Wow, the day of the Bestial race I was mentally disconnected while Alan was celebrating his birthday with his class mates. I remember they went to play with lasers in Hangar 37, but I don’t remember any specifics. I remember arriving home, going to bed and just sleeping. The next day my muscles hurt. They hurt while moving around, and while standing still. An annoying pain that simply was all over my body. I decided to simply take it easy. The next day was a Monday, so I had to head over to work. The pain I experienced yesterday had somehow doubled. Another day of suffering, hoping that the next day would be easier. Still wondering why I did it. I found out my time was 1:29:31, but it felt like the entire trial took a lot more time.

I made a couple of videos before and after the event, and Alex took some videos of me starting with the trails and when I arrived at the finish. so there was enough material for a new YouTube video!

With a colleague, I did the Bestial race today. He convinced me, and I actually assumed I would beat him easily, thus having a fun story for the coming months. The race took place in Arucas, a nearby town. 6 KM running and a few obstacles. At the start, it immediately became clear why my variant was called ‘hell’. Directly through pits and small hills, holes with mud, crawling under low bridges, jumping and diving, pushing tires while crawling, etc. Before the running started, I was already exhausted. The running afterward also turned out to be uphill, with wet shoes and socks, along a small path. There were also a few obstacles here: carrying a 20-kilo stone ball over an extra route, carrying a jerry can with 20 liters of water over yet another extra route, climbing over a two-meter wall, and several obstacles where you had to grab objects with your hands to avoid touching the ground and still ‘climb’ about 6 meters forward. Super difficult. Right before the end there were another two huge containers with water, and a lots of other obstacles, and then we finally arrived at the finish. What a relief. We did it!

After the race we rushed to another event, a birthday party for Alan. I was physically present, but I can’t remember much of it. I do remember being dead tired wondering why I never realised that ‘hell’-difficulty must be something pretty difficult and undesirable. I wondered why I ever signed up for this…