Some of the fittest, top-of-their-game athletes were in Brentwood last weekend, taking part in the 2019 World Obstacle Course Racing Championships outside the Secret Nuclear Bunker in Kelvedon Hatch.
Sixty three nations were represented by five thousand competitors running, climbing, leaping and swinging their way around various muddy trails and obstacles, ranging in distance from 100 metres to fifteen kilometres. This is more than running – these athletes need to combine stamina with epic strength and agility to be able to cope with monkey bars, rings, walls, cannon-ball lifting and huge amounts of thick, sticky mud.
The competition took place on land owned by the Parrish family in Kelvedon Hatch who have become expert in arranging these events through their organisation of the ever-popular Nuclear Races. When I visited, Mike Parrish was resplendent in Union Jack bowtie and waistcoat, and celebrating the success of Great Britain’s Jonathan Albon who won the 15km Pro race in a time of 1 hour, 24 minutes and 18 seconds.
The arrival of the World OCR Championships in town is a huge local success story, one in which Kelvedon Hatch was the capital of the world for a weekend. The race I was there on Sunday, when many of the competitors who had completed their championship races on Friday and Saturday had formed into teams to get round the course again in the quickest team time possible. There was quite a crowd around the five metre wall up which the teams were trying to climb, using just the heads, shoulders and brute strength of their team mates to help them to the top.
This was a great family day out, in the drizzle, mud and fresh air of the best of British, and best of Brentwood, countryside. The World OCR Championships head back to the USA next year, but the Nuclear Races (https://nuclear-races.co.uk/nuclearevents/) continue in Kelvedon Hatch. Book yourself a place to watch or take part and be prepared to get properly muddy.