“How I completed the Hero Race at age 42 with no special training.” Personal experience

By putting life on hold, you are wasting time. What if you just get up and start moving towards the result, without fear of failure? That’s exactly what amateur athlete Andrey Vetrov did. He shared the story of how he was able to run a 10 km distance for the first time, overcoming obstacles, and told what the “Race of Heroes” gave him.

“Hero Race ” is a Russian extreme cross-country obstacle race organized by the “League of Heroes”.

amateur athlete, participant of the “Race of Heroes”.

“Advice to everyone who can’t start because of their own fears: never be afraid to try. It’s better to try and fail than to regret later that you didn’t even make an attempt.”

“I never played professional sports

In my youth I was into weightlifting, but at an amateur level, but I never took up professional sports. At a more mature, conscious age I started boxing and Crossfit. Relatively recently I started regular jogging. Three times a week I covered a distance of about 5 kilometers. To better understand the situation: in October last year I could run normally only 500 meters, but gradually came to longer distances. One day after vacation I wanted to learn how to swim properly. In general I knew how to do it, but I wanted to improve the skill, so I started going to the pool.

“It seemed that this distance was something insurmountable”.

That’s the kind of athletic background I had by the time I learned about the Race of Heroes. My coach told me about it and suggested I take part. Initially we planned to run the race in Kazan, but while we were getting ready, the tickets were already sold out. We had to postpone our trials until September in Ufa.

During preparation we chose a 5km distance, but two days before the start we changed it to 10km. This confused me, because I had never run such distances in principle. It became a challenge for me.

The race helped me to test myself, my capabilities and abilities, because before the competition it seemed to me that this distance was something insurmountable.

“The team is a solar panel.”

Twelve people were to ride, including both coaches and amateurs. Shortly before the start, two withdrew. We split into two teams, which made there was less time to rest on the course. Even still, it was really cool. There was mutual support between us, someone helped me, and someone, on the contrary, helped me. The team spirit, the charge from everyone – that’s what really gave strength to move forward. It is such a “solar battery” from which it is impossible not to get energy.

“The most difficult test”

The most difficult test was “Everest”, it was at the very end, when there is not much strength anymore. In addition, in those days it rained all day and all night in Ufa, so we had to run on mud. “Everest” is quite a high obstacle, if in dry weather it was quite realistic to climb, then in wet weather, on clay and with a wet rope it was more difficult to do it, but we managed.

“If I had given up at that moment, I wouldn’t have forgiven myself.”

At 7 or 8 kilometers, when fatigue was at its peak because it’s not only a race, it’s also 37 obstacles, I thought, “Maybe I should get off.” My spouse rode with me for support and said, “You’ve never run this distance before, and in case you don’t feel well, you shouldn’t torture yourself. You’re running for your own pleasure, not for records.” I remembered this, I thought it was really worth finishing, but then the words of my teammates came to mind: “Fatigue is in the head, and the body can do more than you think”. That’s how it worked out, the main reason I didn’t stop was because I was already running. Had I given up at that point, I wouldn’t have forgiven myself.

“Wedding Obstacle Course.”

There was a couple running on my team, and the girl, after overcoming the “Born Again” challenge, the essence of which is to crawl between tires, said: “We’ll do the same challenge for our wedding guests.” To which I replied that “no one will come to their wedding then”.

Finish

It took us two hours and one minute to complete the whole distance, and when the whole team had already overcome the last test and were running to the finish line – it was a feeling of victory, a sensation beyond description.

Enough time has already passed to evaluate everything. Now I can say that it is an insanely interesting experience. I discovered a new sporting world, and I am more than sure that next year we will go to new races in other cities with the same team. As for physical changes: before the “Race of Heroes” I was running regularly, but my maximum distance was 5 km 300 meters. After it, the same distance seemed weak for me, now I already run more, my last results were 7.5 km and 9.6 km.

“Age is only in your head”

It’s worth noting that there was a separate race for participants 40+, but I decided to take part in the main race. I wouldn’t want to end up with my peers and run a different distance because, really, age is only in your head. It’s all a matter of self-perception.

Remember that the “impossible” just takes a little more time, work on yourself, overcome your fears and expand your capabilities.