Not an email you expect to get on a Saturday night, but that’s what landed in the Sole Cycling Inbox this evening.

For Christmas Mrs M bought me a place at the Forest Ninja obstacle race event in the Forest of Dean, for a bit of fun, and something to get me away from the seriousness of racing.

So it turns out that it’s an event for first timers to practice some obstacles and then do a timed go at a simple short course, which was great fun, probably 3 or  4km long with around 12-15 obstacles in it. I had no idea, but it turned out that the fastest Ninja of the day got an entry into the full 10km version the next day!

As I sit here having breakfast with sore shoulders, hands, legs and anything else that got banged, scraped, electrocuted or just abused in a way that it hasn’t before, it seems like a terrible idea to go and do it all again, but longer, and with a full submersion in the river to boot…but, it’s another adventure and another way to get my 2 and 3 year old out into the fresh air and rolling in the mud, so cup of tea, big bowl of porridge and here we go…so much for a way to take my mind off racing 😁

Anyone looking for a chilled out event, great people to chat to and people of all shapes and sizes to compete or complete with, have a look at Obstacle Course Races, lots of them around, and I can recommend the Trimax Forest Ninja for starters!

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