The Pain Barrier
The Pain Barrier - Use the pain!
Carrick 'Pyro' Armer / 07.12.2012
So, a new mud/obstacle run appears on the calendar. Let's go through the obligatory checklist: Intimidating name (The Pain Barrier) - check; Images of muddy people in inappropriate running kit on website - check; Course sections with names to inspire fear and/or amusement (Pool of Punishment, Dips of Despair) - check; Date when it would be infinitely more sensible to be huddled in front of the fire under a duvet (1st Dec) - check. Having passed all of these points on my mental checklist, I goaded some friends into entering and then put my money where my mouth was and did so myself. Being able to apply peer pressure in reverse is a wonderful ability.
Being the new boy in the already busy world of obstacle/mud runs can't be an easy place to be, but Sheffield-based Pain Barrier team have plunged themselves straight into the marketplace. Their first race site at Parkwood 4x4, between Leeds and Bradford, is a well developed off-road driving centre, and from their overview map The Pain Barrier course looked like it was going to take in a good proportion of their driving routes. Having seen other 4x4 centres and some of what they put their vehicles up, down and through, my teammates and I were somewhat apprehensive, especially since the other three were all entirely new to the genre. A heavy frost the day before seemed ominous, so a bag with every possible variation on running kit was thrown into the car.
I needn’t have worried about the weather, though, as Saturday dawned bright and sunny but cold. At 11am on a fine December morning, the 600-or-so first-timers looking for their own Pain Barrier set off on a deceptively gentle amble across a nice grassy field, onto a nice gravel track, down a nice hill - all a bit too civilised. The odd smoke flare, dodging a patch of ice or two, but no mud, no water, no screams from ahead? We jogged on, with baited breath, wondering what was coming next and waiting for the carnage to start... and then it did.
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