Men's Health "Survival of the Fittest" Races

Toward the end of my stay in London I had the opportunity to help out as a member of the “event staff” for the Men’s Health “Survival of the Fittest” races that I competed in last year.  Unfortunately I was only able to participate in the first two events due to my return flight to the USA, but they were still a lot of fun.  The experience also gave me a whole new appreciation for the events themselves and the massive amount of work that went into their preparation and set-up.

Cardiff Bay, beautiful as usual.  Photos courtesy of Mark MacKenzie. 

The start of the set-up.  Photo courtesy of Mark MacKenzie. 

On my first day the powers-that-be made the mistake of leaving us for a while with no orders and lots of mats.  Then they were surprised to find us all hot and sweaty when they came back…

Too much free time and fun toys.   Photo courtesy of Mark MacKenzie.

Mats + free time = ...   Photo courtesy of Mark MacKenzie. 

Hard at work the day before the race.   Photo courtesy of Mark MacKenzie.

Mixing mud for the race in Nottingham.   Photo courtesy of Mark MacKenzie.

Making sure the platforms were solid in Nottingham.   Photo courtesy of Mark MacKenzie.

In both Cardiff and Nottingham I ended up hopping into the race at the last moment, and both times, despite the lack of sleep and the long hours of manual labor late into the nights preceding the event, the irregular meals, and general lack of preparation, I managed to do pretty well, winning my heat/wave both times and placing within the top 10 overall.  While this has made me reevaluate many of the “pre-race rituals” that I’ve sworn by over the past 10 years of competitive running, it has also made me realize that perhaps the parkour training here has been a bit more than the “standard” training that I’d taken it for…

Cardiff - Race photos from the exorbitantly priced MH SOTF site . 

Cardiff -  Race photos from the exorbitantly priced MH SOTF site.

Nottingham -  Race photos from the exorbitantly priced MH SOTF site.

Nottingham -  Race photos from the exorbitantly priced MH SOTF site.