Go Hard Or Go Home: Men's Health Survival Of The Fittest Race London 2014

I'm a walking bruise this week.

There is more purple than flesh-tone on my body, I have grab marks on my arms and I'm hobbling around the office with a pronounced limp.

Why?

Because I took part in the Men's Health Magazine "Survival of the Fittest" (SOTF) race in London, that's why.

What Is It?

An urban assault-course style race, powered by Rat Race adventure sports, in conjunction with Men's Health.

The distance is 10 kilometres - long enough to feel puffed, but a pretty easy lick for anyone who likes a good jog in the gym.

The real challenge comes in the form of a generous smattering of obstacles, placed intermittently throughout the route.

These range from a fairly simple clamber over some ramps, planks, ladders and scaffolding, right through to the much tougher "Giant Pyramid", made from a succession of eight foot tall blocks with no foot or hand-holds.

Other obstacles included scrambling under a series of suspended crowd control barriers while someone sprays you with a fireman's hose, running down (and then right back up again) a flight of stairs with a large traffic cone on your back...oh and there was the part where you had to run for ages through a knee-deep stream.

Why On Earth Would You Do It?

Well, because people are generally silly and like putting themselves in ridiculous situations to see if they can make it through them with all their limbs.

I jest, of course.

"Adventure races", as they're often called, are all the rage at the moment.

If you haven't heard of the SOTF race, you'll possibly have heard of Tough Mudder - a very similar but slightly dirtier version.

Basically, we've all got a bit bored of straight forward 10ks and half marathons and we want more bang for our buck.

And these sorts of races are great for anyone who wants to test their all-round fitness and strength, rather than just the stamina and endurance that it takes to run for a really long time.

Don't let that put you off though - you don't have to be superhuman and/or insane to go in for this sort of challenge.

Something that we noticed is just how many people were taking part - of all shapes, sizes, genders and levels of fitness.

Of course, there were the elite racers in the earlier heats, completing the whole thing in just over half an hour.

Gulp.

But besides that, the atmosphere was largely very friendly, with people helping each other over the tougher obstacles.

The ethos among many seemed to be "we'll finish this thing, even if it takes us all darn day."

Is It Just For Londoners?

Oh definitely not!

It's an annual event, so you do have a limited window to get involved, but Men's Health take their SOTF race all over the country, with events in Nottingham, Ediburgh and Manchester, among others.

The challenges might vary everso slightly depending on where you do it though.

This year, the London race took place in and around the grounds of Wembley stadium, making use of the parks and canals nearby.

The Edinburgh race started just outside the Castle in the city centre.

How Tough Is It?

I'm not going to lie, this isn't a walk in the park.

It's quite hard, especially if you're determined not to stop and walk, as we were, even when you're waist deep in Wealdstone Brook.

Some obstacles are really fun - we absolutely LOVED sliding down a tarp-covered hill on our tummies as we were sprayed with water and soap bubbles.

And some obstacles were a little more demanding - personally, being something of a claustrophobe, I hated having to squeeze through several rails of thick tyres.

The eight foot walls with no foot or hand holds were pretty hard to scale, being a mere 5'3", but my boyfriend and running partner Duncan came in handy at these points - he gave me a leg up and/or threw me over some of the walls.

You don't have to be as tough-as-nails to do this sort of thing. This was my first race of this kind. I keep relatively fit in the gym, sure, but I haven't even run a straight 10k before, let alone one that throws massive things in your path.

And we came out of it with a pretty good time too - we ran it in 1:32:19, and I placed 172nd woman on the day.

Which, considering there were between 7-8,000 competitors, I'm very pleased with!

Tips And Tricks

• Run with someone taller than you!

Anyone as vertically challenged as me will need a leg-up at certain points, so bear this in mind when picking a running partner or team mates!

I was going to run the race with my colleague Kim (before she got tonsilitis and had to pull out), who only has a couple of inches on me and we would definitely have had to rope in some tall strangers to help us out.

• Don't drink the night before.

A friend of the Lifestyle Team made this mistake...and paid for it with alcohol sweats and dizziness the next day.

• Take any slip and slide sections face first - you'll go much faster!

• Wear a proper t-shirt. We turned up late, I didn't have a race t-shirt to hand and I spent the next hour and a half hoisting up my top so that my breasts didn't fall out. Not cool.

You definitely don't need long sleeves though, despite it being November. As soon as you get going you'll heat up, plus the more fabric you wear, the more heavy wet fabric you'll have to cart around with you as soon as you do the first water-based challenge.

• If you're running with others, have an agreement that you'll run at the speed of the slowest person, but consent to help push each other to go faster in the kindest and most motivating way that you can.

• If the slowest person is really very slow and it emerges that there are one or two people DYING to sprint off ahead, agree to let them.

It will be better for all involved.

But don't leave anyone to run on their own.

• Do some gentle cardio two days later. You'll be mega stiff, the delayed onset muscle soreness will set in, but if you want to be able to walk again by the end of the week, get yourself back in the gym and do some light cardio.

It might feel like torture, but trust me it will help.

And Finally

In short, it was great.

We were tested without feeling like we wanted to cry.

We managed to run as a team without wanting to shout / scream / throw things at each other.

And our medal doubles as a handy bottle opener, what's not to love about that?!For more information and for training programmes, see the Men's Health SOTF site HERE.

For other Rat Race events, check out their website HERE.

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