Challenge #15 - Total Warrior, done!

Another day, another challenge (or so it seems anyway). This one took us to the delights of Shap through what can only be described as an apocalypse! Total Warrior's Lake District 10km event was our destination today and another rather enjoyable one it was too, despite some of the worst weather we have encountered so far.

On the way back my "mud buddy" Rick and I got talking about these events and we (mainly Rick TBH) decided it would be a good idea to start reviewing some of them, just in case people reading the blog may have an interest in doing one.

So we discussed it for a bit and settled on the following. We are ranking each event in three ways;

• 10 categories for which a score of 0-10 will be given as follows:
• 10 - Basically better than existence
• 9 - Excellent
• 8 - Very Good
• 7 - Good
• 6 - Above average
• 5 - Average
• 4 - Below average
• 3 - Poor
• 2 - Very Poor
• 1 - Terrible
• 0 - Missing or unbelievably terrible
• A difficulty rating for
• The course
• The obstacles
• An overall mark out of 100. This isn't necessarily a sum of the numbers from the ten categories but also includes our overall impressions of the race/day and also some intangibles which it's difficult to quantify. The overall event scores will be as follows:
• 90%+ - Sell everything you own (including unimportant organs) to do this event
• 80-90% - We will be doing this event every year we are able to, regardless of price
• 70-80% - We'll definitely try to do this event again, maybe not every year but whenever we can
• 60-70% - We'd like to do this event again but if there is something different on the calendar at a similar time then we'll probably do that instead
• 50-60% - Glad we did it but unlikely to do it again
• 40-50% - A bit disappointing, very unlikely to try again
• below 40% - Simply not worth it

The following categories were decided upon; 

• General Event Organisation
• How simple was it to sign up, what communication was sent out, how did they deal with queries, how easy was it to find everything at the event?
• Event Facilities
• What is onsite at the event; car parking, shops, bars, toilets, changing areas? Everything you need on the day to minimise hassle.
• Registration
• How quick and easy was the registration process and what was the quality of the information provided in the registration pack?
• Location
• Fairly simple, is the venue in a good spot and was to easy to get to? Was the signage good enough to direct you from a way out and also was it a nice location to race?
• On course facilities
• How good was the marshalling? What about the sign posts around the course? Were there distance markers? What about feed/water stations and medical coverage?
• Warm-Up
• How good was the pre-race warm up? Did it get us suitably pumped? Was it well timed? Was there enough space to do it in?
• Variety of obstacles
• Too much arm? Not enough walls? Far too many dips in the stream? All these factors will be taken into account in this section.
• Mix of run/obstacles?
• Did the course cater for runners and those of a more "obstacley" inclination? Was there a 3km block of running at the start with all the obstacles just jammed in the end?
• Terrain
• How did the location make use of the terrain? Was it too hilly or just right? Did it feel like just ploughing through a field or was it well thought out and planned?
• Post Race
• What was in the post-race pack? What else was provided afterwards? Was there any entertainment?

So without further ado, my next post will be the first review to grace these pages. Come join me in about 10 minutes time to see how Total Warrior fared.

Till then,

DT