EVENT REVIEW: Total Warrior Lake District (10km)

Hot on the heels of my previous post (see here) I present the inaugural Tom and Rick's "Seriously, How Good Was That?!" Obstacle Course Race Review. The scoring criteria and categories are covered in the previous post which is both under this post and also at the link above. Drum roll please!

TOTAL WARRIOR
10km Obstacle Run
2nd August 2014
Shap, Lake District

This was a tough one. Pretty atrocious weather had turned the course into a mud bath in places but in actual fact that added to the enjoyment a lot of the time. So without a moments hesitation let's get on with the scoring.

General Event Organisation
This was a pretty slick and efficient event. The participant pack they sent out was a touch light but generally it was as per most of the other events we have seen. At the event everything was pretty easy to locate and it seemed to run smoothly. They get an extra point as Rick had to change from the Leeds version and they achieved that with the minimum of fuss and hassle.
8 - Very Good

Event Facilities
Pretty standard. A couple of OCR shops selling gear, a reasonably sized bar which had plenty of spectator action due to the adverse weather and decent amounts of toilets and car parking.
7 - Good

Registration
Again everything seemed pretty standard for these events. Pretty quick to register once there and the pack had just about everything we needed in there. No real queues and the registration was in a permanent barn so the weather didn't affect anything
7 - Good

Location
Great location just a short jag from J39 of the M6. Excellently signposted and not too much of a logjam getting out. The course was cleverly designed so that spectators could see a fair chunk of it without moving too far from the bar area.
8 - Very Good

On Course Facilities
A couple of water stations placed a 5km and 8km came in very handy. The course was well signposted with distance markers every 1km (which I'm a big fan of). Loses a point because the marshals appeared to be dressed in blue rather than in hi-vis jackets and it was often tough to see who they were.
6 - Above average

Warm-Up
No warm-up unfortunately. Or certainly not that we encountered.
0 - Missing

Variety of obstacles
Most of the "standard" ones you would expect were here, plus a few brucie bonuses such as a brilliant soapy, water slide and an overhanging wall which proved too tough for me. They had the balance throughout the course worked out pretty well so a pretty decent score awarded here
8 - Very Good

Obstacle/Run mix
Pretty standard once again. A reasonably long running section early doors to spread the field out followed by pretty regular obstacles dotted throughout. I thought a bit too much of the uphill stuff was after a really tough obstacle so I got sapped pretty quick a couple of times. Generally pretty good though.
7 - Good

Terrain
Being the Lake District there was always going to be plenty of hills. Generally I thought the course was pretty good and they used the natural terrain pretty well. I felt a couple of times that we seemed to be doubling-back on ourselves for no apparent reason but I might just have lost my bearings.
7 - Good

Post-Race
I'm afraid Rick and I are snobs and we like a good chunky medal and a swish technical T-shirt for our troubles, especially as it set me back around £60 for this event. Instead of a medal there was a snood-type device and a non-tech cotton T-shirt. You could buy technical t-shirts at the stands but they were £15-£25 extra on top. Unfortunately with neither a tech shirt nor a medal, this gets marked down.
4 - Below Average

Difficulty
This was definitely a tough one. There were a couple of occasions where certain obstacles really hurt which is unusual for me and certainly for Rick. The course was hilly and there didn't seem to be many flat bits on it while some of the obstacles such as the overhanging wall, the wall/rope climb and a couple of the tunnel sections were energy sapping.
Course: 8 out of 10
Obstacles 8 out of 10

Overall Thoughts
Generally I enjoyed this one despite the weather at the start. I thought the course was varied and challenging enough while the lack of queues is always a good thing. It was easy to get to and there were plenty of facilities at the event. I'm not sure it is the greatest value for money however, I paid £60 and didn't get a medal or a fancy T-shirt (told you I was a snob) which I'd expect at least one of at that price. It's only 10km as well and when you consider we paid £40 for Yorkshire Warrior which is a 16km event it just felt as though there are better overall packages around.

Overall Score
65% - I really enjoyed this and would recommend you give this a go if you can get a good early bird discount on it. Myself I think I'd consider coming back again. I won't be booking it tomorrow though and if something else new happened to be on the same day next year I'd probably try that one instead.

As this is the first OCR I (with Rick's help) have reviewed we don't have anything quantitative to compare it against. I might revisit some of the others and retrospectively review them but for now I don't think I'll get around to it. Once we have done River Rat in 3 weeks we'll start to build up a table and hopefully add to it every time we do another challenge.

Hope you found this useful, if you have any comments or suggestions then please let me know and I'll try to incorporate them in future reviews. And if you've not tried an OCR yet, check out this site as it has almost everything that is coming up soon. Pick one, do it and LOVE it.

Till next time,
DT