Rough Runner - Clapham Common 2016

It was great to revisit this event and see how much Rough Runner has improved since its first race. Rough Runner has become an extremely refined OCR.

Events always ask you to arrive an hour before your wave and so we did. We weren't expecting to be offered to run an extra race for free though! The organisers were looking to see how fast people can complete their 5k course. My friends declined but I stepped up to this. I took the lead very quickly in my wave so it ended up being quite a lonely race for the most part, occasionally overtaking someone from an earlier wave. One big bonus is that there were no queues! It certainly had a different event feel with no one around but I enjoyed the banter and encouragement from the marshals. My time wasn't the fastest overall that day but I managed to make it back in time to join my friends for the warmup of my actual race.

I was glad to have got the speed element done as my friends were taking it much slower than I anticipated. At least it was nice to have the company for the 10k and it also allowed me some extra camera time!

So do I prefer to race an OCR or complete it as a group? From a sport point of view I do prefer to run and attack it. Although I do equally enjoy the social aspect, but the obstacles do make a difference. If I'm waiting around for people it can reduce the adrenaline kick and I can be left jumping up and down just to keep warm, especially if I'm soaking wet. In certain races it may give me an opportunity to go back around and complete the obstacles again if there are no queues. For some events the obstacles have to be completed individually so it lacks the camaraderie of proper group obstacles. To answer the question above is hard to say, I guess mixing things up is good, keeping whatever I do engaging and fresh.

All in all Rough Runner is very good, I just feel the price may be major deterrent, especially for people on the fence and new to OCR.