We are two weeks away from the True Grit 24hr Enduro and I can already feel my balls contracting about the thought of swimming through the pee dam in the middle of winter. This is one of my favourite events of all time and I've been hitting it for years but some of you might not know anything about it, so I thought I would break it down for you here. The True Grit 24hr Enduro Aussie Titles are an event hosted each year by True Grit, a race organiser that has events all year round in nearly every state in Australia. Their typical event is around 11km of trail running with around 30 obstacles along the way. True Grit are military inspired so many of the obstacles use natural terrain in interesting ways. The 24hr Enduro is held on the 11km course where they run their NSW event (It's earlier the same day), and competitors take to this course as many times as they can in a 24hr period to hit the furthest distance they can achieve. There are lots of moving parts involved in obstacle racing for 24 hours and in my opinion this is about as hard as fitness events get, with a good mix of testing every part of your body, mind and ability to strategise. If you can't wrap your head around a 24hr race, think about a car race like Formula One. Competitors take to the course and can stay on course as long as they like. Each time they pass the pit area they are able to leave the course and refuel, change their gear, stretch out some tender muscles, have a sleep or just rock in the corner until they are ready to tackle the elements again. The reason I love this format so much is the total distance covered is completely up to each competitor. Elite athletes are able to find their absolute limits in the event, the record is held by local OCR legend Lachlan Dansie, who covered 174km across 15 laps in 2019.
The total number of laps will decrease from 15 all the way down to entrants who manage a handful of laps, the amazing thing is that an elite will find their limits hitting a lap total in the low teens while an athlete of lesser ability may hit their same limit with 4 laps. It's different to say an Ultra where competitors must hit 50km in total, elites will get in done in half the time of the cut offs for the event. So while there's a few people out on course who will really be gunning for a podium spot, many are just there to see what they can accomplish individually. Some people create their own challenges on top of Enduro itself, to see how uncomfortable they can get. You will probably catch another OCR legend Jim Bullard, running laps barefoot while carrying a massive fucken axe.
Who will take home some bling this year?
So the reason this is one of my favourites is that it's a perfect equaliser. I've seen very fit athletes buckle mentally early and I've seen people not as able find the resolve to keep pushing through the darkness.
If you really want to find out what you're made of, this is the perfect place to do it.
This, like all obstacle racing will leave you with a new found respect for your capabilities, while also changing your relationship with discomfort and trust me, you're going to get fucking uncomfortable.
When you run for 24 hours, it puts some of the other petty irritations in your life into perspective. You will have a reference point for your suffering and this new resilience will help you deal with anything that comes your way after that.
Getting people into shape for these events with custom programming is what I do and I'm really excited to see how a heap of my first timers handle what are sure to be tough conditions at this years event.
With a background in project management, I like to have a plan worked out before you start, for anyone reading this who is also tackling the event, send me a message and I will send you my prep documents.
If you are stupid enough to buy a ticket this close, you can at the link below, you can also save yourself using the code OMR22. This code works for the 10km 30+ obstacle event happening earlier in the day too, which I highly recommend.
If you're hitting the event and missed the official True Grit Racer guide that was emailed out earlier, get it
Enduro is death by a thousand cuts and one of the obstacles the grinds you down each lap is the rope traverse, catch out my tutorial here for tips on how to get this one done.
The next bootcamp date is Sunday 3rd of July, so if you're on the Gold Coast and want to try OCR or train for it, get your early bird tickets below.
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