Ogmore by Sea is on the Heritage Coast in South Wales and is where we spent 36 hours being put through our paces by Jock and the rest of the race organisers. Once we got to a half flooded car park on the banks of the river, right next to Ogmore castle, we were given 30 minutes to get our tents up and then it was time to leave for a walk to "the dunes". The tents we were using are the actual bits of kit we are taking to the Pole. Jo, in charge of the tent, has taken it home with her for careful storage! Everything seems very real!
The opening challenge was shuttle runs up and down a huge sand dune. We were all wearing our pulk pulling harnesses and had been clipped on to a rope in teams of four. Therefore you were only as fast as the slowest. The run up was a lung busting cardio workout as the sand was pretty soft and it was half a step down to each one up. The way down was more a case of trying to stay upright and go as fast as possible. We did five shuttles each which got the legs aching - but as we mixed up the groups they were all done at different speeds.
The afternoon involved a 4 hour walk navigating to various way points that we had been given - all good practice with the GPS. The weather was fantastic for this time of the year, so it did not really feel like a "get me out of here" weekend. I was very pleased with my fitness and found the whole day to be more fun than strenuous. Still, we will be pulling pulks in very cold conditions for 12 + hours per day whilst fuelled by dehydrated ration packs - so any physical training will be helping my end goal.
That night we ate in the local pub - The Pelican. Food was great and very much needed, and of course there were a few obligitory beers to be consumed, I realise that this was not exactly roughing it, but the team building and bonding elements are very important as well. After a wet and windy night in the tents, we woke to find ice all over the tent. The temperature had dropped a lot, to the extent that passers by on the following day who had seen where we were camping, all thought we were nuts!
The next day we were back in our teams so Jo, Lucy and I were handed a set of coordinates that we had to get to in a set order. This time however, we were pulling our pulks that had kindly been leaden with big bags of sand! We had a thoroughly good day and got used to the posture differences involved in pulling a heavy weight (you automatically try to lean forward which puts extra stress on the lower back.... something I am working on in the gym!). We had some gear breakages that we managed to mend easlily enough, and we even managed to meet up with another team to have a packed lunch next to the beach!
All in all it was a great weekend, and now I have my harness, I will be getting some used tyres and hitting the gallops in Richmond Park! A couple more blogs to follow shortly. Until then!
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