True Grit NSW Race Recap
1 JUNE 2019
Reasons I entered this race:
- I had never raced a True Grit before (minus the Night Attack stadium race in Adelaide 2016);
- I was curious as to what Enduro racers go through, the race being one lap of the Enduro course;
- I had an extremely painful and confidence sucking last race due to foot and tendon injuries and a I wanted to regain some race confidence; and
- I wanted to do something fresh and see how I went on a course with unknown obstacles.
I am not going to lie, I was anxious about this race because my last race I was injured and every second was super painful. I had nightmares the week before the race. Standard racing nightmares including that I missed the start because I got the start time wrong and that there were some crazy obstacles I couldn’t do. I could not find a set of rules anywhere and the obstacles all had code names instead of being called “monkey bars” or “multi-rig”. My level of anxiety was not proportionate to the significance of the race. It is not a qualifier for anything and is not part of a series. I took this as a good sign I needed to do this race to get rid of this anxiety and have normal dreams at night again.
Turned out there was no reason to be anxious. True Grit has real community vibes. The festival area was really relaxed and True Grit staff were all friendly. During my warm up at Dargle Farm I ran some of the first part of the course and was amazed at how much single trail there was. I had imagined it would be all running in the open valley on exposed grass. The race briefing was at 8:20 and the race started on time at 8:30am exactly.
Race review
The pace at the start was super fast (I still can’t quite work out why we start so fast in OCR races compared to what would happen in an equivalent distance trail race) with a section of dirt fire trail going down and up a small hill with three short walls on top (The Vaults). There was a large amount of dust kicked up here and it was hard to see. Then there was a barbed wire crawl (Commando Crawl) and A frame cargo followed by a sharp right turn onto single trail.
The course packed in the obstacles at even intervals, and if you get bored by running, you will really like True Grit because there is never much running without a True Grit or natural obstacle in the way. The single trail was always delightfully techy with steep ascents, steep descents, plenty of rocks, eucalypt coverage, fallen trees and dirt.
The next series of obstacles were all drags and carries. The first was a double tyre drag (Tyre Tread) where two tyres are joined and there is a short rope handle to use to drag the tyres. One thing to note about True Grit is that there is one weight for the carries, females do not get a lighter weight like in Spartan races, which is something to note when preparing if you are a female elite who struggles with carries already. The tyre drag was quite slow going, I definitely could not get a run on.
From memory there was more single track then the Ammo carry which is carrying two 10-12kg ammo containers up a really steep and techy single trail and back down. The challenge here was the terrain and the awkwardness of the two metal containers. Throughout the single trail there were a number of climbs up sandstone which True Grit counted as obstacles and this was a good use of natural terrain.
The next carry was another farmers carry with two oil containers. The dam water crossing was the next and with colder than expected water up to my shoulders initially took my breath away. Living in a cold climate I am used to super cold water but I had not been expecting cold water here. On exiting I enjoyed a few mins of numb running and tried to take advantage by increasing leg turnover. This was about the half way point and I was having fun.
Running continued through some bushland followed by a few different obstacles. Jungle Vine involved navigating about 20m of thick twine laid across the path at a variety of different angles. This was an easy obstacle if you just stay as low as possible and continue straight down your line of sight. There was also Low Wire Entanglement which involved crawling beneath barbed wire but on top of tyres. A larger expanse of running on more open grass followed and then we came to an obstacle (Vertical Limit/Muscle Up??) that was a high wall which you had to traverse using three rope grips positioned vertically. I was fine using my upper body to get up the grips but there was a particularly large dyno to get to the top lip of the wall so I was hanging there for about 30secs before I realized you are allowed to put your feet on the top of the rope grips. Suddenly obstacle was easy. I will save a lot of time next True Grit race when I am familiar with the obstacles. Beautiful single trail followed including a maneuver though crevasses in large sandstone rocks. Muddy mile was dry but the pocketed ground meant you still needed to be careful with foot placement. The sandbag carry was next, which was up a very steep hill. Sandbag probably weighed 16-20kg.
Coming back close to the festival area were balance beams which crossed the river. The man running in front of me went of course here following the firetrail instead of verging off where the cone was. I yelled at him and he quickly came back. After the river crossing there was a 7 foot wall, rope climb, then monkey bars across the river. If you can do Spartan monkey bars you will be fine on these. Every second bar had grip tape and they are standard width and distance apart, much easier than scaffolding monkey bars you find at Spartan.
We then got to run on more single trail where I overtook a couple of men after being bushwhacked with a few sticks and overhanging branches. The obstacles to the finish slowed me right down. I was quick on the torsion bar crawl but straight after was what looked like a 10 foot wall. It was at least 9 foot anyway. I had a massive run up on my first attempt but didn’t quite make it. Second attempt was successful. Then there was a Tyrolean traverse over the river. The rope swung side to side which was offputting but I was glad to be wearing long tights so did not get any calf burn. There was then a multi rig with rings and ropes and a net complex to the finish line.
Placing first female was great, but the better feeling was being able to race without an injury and be limited only by my lungs and fitness. I left the weekend feeling happy, with racing confidence in one piece and ready to get into a big training block. The True Grit NSW venue is quite special (despite the lack of mountains) because of the use of bush, single trail and natural sandstone obstacles and the fact the course design makes the most of the venue. What a special place to hold the World Enduro 24 Hour Championships. Good luck to everyone in the OCR community participating in Enduro this weekend.
