Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest, Cardiff, Sunday 29th September 2013. 10 kilometre (plus the extra km’s sneaked in!) obstacle course around Cardiff and The Bay.
The day dawned with beautiful sunshine, but freezing cold with a strong wind. Team Unique, Shari Smith, Nicola Roberts, Hayley Griffiths, Lee Griffiths, Mark Hysiak, Ashley Reed, Richard Shepperd, Ross Williams, all met up,in our green survival t shirts, with June and Grant Thomas, Jacks parents.
After a short warm up session, we took our places at the start line and after a 10 second countdown we were off.
Our first obstacle was a wall of hay bales which we had to clamber over, then the running began.
We ran across Cardiff Barrage in The Bay having to run and jump over ramps, walls and crowd control barriers. Then came the climb over an A Frame, scramble through a tunnel and over some smaller hurdles.
Back we ran to Cardiff Bay. The next set of hurdles were jumping in and out of skips, running with large traffic cones on your shoulder, over barriers and fences and back to running towards the Millenium Stadium.
Next came a rope swing, camouflage nets to scramble under, thrown a sand bag to carry on your shoulder and then through a huge inflatable .
Yet more running, caught up with June and Grant who were cheering us on.
Scramble down a very steep muddy path and into the river Taff, waist deep wading to be met the other side by the official photographer !!!!! Scramble back up the slope and off running again, this time with very wet soggy trainers!!!!!
The dreaded monkey bars were next with two 8 foot walls to get over and platforms to jump on.
The 10kilometre mark was The Millenium Stadium and we still had a longway back! Into the stadium an up and down the steps, smiling for the camera on the way! Over more walls and platforms and ready for the run back.
A few more tunnels to climb through and bars to hang off, and a straight run back into the Bay.
Our last obstacle was a 10 foot wall to get over, you needed a strong man at your side to give you a heave over!!! A big jump into a very dirty pool of water and it was over the finish line.
We all completed it in various times from 1hour 15 minutes to 2 hours 10 minutes. We all sustained various bumps, bruises and cuts along the way, but it was great fun.
We met up with June and Grant in the beer tent for a well deserved drink and a burger.
I’m so glad we completed the challenge and raised £643 for CRY in memory of Jack Thomas.
Shari Lewis
