May 22, 2022

True Grit SA Race Recap 2022

14 May 2022

Despite growing up in South Australia and living in Adelaide in 2020 I had never raced the SA True Grit course at Caudo Vineyard. My main reason for not making it up to the Murray to compete was my understanding that the course was flat and boring. Fast forward to 2022, a year where I spent February and March with a broken foot unable to run, missing out on Spartan Bright, Buffalo Stampede and Kunanyi. Starting the return to run process in April I was stoked to be able to run again let alone race. Finally I would have the opportunity to race True Grit in South Australia. The course was the opposite of flat and boring.

The race

True Grit races are all 10km (with the option to do a 5km half course at some locations) with the exception of the Aussie Titles Enduro 24hr race which is usually held in NSW in June. The True Grit SA Elite race started at 8:30am with a mixed gender start. The first obstacles were three small walls, a jump over a large fallen log, the tall ladder, then the lilypads/pontoons over a small dam. I was following the first female who was very agile over the first obstacles, running strongly and very quick over the pontoons, but I came back in line with her over the tall ladder. Given she was wearing carbon plate road shoes (ASICS Metaspeed) I wasn’t sure how she would do on any trails or technical running. After the small dam was the first hill of the day which got steeper and more sandy towards the top. She flew up the hill and then executed the wall at the top very smoothly. After the high walls was a long stretch of fast running on hard firetrail next to and through vineyard, including over some discarded grapes which smelled like ribena as we ran over them. The rope climb was next followed by the sandbag carry. True Grit uses the same weights for men and women, so if you are a female and used to the spartan race weight, then you may find the carries challenging in True Grit. Although we were using dingo sandbags (25-30kg capacity), they were not at all full and probably weighed 15kg depending on the one you picked up, so the carry could easily be completed at a run. I arrived at the sandbag carry as the first female was in the second half of the carry. After crossing the Cadell-Waikerie Rd, the course transitioned from long stretches of flat and fast running to running predominantly on relatively deep sand, interrupted constantly by small obstacles which were mainly crawling obstacles. This is consistent with True Grit’s origins as a military inspired challenge so you can expect more crawling, and trench like obstacles as well as carries in most races. In this sand section there was also a number of walls including under and overs and then variations on medium sized walls. The first water submersion obstacle of the day was three rolling trenches, but due to being on sandy terrain the trenches were completely lined in black tarp and it was difficult to know the water depth. Ropes were there to help get you out, but for me that kind of caused confusion as in Spartan you don’t get ropes so I ended up being slow through this obstacle.

Start line.

Lilypads. One of the first obstacles.

Next came more running through the sand followed by a long crawl through a sandy trench. I got some serious prickles stuck in my hand during this obstacle and it hurt a lot to pull them out. After the tyre ladder was the jerry can carry. This was a crux obstacle in my opinion, being about half way through the race and the most awkward and time consuming. Up until this obstacle the first female was in sight and she was about 1/3 of the way around the carry when I arrived. There was no limit on how you carry the jerry can so initially I did a front carry which worked well until I got to the first sand dune climb where I couldn’t see my feet. I then moved to a single hand carry using a handle which was now soaking wet from being pressed against my wet clothes. The length, size and weight of the jerry can is very awkward if you are 162cm (my height) or shorter as the can is almost scrapping the ground so you have to bend sideways a bit to prevent it from dragging. After changing hands a crazy amount of times I finally got to the end of the carry and then took off as from here I knew there was a lot of running. Between here and the road crossing were a few wall, tyre and crawl obstacles, but it was mainly running including up some dune hills and a bigger dune hill with a rope (dune assault). I was trying to keep pace but the first female was an extremely strong runner and I just could not speed up enough to keep her in sight. After crossing the road we finally got off the sandy terrain onto firetrail through vineyards. This was fast running interspersed with occasional but interesting obstacles including:

1. Rat pipes – a crawl up a ladder in a pipe with water splashing down onto your head.

2. Aqua castle – six large dump bins of water which you have to climb in and out of. Three at ground level then a climb up to two on the top of the tower, then a climb down and in and out of two more.

Aqua castle was positioned very close to the end of the race after some hard and fast running. On the top my quads cramped from the cold water and plyometric action of jumping up to get into each tub, but getting back into running was fine. After a short technical descent we came to the last 800m which is absolutely packed with obstacles. The monkey bars initially looked easy but as I went along I found there were slats across some of the bars and you could not see the bar behind so I spent a long time hanging. The drop from the end was a high drop and the landing was super hard but my foot was fine so kept running. Then next obstacles where a ramp, A frame cargo and then the torsion bar crawl on soft grass. Torsion crawl started great for me using the rolling technique. I then got super dizzy and moved to front crawl which was slow. After this was some more climbing and cargo net obstacles, bridges and the rope traverse. I love rope traverses so was feeling good. The final part of the race is a muddy narrow trench that passes under several bridges and through some claustrophobic pipes before meeting the Murray. I was so slow here. I was sinking straight up to my thigh in mud every step. Later I watched Robyn do this and she was like a mud monster completing it in probably half the time I did. Next time I know to use a dive/float technique rather than trying to walk through it. Climbing out of the muddy trench the final obstacle is a slide into the Murray followed by a swim to the finish line. The Murray was freezing and I definitely got that feeling of shock where your lungs can’t get air in a for a short time. The swim also meant a lot of the mud from the trenches washed off and you got to cross the line being wet but not a mud monster.

Loved watching Robyn make a move on the rope traverse to then overtake the 3^rd female in the mud trenches and come in 3^rd to get on the podium. I had so much fun in this race and the whole atmosphere and vibe of the event was something I have not experienced at an OCR race in a long time.

Last part of trail before the mega obstacle packed gauntlet at the end.

Torsion bar crawl on soft grass. A frame in background.

Monkey bars

Drop off monkey bars is a fair way if you are 162cm tall.

Festival area and other comments

True Grit changed ownership about 12 months ago and whatever they are doing, it is working. I had immediately positive vibes upon parking and getting to the festival area. The race had an easy to use bag check, plenty of well organised volunteers, private changing rooms for men and women with some tables to put your items on so they don’t get covered in mud while changing, plenty of outdoor tables and chairs to sit on, outdoor showers readily accessible at the finish line to wash off mud before the drive home, water safety for the slide into the Murray and swim to the finish line, great sponsors, tasty finish line drinks (Nippys chocolate milk) and food, great food trucks and coffee van, and what seemed like a really large attendance rate. All these things you would think come standard with at an OCR race, but the past two years, at other OCR races some of these things have been lacking, and it was really nice to be able to shower and get changed without worrying the wind would catch a piece of canvas and expose you while getting changed to the whole festival area. With really limited OCR races in the coming 12 months being offered by other OCR brands, I highly recommend you give True Grit a go if you get the opportunity.

In addition, the new owners are really trying to growth the elite side of things. Last time I did True Grit in NSW was 2019. There was a strong mens field and plenty of elite women. The elite field is generally not as strong in SA and some of the other True Grit locations. In 2021 I understand that there were 3 females entered in the SA elite field. There were many more than that in 2022 and the mens field was very competitive. The new owners have secured great sponsors including Suunto and True Protein and first place prize included a Suunto watch, with cash being awarded to all podium places along with free and discounted entries to future True Grit races, and a bag of sponsors products. Cheques were provided on the day. They are also improving the professionality of the running of the elite wave, sending out a reminder email setting out the rules, and a briefing at the start line for elite racers. If you have not raced True Grit recently you should re-read the rules as some have changed. Specifically, the burpee penalty for obstacle completion is 20 burpees and the rules state that all obstacles are single attempt. There was a bit of confusion about this as the briefing stated that you must attempt each obstacle at least once before completing burpees. The rules also state that competitors must complete the highest of walls and the most difficult version of the obstacle (for example the rope with no foot knots). However, at the briefing it was stated that females could go over the smaller wall instead of the 9 foot wall. Probably just minor teething issues with the new rules, and I expect these will be tightened up for True Grit NSW in a few weeks time. These did not affect me in this race as I completed all obstacles on first attempt.