Adam is a Secondary School from London, below you can hear about how he got involved in obstacle course racing and his involvement in the 2018 World Championships!
Tell us about your most meaningful event?
I’ve done many events that are meaningful to me but what stands out was the OCR (Obstacle Course Racing) World Championships in 2018. This is things like monkey bars, rope climbs, traversing walls/obstacles and much more. I qualified for the European Championships earlier that year and when I attended those it was a level of difficulty I had never experienced before and just wasn’t ready. There were about 100 different obstacles over 15km and if you failed an obstacle (retries were allowed) you lost your finishing band, basically a DNF. For the World Championships I qualified at one of the final events before it but was more prepared. I got around with 100% completion, really pushing my body to places it’s never been before. Unfortunately, I finished outside the time limit but was able to keep my band for 100% completion. I was pleased as the course was set out to crown the world’s best and I was able to complete each obstacle on there.
What made you choose to take part in an active challenge?
These races started by me and a friend doing a Tough Mudder in 2016 for a challenge as we’d heard a lot about them. We had never done anything like this before and I had never done any running what so ever. We had to train for something we had no experience of putting ourselves through before. A mixture of cardio fitness and muscular strength needed.
Did you raise money for a charity?
I haven’t raised any money for charity, it was me just pushing myself further and further. In the future I’d look to do a half marathon/full marathon for a good cause.
How has the event changed your life?
It’s made me take my health a lot more seriously, I run several times a week now. Actually ran every single day of lockdown and had a streak of over 100 consecutive days going. I consider my activity levels and feel a lot more better about myself.
What would you say to someone who is toying with the idea of taking on a challenge?
Find something that interests you and you know will push you. Don’t worry about how slow you start, that’s the hardest bit. Just make the start and the improvements will come and you will be rewarded.
Schools' Active Community Coach 