking, muddy and happy. We jogged slowly to the finish, and passed the line at 46 minutes. We were well pleased.

Then back to Bicton Arena, transported by a minibus with seats covered in plastic. Excellent move, as we were all covered in mud. 

...and after. Shortly afterwards, these clothes disappeared for good.

We arrived at the arena and rushed for a hot shower, tea, and our certificate. We met up with Alan, the organiser, and thanked him for a fantastic day.

Helen, the lovely Alan, and Fran

This really is a fab event - brilliantly organised by Alan and the wonderful Marines.

Thanks, Helen, for a wonderful day, and here's to next year with Anne restored to our team. Helen and I finished in 13th place in the female race, which, given the state of our knees, was a great result!

Commando Helen!

If you fancy giving it a go, visit the Commando Challenge website.

Helen adds, Monday 3 Nov:

What a fab event. My knees and shins are bruised and scraped, my toenails are still mud coloured, and it's been a great weekend.

All those tunnels, (black'n'bendy etc), two mud dips (black then orange - just for variety), getting stuck in the sheep dip, running through gorse bushes following a stream uphill, getting soaked to the skin and submerged under concrete, non-stop hills with stony and slippery paths too steep to run up or down, the rock slide down into Peter's Pool and water that took my breath away etc etc. Do go to the site and have a look at the map (Fran has understated the number of obstacles), but so much fun.

And I have to say a really big thank you to my team member Fran, who was quite capable of running this much faster than me, but stayed back with me as I laboured us through to a 46 minute 5k. No other 5k is ever going to be as hard!

Will I be back next year - oh yes!

And from Alan, posted on the Runner's World events thread: