December 18th, Ryan, Erin, Damien and myself travelled up to Crone woods, Co. Wicklow, for the inaugural OCRA obstacle course race. (Obstacle Course Racing Association)
This was our first obstacle course race since Spartan Race , Barcelona back in 2019, so to say we were eager to get back to racing was an understatement.
This was a small event, but still, it was great to be back hanging upside down 
.
The course consisted of an 8.5km loop with approximately a dozen obstacles. This included a couple of low rigs, sandbag carries, rope traverse, tyre flips and net crawls amongst others. The run itself was on forest roads which was quite undulating. The carrying obstacles were easy compared to some of the other events we did, with the sandbags weighing approximately 10 kgs each. However, the low rigs were very tricky to conquer! What made it even more difficult was that this was the first time we had to deal with low rigs. Unfortunately, this was my undoing, as I rushed it and failed the obstacles which meant disqualification !!
A big lesson learnt ….
Thankfully though Damien and Ryan managed to get through a very challenging course and with solid running, Ryan ended up finishing 3rd overall and Damien secured a qualifying position in his age group for the European championships. 
It was a well-run event and we were all buzzing afterwards. It reminded us of just how much fun obstacle course racing is. Fingers crossed that there are more events on the calendar for 2022 
. In the meantime, I need to figure out how I can practice for the low rig.
Are you are looking for a training challenge that is a little different but equally rewarding? Preparing for an obstacle race will give you a different focus while helping to improve your overall physical fitness.
