Accountability Corner
Embark on an adventure with Darren, Morgan, and Chris, the dynamic trio steering the ship at "Accountability Corner." As passionate OCR enthusiasts, they're on a mission to share their expertise and enthusiasm for obstacle course racing with the world. From sharing insider tips on overcoming training plateaus to demystifying the complexities of race registration and gear selection, no stone is left unturned. Whether you're a seasoned competitor hungry for fresh perspectives or a newcomer eager to dip your toes into the muddy waters of OCR, these hosts are here to guide you every step of the way. Join them as they peel back the curtain on the electrifying world of OCR, revealing stories of triumph, camaraderie, and boundless adventure.
Don't miss out – tune in and discover why OCR is capturing hearts and minds around the globe!
Accountability Corner
#4: Nuclear Wild Forest 3k 27th July - Accountability Corner Course Walk 3k Series
The fourth race in the 3K Series takes a surprise turn as Nuclear Wild Forest steps in to replace Body Hub, offering a fast, obstacle-dense course that could significantly shake up the current standings. We analyze the complete course layout and share strategic insights for tackling this uniquely challenging event.
• Nuclear Wild Forest features 19 obstacles packed into a surprisingly fast course
• Most of the race takes place outside the forest on fields and tracks rather than in woodland
• Course includes three different carries and classic Nuclear "fiddly" obstacles
• The terrain is less technical than other 3K races but requires careful pacing to avoid blowing up
• Race day is July 27th with a 10am start, and registration closes July 8th
• Current 3K Series leaders include Finlay and Shy, but this race could change everything
• Expect finishing times in the 16-minute range for top competitors
• Weather conditions will significantly impact race strategy and obstacle difficulty
Get your tickets before July 8th at the Nuclear website and join us for what promises to be one of the fastest and most exciting races in the 3K Series!
Welcome to the Accountability Corner, where we talk about everything obstacle course racing, from staying disciplined in training, affording the sport, signing up for your first race and, more importantly, how the sport is growing around the world, with your hosts Morgan Maxwell, chris Shipley and Darren Martin.
Speaker 2:Welcome to an episode of Accountability Corner episode 52, and it feels like forever since we've actually recorded an episode. So from me it's a big apology to our listeners, especially now we know that we've got international listeners coming back from the European Championships. But, mo, we haven't heard from you in a while. How are things?
Speaker 3:Yeah, things are good. I've been hot in the UK, not maybe as hot as you've had it, but as a fellow ginger I can feel your pain, because we've had it quite nasty. It's been nice, but a bit too nice, if that makes sense. I thought Sheffield was cold and then it's turned out it actually gets quite hot so what was our last episode?
Speaker 2:I've honestly feels forever since we were recorded. We we actually missed our first ever one we've got. We've got to stay accountable and put our hands up to that. That's the first one we've ever missed.
Speaker 3:In our defence, though we had a lot of life things going on. You guys had a big thing coming up.
Speaker 2:I'm just lazy, but yeah, we had the European Championships prepping for. Shipley's got a wedding to prep for. Have I I don't know, I think you're getting married aren?
Speaker 3:Have I? I don't know. I think you're getting married, aren't you? Yeah, I'm definitely getting married. It's definitely a different vibe to when we were preparing for Darren's wedding and we had 20 million pre-recorded episodes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a bit more available, isn't it?
Speaker 1:I'm quite a relaxed kind of guy, if you know this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, chilled groom, I like it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you know this. Yeah, chilled room, I like it. Man, that's what we are. I don't know if you I'm gonna have to apologize to the listeners, but my voice is still a bit crackly from all the singing that I managed to do at the european championships after party supported by accountability corner that was good, isn't it?
Speaker 2:we led, we led astray, we, we, we made, we made that party happen.
Speaker 1:We lit that fire it was good, it was busy, it was packed, it was sweaty, it was loud yeah, it was hotter than the temperature outside.
Speaker 2:It was hot, mo. How? What have you been up to then? We've been focusing on the European Championships. What have you been focusing on? Have you raced? No no, I don't know if I have since the last time.
Speaker 3:I was going to break into song. Then I was feeling inspired. Yeah, not sure. I've got Spartan Midlands coming up in a couple of weeks. That's the first race. Oh, I had Scotland. I don't know if I was, if we spoke since then I managed to beat Russell. I beat the curse, Um. So that was a positive. But I've been just kind of like staying a bit dark on socials, training away. I'm really focused on a particular race, so I'm kind of locked into that at the minute, and once that's out of the way I'll be happy again.
Speaker 2:Are you going to let us know which one?
Speaker 3:Yeah, badminton, the Spartan beast, I feel like, because I did alright in my last beast, I want to keep the momentum going, and training for longer seems to be really working for me at the minute, so I'm going to keep that going.
Speaker 2:People are asking what you was up to. We told him that you're a Spartan racer. Now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't do obstacles anymore. I looked at the Euro's obstacles and it just it looked a bit hard. I was like I need my twister and my uh bend or my um Zed walls.
Speaker 1:There was definitely a twister.
Speaker 2:Yeah, zed walls, it was definitely a twister. Yeah, that was a good obstacle. That was Was it a gibbon twister? Did you fail it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I failed that. I had no clue in the world how to do that. That sounds quite hard. It was ridiculous. It's not the grip thing, it was just. I've never been on it, no clue what to do, just yeah. Was that in both races, no only one, thankfully, because I would have failed that twice. I need about 10 million goes on that to have a clue how to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're going to, we're going to go into into I think we should go into detail this with uh, with a guest maybe in a couple weeks time going to maybe euros and how, how, prep, prep for it differently, because I feel like that rate a european championships is amazing. It's always a great race. The weather made a massive difference to some people's races and they're starting to get it right with the obstacles starting, but there's still the uh, the odd attachments that I just feel like unnecessary. Unnecessarily because you, if you can't train on it or it's not available to you day in, day out in your country, I don't feel like it should be used because it's just then, um, it's just unbiased, biased, it's it's.
Speaker 1:We don't need the gimmicks. In my opinion, we don't need gimmicks. We don't need to keep buying new fancy toys. You got a ball, you got a square ball. You got a long pipe, you got a nunchuck.
Speaker 2:They're all the same things, they're just made differently yeah, you're right, we said this that what is a fish thing? Whatever we had a whale it's a nunchuck. What's a whale? It's a. It's a ball, it's a cannonball.
Speaker 1:Yeah what's a cock it's. It's a nunchuck, it's a nunchuck.
Speaker 2:Just put those things on the attachment.
Speaker 3:What did we say? I quite like the little gimmicks, though I do like the coffee beans.
Speaker 1:And in Italy when we had the pizza slices. It is fun. No, it's just childish.
Speaker 3:I think it adds to the event, it gives people to talk about and it also probably generates a lot of revenue for the companies that are putting a lot of time into the event as well, because they get to create new things and then sell it to everyone. You saw how many people were buying the attachments before the race and, like you just said, realistically you didn't need them necessarily to be able to do them.
Speaker 2:I would like to burn all dice. That's what I would like to do.
Speaker 1:You mean a square ball, square ball.
Speaker 2:No, I think dice should just go completely.
Speaker 1:That wasn't too bad.
Speaker 2:Failed that twice. Not a fan of the dice, no, no.
Speaker 3:It was slightly dicey, though, wasn't too bad. Failed that twice, not a fan of the dice.
Speaker 1:No, no, it was slightly dicey though, wasn't it?
Speaker 3:Hey, right, should we save more of this talk for when we have our special guest on we?
Speaker 1:should do, because we've got a bit more information to do for a different podcast. Oh yes, Sorry, right.
Speaker 2:So topic for today is a lot of people ask for this. Maybe our international listeners haven't asked for this, but if you're listening to this internationally, get yourself over to the uk, because we've got a great 3k series going on right now and this is the episode we're going to talk about, the nuclear wild forest 3k race, which is number. I'm thinking tartan warrior we've had, we've had um the rumble nuts 3k, yes. Number four, number four, yeah.
Speaker 1:And now, this is a change to the original schedule, because originally the original schedule was supposed to be Body Hub.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And sadly Daryl's packed that up and sent it all up to Scotland for Gavin and they did a quick turnaround and now we are at Nuclear.
Speaker 2:That is sad. I think we should give a shout out to say that, yeah, I hope he's. He's still doing fitness, isn't he down at the uh body hub?
Speaker 1:I think so yeah but, that's a real shame because we, we I think quite a lot of listeners, ourselves included we were really looking forward to body hub because we knew that was going to be. You know that was going to be a tough, grueling, exciting 3k, especially after the results that we had with the, the race, the normal race that we had last year in the series. It was, it was one of the highlights of the year last year and, yeah, very sad to see that go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, super, I think it just it highlights the importance for people to really back their training facilities and get there. I know we're all guilty of it as well, even us on this podcast. We don't do it enough and we should be supporting the community and get into these training centers when we can, because that's the only way they can stay open is if they've got the numbers there.
Speaker 2:So it is important to get to your training facilities and especially when they're close, and have a go on the obstacles and it's good training, it's good practice for you yeah, and I feel bad because I it was my first time a couple weeks ago that I went down to fit iq down at lou's um place down there I think it's where cook in cookham some some, something like that, I believe. But that was really good. It's nice to go down there to see what different obstacles she's got, because I know that there's so many different places we can go to know that the playground is like taking over. They've got so many different places now I think they're franchised out everywhere. I think shipley's gonna sneeze or he's just praying you're trying to get his voice back.
Speaker 1:I've got it, I, I've got it, I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 2:You're good to go Right, right. So let's go through a bit of an update on where are we in the old league, because I'm just on the website right now and I want to see in the females what is the top three.
Speaker 1:We've got Shy Karen and Pip.
Speaker 2:That's really hotting up. Yeah, the points are close.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Izzy Young, just in fourth place, valentina Ferrari, vicky Wheelhouse and how did you say that last name?
Speaker 2:Seventh Rabéa Hans.
Speaker 1:Rabéa, rabéa, rabéa.
Speaker 2:Sorry about that that yeah, that's a really good um. I'm glad that most people have done free races. Wow, they've got loads of uh female athletes that have done free races, so, yeah, everyone's things are heating up yeah, and pip is on a run. She is doing well yeah 3-3. Yeah, so yeah, let's see how that goes. And then the the male races.
Speaker 3:That's what we like to see.
Speaker 2:Finlay Greenleaf, number one, rumble Racing yep, then it's Ferg in second place. And then, oh no, sorry, ferg, yeah Ferg. Second, then we've got ramsay and third we've only got two races, yeah there we go two, right? Yeah, you're just looking at yourself, yeah. Yeah, I just like to uh put a warning out there for everyone. I'm coming for you. I've only got two races, so I'll be leaving it till the last race to go down a little second there, darren.
Speaker 1:Oh, there you are. I tell you what. Nothing makes me want to train more than seeing james burton, one point ahead of me he is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, finister, there's still a very good athlete contingent who have just done two races, so it is definitely going to come down to the wire. On what's the last race? Pt Barn. Yeah, that's right, that would be a great race down at PT Barn, but that's not what we're talking about, right now.
Speaker 1:No, but let's go into what we're talking about right now. No, but let's go into what we're talking about right now, okay.
Speaker 2:Every single person in OCR knows Nuclear. They're a very big household name. You've probably been down to Wild Forest, you have probably done some version of a time trial down there and, if you're very lucky, you would have done Nuclear Surge back in the day with Robin French. Andrew french did an amazing job there and that still, to this day, the best race.
Speaker 3:Well, one of the top 10 races in this country we've ever had, in my opinion, maybe top five, it was that good it was a good, good race, and we did um.
Speaker 2:I've got a picture to put up for this race. By the way, for the three of us, the first time we ever stepped foot on the start line together was actually at nuclear wild forest. I think it was a time trial, wasn't it? It was indeed yeah, do you remember what happened to me. You're back. Kept complaining about his back. And Mo kept going the wrong way.
Speaker 3:We've kind of gone full circle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're still Shipley's still complaining about his back.
Speaker 3:And I'm still getting lost, on course.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Darren had hair. I actually had hair.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 3:We're back. Wow, back to our old selves.
Speaker 2:We never left Right, so the course has changed slightly and that's obviously what we're going to go through. I think, um, in every episode we've done the 3k course walk or the accountability course walk, however we want to call it. We've gone through different parts of like what makes up this course. Um, I suppose let's go through, let's go through the, let's go through a course walk first and then let's fill in our card of like things to look out for, because this time around we're going to do this just with with us three. We usually have I just realized that we usually have someone in to help us with this but we've gone full, gone full, full throttle, and just done it because we're running out of time. Right, let's go first obstacle actually, before I start this, this doesn't start. This starts on the outside, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:it's not actually in the forest, it's kind of like outside a bit yeah, it's in the field, that's just just like next to it by the looks of it, the one that's quite close to the parking.
Speaker 2:Oh, so spectatability might be high for this. So we go to. The first obstacle is the Bataram, which is a balance obstacle. Balance, Balance got balance. Then the Berlin Walls, which is Agility. Is that agility? Is that grip strength?
Speaker 1:It's a bit of balance as well, get them feet planted.
Speaker 2:Then into cliffhanger, which is essentially a frame with a few holds in it to propel yourself over it, and this is all hitting you within, I'd say, the first hundred meters, and then you're going to go around to vertigo, which is a large, probably 12 foot wall with slats of like scaffolding boards that you can climb up. This actually, um, you need to jump. If you jump slightly on this obstacle, you can get quite.
Speaker 2:You can get halfway up it already yeah, you can make a lot of time by committing to a big jump yeah, and that I guess that they're just look, obviously we don't, we only have the website to go on at the minute. But looking at the um, the course that we've we've done in the past I would assume once you've done the cliffhanger A-frame, it's going to be about probably say, 200, 300-meter run to this vertigo. So you've just done pretty much mandatory-style obstacles.
Speaker 3:Then you've got the famous dirty handbags. If anyone's been to Nuclear, they know about the concrete blocks that you have to hold and that you get to the end of the race and your legs to nuclear. They know about the concrete blocks that you have to hold and that you get to the end of the race and your legs are cut to bits on the concrete, hitting the sides of you. Yeah, I've got a few cuts and bruises from them depends how long this is.
Speaker 2:This could be a bit of a burner on the hat, on the grip it's just one of them annoying ones, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Because it's not comfortable on the hands, it rubs on your legs and, yeah, you're right, depending on how long and how annoying that is going to last, for could change things up a little bit.
Speaker 2:And the attachment at the top of it moves, doesn't it? That spins around, so the grip moves constantly as you're carrying that.
Speaker 1:I've never noticed that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what makes them a bit more challenging. I think, oh, this is a bit nasty actually. Now Look at this. So you've got that, carry with the grip and then you're straight into your first hanging obstacle, the long rig.
Speaker 3:Be interesting to see what the distance is between that rig and the carry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just thinking. So if that is the case, you're going to do the. I reckon it's another 300 metres because you've been going down the road to the bottom bit, so I wouldn't say it's going to metres, because you've been going down the road to the bottom bit, so I wouldn't say it's going to be anything longer than 300 metre run after that. So you're quite, it's quite in and out of the minute. There isn't much.
Speaker 3:It's a lot. It's very obstacle dense.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But also very taxing obstacles, not necessarily grip taxing, but lung taxing, the sort of stuff that really gets you compromised what we got.
Speaker 3:Next ships steptoe and sun this could be more nuclear if it tried yeah, one of them annoying nuclear balancey fiddly like make you think, can make you do something really awkward that you've never done in your life before. And people that have you done it before will have a bit of an advantage here because they always know slight ways around and different ways to shortcut it slightly. But it's just you're going to be thinking what am I?
Speaker 2:doing you. This is the point where you're going to think I am slow, when you're not.
Speaker 3:It's just the obstacle makes you feel like you've never done obstacle course racing in your life you can kind of really lose your rhythm as well, because if you're, especially if you've flown quite nicely through the first half, you get to here, and if you are a bit fiddly, it kind of puts you in a panic mode. So you might overcook on the way out because you start running too quick, or you might end up thinking I need to try and do this quick, but actually you end up taxing your grip more because you start grabbing and pulling on stuff that you don't necessarily need to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're right, ships, you agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:He's trying to work out how he's going to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, here we go.
Speaker 1:Now we're into a proper obstacle, favourite obstacle. Yeah, the Weaver, the Weaver of Deceiver. But do you go over this or actually Weaver it, because nuclear always seem to mess up their uh rules on this one they've got it written down to alternate, going over and under in succession with the horizontal beam, so technically you should be doing it properly oh, there you go.
Speaker 2:A nice weaver.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think this one will be because they have the other one with the kind of black ladder that goes into it. So it'll be interesting to see if that's in this list. But this one is always kind of just alternate through weaving properly, which can be quite well very taxing.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what, though, because this is the metal weaver If this is a wet day, which it could still rain, this is actually really taxing and slippy, especially to grip hold of that?
Speaker 3:yeah, it can be. It can be quite difficult to, especially if you start picking up speed on the down. Yeah, because you just take one wrong slip and then you're hanging underneath and if it's slightly wet on the hands, you could end up off without even realising.
Speaker 2:And if you really, really overcook on this to try to get a place up, you might struggle on the next obstacle Phoenix Rising.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Stairway basically Basically stairway to heaven, but most of the time there's a pole on the top, isn't there? Yeah, so it's unlike stairway, where sometimes you have to make that awkward gap transition from the wood. It gets a little bit easier because you can use the pole at the top, but sometimes that throws people off and they kind of hit the pole too hard and start swinging a bit too much and can get swung off the wood so this is quite cool for for spectators at the minute, because you're pretty much going down the farmer's track, yeah and then straight back up the farmer's track on the outskirts of the forest.
Speaker 2:So it's all pretty much stuff you can see.
Speaker 1:And then you're straight into a balance beam, which means you're probably hearing oh no, still going up there, Still going up there, yeah, still going up.
Speaker 2:Then you've got nail biter. What's this?
Speaker 3:It's like that shimmy wall.
Speaker 2:It's another shirt.
Speaker 3:Yeah with the, but they've missed in a board in the middle. Okay, so you end up kind of trying to reach on one shimmy along and then try and catch yourself on the other side.
Speaker 3:yeah, that again can be just one that you just miss time there, or you or you think I'll just go for it quick, especially if you're 3k, because you're going to be working and you're going to be pushing hard on the obstacles. This is something that you can just make a little mistake on and it's quite a long obstacle in time duration, so starting again will cost you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then you're going. This quarter pipe is the next obstacle and that's right at the top of the field. So you literally have done almost like a downhill Down and back. But it is quite downhill, isn't it? It's a farmer's field, it's a farmer's track downhill. Now you're coming back up of it, up it. So if you've really gone full out at the beginning, you're going to probably feel it, if you're coming back up that hill, the quarter pipe be quite short. I don't think it's going to be that big.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's normally ropes on it, but you can do it without the ropes yeah, metal bars.
Speaker 2:This is usually a penalty, isn't it? So what's this is a carry where you got to pick up metal bars and put it above your head yeah, so you got a black bag, wouldn't you?
Speaker 1:yeah, just do a normal carry, that's a bit is it an overhead extension?
Speaker 2:yeah, but you can't, you can't police that, can you some people's? Yeah?
Speaker 3:but that's still. Yeah, it depends on how they really refine this in the rules. But that can be tough if people aren't used to that kind of, if they ain't got that overhead mobility no, it'll give us something new to train for, yeah, or play around with. I like it. They haven't just gone for the traditional carries, they've thought about just throwing a little bit of extra spice in there, because it'll throw people off. That haven't ever done it before.
Speaker 3:Oh, just thinking, after that, carry you're going straight into the traverse, so you must be running down to the lake from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you must be doing. That's quite a big run. That's like 800 metres.
Speaker 3:Well, I guess with the poles they can put them wherever they need to right, so they could put that close and there might be a big run from the quarter pipe so after the quarter pipe is your is your largest run you're going to do potentially depending on pole placement. Yeah, and then traverse.
Speaker 2:Get your traverse skills right, because I've seen a lot of those at the euros traversing also nuclear traverse.
Speaker 3:Pick one of the middle lanes. If you get caught on the outside lane you're getting smacked in the face with reeds. It's the worst thing in the world. We did it the british champs. Russ went in the middle lane. I went like two lanes across from him because I didn't want to be too close to him and then I was just doing reeds and it's so slow because you start hitting the reeds and then you get caught up and your basically back is basically in the water or in the reeds and it just slows you right down.
Speaker 3:It's a very long traverse, so tip is get there quick if you can and get. Get the lane you want. If you're, if someone's just ahead of you and you think I can probably burn a candle here to get in front of them, it might be worth it. Do you burn candles, not matches or matches? My candle burns all day now. I don't even have matches, I'm just top speed all the time. What?
Speaker 2:have we got next Kingfisher? I like the Kingfisher obstacle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's classic monkey bars, but with a twist.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and again it can be challenging if it's a little bit dewy or wet. Again, we found that the British champs that I don't know about you used to, I guess, darren, you weren't there, was you? But I actually found I had to double tap everything because I was really struggling just to swing.
Speaker 2:We start at 10, so it should be a really good time. It shouldn't be too bad. So traverse there's not much running between that to Kingfisher, and then you've got to run around to the rig, which this is actually. I would classify this as a mid-rig. This rig is so short that you can really scrape your foot on the floor if you're not careful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a challenging rig. It's quite.
Speaker 2:you know, depending on what they put on there, it is a challenging rig, so it's rings to rings, to a really thick rope, to a little rope, and those thick ropes are very like, not impossible to footlock, but you really need to just make sure you're being careful there yeah, it's one of them obstacles that really throws you out.
Speaker 2:You're breathing yeah, because you've got to hold yourself up quite tight, you've got to tense everything up your core and your and you've got to lock off right. So we've done that and now it's a rep bag carry.
Speaker 1:So that's good. We've got three carries already, 17 obstacles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this carry is going to be straight after that obstacle, I assume.
Speaker 3:And they can make this quite long because there's quite a big chunk of field there that they could utilize, so this could end up being quite a big. Obviously, they've only got 3K to play with, but yeah. They could really make this nasty if they wanted to.
Speaker 2:So we we've kind of like gone on the outskirts of the forest and we're, we've gone around the forest and we're still on the outskirts. Now we're about to head into it, because we all know this run to be, this run up to the low rig is always uphill bit of a slog, and you know especially after that, especially after that mid rig, it is a slog.
Speaker 1:It is putting a bit of time in. You're running hard, you go into that low, that mid rig. You've put a bit of effort in, you've constricted yourself so your breathing's out and then you've got to put a little push in to go up the hill towards the next rig, which is the infamous low rig wonder it really, really depends on the configuration of this low rig if it's difficult or not, because nuclear can do extremely hard low rigs or they can do extremely easy low rigs.
Speaker 2:I haven't, I don't tend to get a middle ground rig, but I suppose you had that the brit British Champs, didn't you? Yeah, I'd say that was hard.
Speaker 3:Well, it was easy if you could lock a rope and you had a bit of technique about you, but it could be made a lot harder if you weren't very good at your rope skills. So that was probably a middle ground doable for everyone, but you kind of needed a little bit of technique yeah, and it, I would say it once you've done that rep bag, carry up to this low rig.
Speaker 2:This is when you've got a. You got to burn that candle. Yeah, get your candle burning. Yeah, because after low rig it's just a rope climb. Oh, you're pretty much running in the forest and straight out, so you do your rope climb and then it's finish line.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, I thought they would use a lot more going on there.
Speaker 3:No, you've got so many more obstacles in that section that they could use as well.
Speaker 2:What a shame. This isn't wild forest, this is no forest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not going to lie, that end of the course has really thrown me off. I actually thought, yeah, we're gonna come out low rig and at least go through. Do the jump course, do that other rig that they've got in there, we've got. So we've got the wonka bars the most classic put in there and you've got that whole course that goes around yeah, so you've gone the outskirts of the forest and run through it.
Speaker 3:You haven't, actually haven't done nuclear wild forest this is gonna be a really fast race yeah, it is now there's only one obstacle that's really going to trip you up loads, which is probably going to be the low rig and potentially the kind of mid rig, depending on how they do it. Yeah, let's, let's go short, so it's not quick, it's not long in time, so you're not going to spend time on it, you're just going to maybe making mistakes.
Speaker 2:So this is going to be potentially the fastest course we've had all year yeah, let's build our card because we have, we've got things to build upon so we can talk through. Now we've gone through the courses. Terrain, we've got strength component components, number of obstacles, speed of the course, weather risks, skills to learn and spectator ability. So terrain, I don't well. You, you guys go, I've got my opinion on terrain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, originally I would have said that it would have been a really good mix, but after that last section not being in it, I think it kind of just turns it down to one one sort of terrain.
Speaker 3:You've got a bit of grass and a hard track and I imagine it's not going to be the muddy nuclear we used to. It's going to be quite dry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've had quite a lot of rain yeah well, even even if it rained at the moment, I think we've had enough heat for it. Just not stick to be okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I actually think them fields that field drains quite well, not as it's, not as it doesn't get as muddy as some of the other fields I have you don't even need any lugs for this course no, I wouldn't say so.
Speaker 1:I think you just need something that's going to be stable enough because it could be a bit a bit turny in places, because it can get that way. But yeah, I don't think you need any lugs, I don't think. I think this is almost like a, a fast shoe. You want something that's going to propel you forward, give you a bit of speed.
Speaker 2:This is a great. I tell you what. I know that maybe they haven't used all the nuclear that we're used to, but this is actually quite what you need a bit of diversity. This is a fast. This is like your fastest course you've ever seen, terrain-wise.
Speaker 3:But you still need to be okay on obstacles. You can't just be a runner for this. You need to have a bit of obstacle skill about you. But also it's not so much obstacle skill where it's really really technical. It's a bit of a surprise, I think. I think you can probably hear in our voices we're a little bit surprised because it's nuclear and because they do have so much they can use. So the fact they've simpled this down a little bit there might be clear reasons behind that as well, like they might have other things going on that day. I know they use the wild forest a lot for like other things and, to be fair to them, they haven't had much turnaround time. They've been roped in last minute. So for them to just hold a course is good, but actually I quite like something different. This is going to be fast, it's going to be demanding, especially on the lungs. I think it's going to make for a good race you are, you're going to need what we miss ships.
Speaker 2:We were talking about the euros, which actually is what makes you a good obstacle course racer is we've said that the most important thing these days is in and out of obstacles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is this course yeah, the only downside being on this one is that those nuclear obstacles, for anyone who hasn't been and trained on them, are very fiddly if you haven't been on them a lot. Even even the agility ones or the ones where you've got to use a traverse skill and put your feet into the holds, they're nothing like any other obstacle on the market. They've all got their unusual placements of distance timing. It's all a bit higgity-piggity.
Speaker 2:Are we saying that this is the first one that has no terrain effect?
Speaker 3:I say it's bubbly, it's not on like the road like it is.
Speaker 1:It is bubbly, you got to watch for your ankles and there is elevation. Yeah, and you've got elevation. And what's the opposite to elevation? The elevation declaration decline, decline. You've got decline, incline, so there is terrain effect.
Speaker 2:Do you think? I think the one place that isn't a hill but Feels like a hill is going to be when you get off that mid rig to the low rig.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that feels more of a hill than a hill. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's kind of like that, that rumble hill, isn't it that we tried to describe it like that?
Speaker 3:that uh hill effect it feels worse than it is but to be honest, on this course that might be nice to kind of tone you down a little bit for the low rig, because you kind of can play it safe a little bit there, because then you know, if you stick that low rig all you've got to do is run. Obviously you've got a rope climb, but for most people nowadays in this sport of OCR, most people can do rope climbs, so that's not necessarily going to be an obstacle that anyone's failing. So as soon as you come off that low rig, your only thing you need to be thinking is I need to run and I need to run faster than I've ever run before yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, there's, I'll get that. It says there is terrain effect, but not as not, not like when we said about tartan warrior, like there was hill reps, there's water, there's mud, there's a, there's less, there's less. Uh diversitiesities. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think this is the biggest course to see the potential for like an actual sprint finish and it's actually two people sprinting and going at it. We never really get that in OCR.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's why they've done it like this. You can have a lot more people in the course.
Speaker 3:I wonder how many.
Speaker 2:There's not going to be queues. Yeah Right, strength components.
Speaker 1:There's quite a few of them.
Speaker 2:What ones have we got? There's three carries, three carries, yeah, maybe four how much do these dirty handbags weigh, these concrete blocks? About 10kg each.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can't be far off that yeah.
Speaker 2:So if you're used to carrying 10kg dumbbells around but these ones move around a lot and then you've got the bar the metal bar. Metal bar that can be quite fatiguing on the shoulders.
Speaker 1:Well, if you've got to carry it above your head, that's a very unusual carry.
Speaker 3:It's kind of like a prison torture carry that feels like carrying that above your head and then bars look rusty. Make sure you get your injections. What's it called your tetanus shots? Make sure you get your injections. What's it called your?
Speaker 2:tetanus shots. And then I'd love to know how long the rep bag is going to be, but I'm going to assume it's going to be long, because that can go up that path quite a bit, can't it? That'd be really good.
Speaker 3:I think they've got to make some time up here, because that doesn't necessarily feel like 3K.
Speaker 1:It feels short now. Yeah, Unless they're just toying with us and you are going to just run around that course.
Speaker 3:I'm also not sure where the start finish is. Have we had a clearer picture where that's going?
Speaker 2:to be. It's near the. It's near the car park. Yeah, so the car park is just to the right of the finish line here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's going is just to the right of the finish line here. Yeah, so that's gonna be a quick finish. Yeah, that's gonna be, we're gonna. It's gonna be in the teens. I think my predictions would be 16 potentially yeah, fast course.
Speaker 2:Right number of obstacles? We only have. How many? We've got 19, that is almost 10 less than we've usually had yeah, it's a very short obstacle list.
Speaker 1:Usually we expect to see somewhere on the lines of about 30 obstacles for a 3k course, which again is a bit of a disappointment, being that this is going to be body hubs replacement, where you would have had somewhere maybe plus 30 obstacles yeah, yeah it's, it's a replaced body hub on the circuit, but it's not replaced the same fill you was going to get from body hub.
Speaker 2:No, it's given that nuclear star. Well, yeah, it is given nuclear star. We could have had two. There's at least two more decent rigs in that forest which you actually run past to get to the rope I don't think, though, we've got a race like this, so it is giving a different style.
Speaker 3:It's not quite the replacement style, but I say, to be fair to nuclear, and I'll give them their credit. They are. This was quite a quick turnaround, it was last minute. I'm jumping in here, so you can only thank them really for stepping in when they did.
Speaker 2:And they've got a website.
Speaker 3:And yeah, it's the most professional, one of the most professionals we've seen. We've had, obviously, rule books and stuff as well and things in the past, but this is the fact that we can see all the obstacles quite detailed it's quite nice.
Speaker 2:I like this One thing to say about this rope climb is it moves a lot. You guys have done this. It moves, doesn't it?
Speaker 1:it's not it's on a rope, it's on a rope.
Speaker 2:It's a rope, the rope's on a rope, not a soap on a rope a rope on a rope okay, so number of obstacles. We know it's going to be lighter than usual, so that means that the next one speed of the course fast, fast, fast yeah the only thing that will slow you down is one rig, which is the fiddly one. Is there two fiddly ones?
Speaker 1:I reckon the rope traverse may slow you down quite a bit. It's quite long, well, unless they do only half of it or something and the balance beam will slow you right down. Yeah, it's probably one of the hardest balance beams in the world.
Speaker 3:That would definitely catch some people out yeah, it's a long balance beam. I think there's going to be some surprises. I think, because it's quite simplistic in its nature, it's going to throw a lot of people off because people are going to gun it and people are going to fall off things that have never fallen off before, just through pure exhaustion.
Speaker 2:So what's the biggest? So let's talk about weather, because I think, I know that we've had like a heat wave at the minute and if it stays dry, this is going to be super fast. But if it does rain, these nuclear obstacles are quite slippy yeah, it slows things down a lot.
Speaker 3:I still think it keeps it quite quick. I don't think there's anything that's going to be too taxing in the wet, um, but there's a couple of things that might throw you off, especially their rigs, sometimes their attachments and things in the rain can get just that little bit slick, um. But I don't think there's it's going to be that maybe that long rig and potentially the rig and the weaver what about the low rig in the wet?
Speaker 3:that's always quite I guess it depends how they do it. If there's lots of footholds and lots of places to put your feet, you'll be fine, but if it's quite upper body based, then, yeah, that's going to be really tough.
Speaker 2:It's the end of July, we're going to assume it's going to be hot, so it's going to be fast yeah it should be okay, yeah. Well, what's the next one? We've got Risks.
Speaker 1:Is there any risks with this? I think you're going to have to try and take risks on this one, because the only way that you're going to get ahead is if you don't try and actively move forward fast on those fiddly rigs. And that is a big risk. They're so fiddly that if you're not trying to attack them, you could just completely mess it up and then just be swinging around like a swinging swinger.
Speaker 2:I don't think this is a course where you need to conserve any energy.
Speaker 3:No, I'd agree, but I also think, with all the mandatory obstacles at the start, that first half is going to be quite compromised. So you actually might want to wait until you're through all of them walls to really get on the gas. What?
Speaker 2:point. Do you reckon?
Speaker 1:You get on the gas after this. I'd say Weaver.
Speaker 2:Weaver.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What's that obstacle?
Speaker 1:number eight I'd say Weaver's, where you start putting the.
Speaker 2:You're nearly halfway through the obstacles.
Speaker 1:Or maybe the carry then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you could almost build into it, so you can start not slow, but just under kind of a real quick effort yeah we'll go for fresh.
Speaker 3:Just under fresh hold and I think this could be a nice build because there's nothing too scary when it comes to obstacles. Like you're, you've got a lot of chance. It's not one. If I was approaching this race, I'm not looking at the map, thinking, oh, I need to be wary of that, I need to be aware of that. Maybe the low rig again, but you can probably take a little bit of a rest on that run after the mid rig.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're right. Nothing's going to catch you out physically if you've been doing your training. There's nothing If you've been training well enough in obstacles. All of these are very much doable. The biggest risk is going to be, I think, not going out hard enough. See, I think blowing up. I think the opposite. You're the opposite.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go with Mo. Yeah, I think blowing up is a big risk, but then again this could be quite short. So if you've put enough training in, in, even if you do hit off too hard, you have opportunity to get yourself back into the game and push for that last finish.
Speaker 3:so I think you're both right yeah, I think the winner is the person with the biggest compromised engine yeah, the one who's pushed the hardest. Yeah, someone who can push someone that can push hard and keep on the gas, and then it's going to be someone that hasn't made a mistake.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what it comes back to, that that saying that we've said before it's the person who can make the decisions at the end of the race. That person would have had to be paid like training really hard and being able to maintain that hard effort for a long amount of time to make them decisions towards the end of the race to decide whether I've put in too much of an effort or I haven't put in too much of an effort, and then decide at the time whether they've got enough to go further or not enough to hold back.
Speaker 3:It's the person that's got the little bit of juice left after the low rig.
Speaker 2:There's nothing splitting up the field here I can see until the long rig. The first rig might split the field, but up until that, which is down the bottom of the field, you're all going to be running side by side with one another. Yeah, you're going to get, and that's where the blow-ups are going to be, running side by side with one another.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're going to get, and that's where the blow ups are going to happen. Because people, as soon as they hear that gun we've seen it, we've seen it in nuclear before the British champs was mental, like some people went off crazy hard and for literally no reason, there was a ditch right in front of us and I think the same thing is going to happen. People are going to everyone's going to look at this and have a very similar opinion of us. If they can do most obstacles, they're going to think these obstacles are pretty okay. So everyone's going to be thinking I need to work hard on my running and if everyone's thinking that, that's a recipe for disaster.
Speaker 2:Blow up city, I Blow up city, I reckon blow up city.
Speaker 3:Unless they've listened to this podcast and then everyone's going to go out really slow and the person that risks it all is going to win, maybe a nuclear explosion.
Speaker 2:What skills. This is always one that's interesting skills to learn because there's always something that come pops out that's different.
Speaker 1:But I think there's only one skill you need to learn that's new is now the only one thing you might want to practice on this course that's out of the ordinary is just running with something above your head yeah, the carry yeah, that's you know.
Speaker 1:That's only one thing. That's a new skill you gotta learn. I think everything else in your tool bag is going to be shown on this course. You got your traverses, you got your your obstacles. That are going to be like they're just normal skills that you would have developed already. So there's nothing new that you got to work on.
Speaker 2:You just got to keep everything up to date you only if you're being really like trying to pick something. The only thing I could say is the mid rig, like if people haven't practiced like keeping that core up engaged, maybe that is a is a skill to learn, but I suppose most people have learned that.
Speaker 3:So I think rope traverse as well. If you're not good at rope traversing, it's quite a long one and I think actually you can make time there if you're a good, or if you're good on a rope traverse and probably the weaver is the same. If you're good at rope traverse and good at weaver, I think you could make a lot of time and I think it's going to come down to seconds on this course, so you need to make time wherever you can it's seen a lot of uh rope traverses over the European Championships and I tell you what that is a skill people need to learn to be quicker at, be very long, very stretched out.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of people that are still tensed up quite, quite close together. Let their bodies sag too much. Just stay on.
Speaker 1:The stay as close to the rope as possible at all times and you know if, if you suffer from rope burns, you know, don't be silly, put some protection on. Yeah, I mean I, I when I train. What do I use when I train on my left leg?
Speaker 2:little shin pad, didn't you?
Speaker 1:yeah, I put a little shin pad thing on and it works. It keeps the rope burnt because obviously when you're training, doing ocr run, you're doing quite a lot of them. So I put a little. What was it? It was just like a strap that I bought to suffer from my shin splints, but it's quite thick and it's good. It keeps things off. But you can do the same with calf thingy, my bobbies, just something to protect your legs. Yeah, gives you that bit of extra protection. You could slide your feet rather than just trying to graze them across what about spectator ability?
Speaker 1:well, I think it should be good, but the only downside being is it's quite open and quite around, so you've got all over. Wow, I suppose the first section's up and down, but then it goes to the very far left, so you would would have to walk, so following may be a bit tricky. But if you're down in one spot, I mean the finish is going to be a bit. Where are you going to watch that? You're going to have to go through the forest, so you're not going to see much of the finish, which would have probably been the most exciting part of the race.
Speaker 1:You know, maybe if they'd done this the opposite, way around yeah yeah, I that may have been better because then the the real sort of fight for the end would have had the spectator ability to actually make it quite fun to watch yeah, if you're at that low rig, you're not missing, you're not seeing the finish, or if you're at the finish, you're not seeing the low rig.
Speaker 3:And I think that's where news and thing, that's where the most controversy is going to happen, which is normally the most exciting part to watch. You'll get a lot of the start and you will be able to make it over to the low rig if you need to, if you want to see that part of the race, um. But you're gonna have to pick and choose what you want to see. There is stuff you can see and it's quite easy. It won't be as good as tartan warrior, where you can literally see predominantly everything, but it might be better than potentially nuts, um, where you could see still quite a bit.
Speaker 2:But you're gonna have to decide what you want to see yeah, you're, you're gonna see the first, um say 2k, one and a half k, of this race and then, and then it's just gonna be like uh, who's?
Speaker 1:gonna come out yeah maybe that's exciting.
Speaker 2:Who's coming, coming out of the forest?
Speaker 1:It will be a bit of a mystery, yeah, to see who's actually on top and who's made that effort. Yeah, so spectator ability on the side of seeing everything, we're going to probably go on the lower side of the score, but in terms of what you might see, you can still see quite a bit if you get yourself into the right spots.
Speaker 3:I think it's in the right, like in the middle. Yeah, it's not the worst we've had. It's not the best. Could could be better, but not. Yeah, there's room for improvement, which is always a good sign, and they can build from this.
Speaker 2:What else? Have we got Any extra tips?
Speaker 1:we should go through for a nuclear course, learn fiddly Fiddly stuff. How many years have we all been doing nuclear?
Speaker 3:And how often do we get annoyed at how fiddly some of them obstacles are. The thing is, they're so specific as well. It's really hard to train unless you train there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dave in the barn sometimes puts fiddly stuff in and you're like, no, I'm not doing it, not standing on that rope while it moves and twists me around while I try to grab a chain, then go and stand on another silly rope and then it's twisted chain. I just look stupid.
Speaker 3:To be fair, that step toe one is probably their better out of all of their fiddly. Then it's to twist the chain. I just look stupid. To be fair, that step toe one is probably they're better out of all of their fiddly obstacles. It's probably a better one.
Speaker 2:That flow is a bit nicer just don't even know how you meant to complete it and what you meant to do there I think that's the most simplest one to complete.
Speaker 3:You just got to start on that log and then finish with a foot on that other log.
Speaker 2:Nothing's more frustrating than that hexagon thing.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah when they need a bell on that yeah, I know, because where do you jump off?
Speaker 2:you just jump. I'll just jump off here, all right go?
Speaker 3:yeah, that always confuses me. I'm like can I jump through the middle? Can I do? I have to go around the outside. Am I allowed to touch the chain, like, like it was always.
Speaker 2:Can I just jump off now?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I also um biggest uh update on this one. Obviously, this episode comes out on Saturday and I think there's the tickets finish on the 8th of July, so we need to.
Speaker 1:You need to get your tickets in as soon as possible if you're thinking of going yeah, because then that only gives you a couple of weeks, because if it's on the 16th and then ticket sales finish, no, it's not on the 16th we're doing other things on the 20th. I'm in wedding mode 27th of July.
Speaker 2:This course is at 10 o'clock, so let's go through their location, wild forest, which is in essex. Course registration and walk course. Do they?
Speaker 1:I actually don't know if you can test course is there gonna be free practice? There should be 19 free practice. If they don't have free practice on this one, it'd be the only race so far where we haven't had free practice on the course yeah, maybe I think, this one.
Speaker 3:I think this one would be good for it, just because sometimes there can be a bit of training bias not all like they're pretty good for, like the british champs and stuff for stopping people going on. But, like we say, it's more than fiddly obstacles and the obstacles you might not have seen before. That it does make a difference if you've trained them. And I guess that's the battle we've had all season with training centers, and that's why the testing's been nice, because it just levels the playing field a little bit, because most of these free k's are at training centers so they're always lean towards their athletes and their athletes always do well, naturally, because it's where they train. But yeah, so a bit of free practice would be nice, but it'd be interesting to see if that's going to be the case. By the looks of this list, probably not.
Speaker 2:Now what we got? We got junior races. So it's 10 am start for races and then 10.15 for anyone in the open categories.
Speaker 1:Um he, actually does have showers. So that's yeah, free parking always good love free parking and then you go past, go collect 200 quid yeah, and if you get the podium, you know.
Speaker 2:You know you need to practice your champagne spray or non-alcoholic prosecco. Anything else you want to talk about this course? What other bits of advice chips? You've ran this multiple times um, any advice?
Speaker 1:the best bit of advice I've got for this is you need to train, you need to be in good condition for this. I think we're at that point in the season anyway. We've just had the european championships, so everyone's in either a pretty good steed or, you know, they should be taking a bit of recovery now. But I reckon there should be some sharp people for this race and if the people come down that should come down for it, then you're up for a good, a good battle with people, women's and males nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think, all in all, this is going to be a really good race, actually, I think. Yes, it is a little bit simpler than we've seen. I think that's just because we've also got quite a bit to compare it to now, um, and it is going to be fast, but I think it's going to add something quite different to the 3k series that we haven't quite seen yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to allow the people who aren't specialists to do what like the people who are just actually fit at the moment to do well, as opposed to the people who are good at a particular kind of skill?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean the free case gets dominated a lot by the obstacle specialists. I mean, we've said, we read out the, the list of um, kind of who's where in the standings and ramunas, and don't get me wrong, he's a great athlete and he's a, but he is really good at obstacles, his running's good, but it's not as good as some of the people that are behind him. Um, with the same amount of races. So yeah, I think we've seen that this has favored really good obstacle technicians, which it will do. It's a 3k, but I think this race blows that all open. And I don't get me wrong, I still feel ramunis could do really well on this course because he's very good at these sort of bent armed obstacles as well, and you know he's not going to make a mistake um, but yeah, this is uh, this is going to change the points around, definitely round?
Speaker 2:definitely, yeah, we're just waiting to see who turns up. I guess that's. There's a lot of people with three races on their on their belt already. If they turn up, they get this as a fourth, and they have to. They get to stay at the top for a bit, until the last few races. That's why I like the idea of this is that it can all change until the last minute, until that last race, or someone can snap it up early if they've done an outstanding season. So, like Finn, what's? He got Two wins and he's had a podium.
Speaker 1:Every one hasn't he yeah, two wins. Oh no, sorry, Apart from the A bit of a shocker, didn't he?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So even that leaves it open.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're still. I mean, don't forget, don't count Russ out. I don't know where he is in the standings right now, but we're still early on and he's. Yes, he had a bit of a mistake at Rumble. I think that's what's cost him a bit here, but you at Rumble, and I think that's what's cost him a bit here. But you think he's already got one podium, like a win at Tartan Warrior. So all it takes is for a couple of more races and a couple of more wins and he's right back against Finn. What about the?
Speaker 2:females. Yeah, and that's what I was going to say. There's someone who's kind of running away with it a little bit, is shy.
Speaker 1:I tell you who's kind of running away of it a little bit is shy. I tell you who's going to do really really well at this course.
Speaker 2:What Izzy?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's fast, so fast. I mean we saw it before on the Rumble race how much ground she got back after them heavy carries. She basically overtook two people. That is some serious foot speed.
Speaker 2:I'd like to see what Tamar can do on this course as well, given it's home ground, Local course, knows the terrain able to put the time and the effort in.
Speaker 2:I'd love to see Libby come down and give it a go, libby versus Izzy the young athletes coming out to race each other That'd be great. There's lots of people that have done a race. It's amazing to see that there's over 40- like 40 odd females that have done a 3k race at least one. And how many we got that have done at least two 12. Yeah, it's a lot of people. What's the teams looking like? I love that. It's all updated, hopefully. So look at overall standings. What is the team?
Speaker 3:oh, look at that, oh, look at that yeah, I mean, we're not biased at all. No, but the best team is winning, so it makes sense really we've got rumble, fit body farm and then nuclear wild forest.
Speaker 2:So I do you know, do you know what I hope that this 3k one day turns into is kind's kind of like, you know, in football you go to your home ground and you're battling against your rival Because we go to Rumble, we go to Fit Body Farm, we go into Nuclear Wild Forest. It's an away game or a home game. It's going to be quite exciting. And then you've got PT Barn at 4th. So all the places that we're going to. It's a shame we don't have nuts anymore as a team. Are they still about? Oh yeah, team nuts ninth. Yeah, imagine one day all of these, all these teams, having their own training grounds that you go to, you compete I mean, I feel like that's another thing with the 3k because they're at training centers.
Speaker 3:It does feel a little bit like that. But when you go to these away events it does almost feel like you are the enemy and you're coming to prove a point, like I bet there was people coming to. Well, I felt as a rumble racer going to tartan warrior, but people coming to us at rumble and wanting to like, try and beat us at our own course. I think there's something quite fun about that in these free k's and it creates something a little bit different that some of the other series don't quite do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course, I'm sure Scotty would love all of his PT barn races that he coaches in the team to do amazingly well when it comes to the PT barn. But it's all friendly rivalry. That's what I like about it. Yeah, it's good. We need the playground to have a team, don't we? They're not in here and them to have one. That'd be quite good.
Speaker 1:Well, it's all stepping stones to the future. It is indeed. You know, we're like sticks.
Speaker 2:We're what we're like on the strength and honour. Ok, right, do you think we've done a good job running down the 3K Nuclear Wild Forest course on the 27th of July?
Speaker 1:I think we have. It's been quite nice, although we haven't had a guest on this one. It's been quite nice to chat out just between the three of us with an outside. Look into it from the yeah, outside exactly that chips, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think people noticed that we don't have anyone on this one today, but I think it was just done at last minute. Euros finished, that's a wanted to get this out for the audience. Here are our thoughts and how we would race this. Uh race. How are you guys making a pledge?
Speaker 1:what, oh we're?
Speaker 3:making a pledge. What's the pledge? Now, we've missed one episode this year, but from now on, for the rest of the year at least, like it's like a one strike thing, like we can't miss anymore.
Speaker 1:Okay no more oh, what strength, strength, what was that?
Speaker 2:what, what we have mo, what we have asked people at the euros if they want merch and hats were very, were very popular so I want, I want a hat yeah, I've been asked no, not yet.
Speaker 3:Oh, we're gonna do it I'm holding your patagonia, hosting until I get my hat.
Speaker 2:We've handed out all the hats. We're handed out that. Yeah, sorry about that so we don't get that patagonia. We have a website that people don't go to, but we used to have merch. But I'll tell you what we are asked. Ask on Instagram, let us know, audience, if you do want merch like hats, like little bits and pieces we can then sort it out and organise it. Yeah, because I think that was quite good. We were actually talking about nice race singlets because I'll tell you what I'd love a nice race singlet.
Speaker 3:I'd love a hat.
Speaker 2:I'd love a hat. Okay, just a hat.
Speaker 1:After the wedding I'll get back on. I'll order some more.
Speaker 2:He was meant to do t-shirts.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's why you haven't got a hat. I've made t-shirts.
Speaker 2:They're on the website.
Speaker 3:It's not my fault if no one purchases them. So, guys, if you want to save my arse, go buy a t-shirt they can't anymore. It's taken down. Don't buy a t-shirt. They're not there anymore. But if you want a t-shirt, contact me and I'll direct you to Darren who will direct you to yeah well, no one on that note.
Speaker 2:Just become a Patreon, support us and maybe we'll hand out some hats now and again. And also, well, it goes towards celebrating the awards at the 3k races. Obviously we've sponsored the 3k. Give it a nice little backdrop. We've given nice little champagne sprays. They've been successful.
Speaker 3:So hopefully nuclear, let us do that yeah, I mean, everything we get out of this sort of stuff goes directly back into the podcast, so it all just helps us grow this and put into the sport, and so yeah, if you can feel free.
Speaker 2:And if you want to sponsor us more, we'll then start sponsoring athletes. How about that? We talked about that. I think we should start looking at sponsoring athletes like ourselves or you, Mo.
Speaker 1:It'll definitely not be me. I just need something to wear on the podium yeah, okay, all right, just a hat okay we just give me a hat.
Speaker 1:I just want something on the podium, but it is true, like what darren has just said there, that we are looking to grow this sport and the athletes that are doing so well in in the uk, and we can't actually do that without the support of the community, because the community helps us support the athletes. So that's what we need. We need to all stick together, join forces and help promote OCR in a positive way. Like sticks, like sticks One stick is weak, but many sticks is strong and on that note.
Speaker 2:See you on the 27th of july.
