Competing in the 2022 Navy Race

I've never been shy of sharing that I'm in really good physical shape. For instance, one of my goals for the year was to lift 120kg above my head in a Clean and Jerk. And I've made some posts along the way describing my progress on my road to a temporary target of a 200kg deadlift.

Being as obsessed with fitness as I am, I really appreciate every opportunity to test myself, push my limits, and hopefully also get to show off a bit to others.

And no place was better, than participating in this year's Navy Race together with 12 other colleagues!

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^{Me and my colleagues looking happy having finished the Navy Race last weekend in Horten, Norway}

The concept

The Navy Race is an annual competition where people from all over come to challenge themselves in a marine-style obstacle course. The track is approximately 8km long and contains 30 different boot-camp exercises and obstacles that the participants will have to pass or get through.

These include everything from flipping tires, climbing monkey bars, swimming across rivers, lifting heavy objects, being shot at with paintball guns, and climbing onto a marine ship before jumping back into the water from its 7 meter tall bow of the ship and swimming to the finishing line. It thus makes for a nice combination of testing both one's stamina and strength, while also requiring a bit of guts and courage.

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^{Official pictures from the first year that the Navy Race was organised, demonstrating some of the challenges that participants have to face.}

The race is then divided into different classes. One "elite"-class for those looking to compete for the best possible time. One "ordinary"-class is both for more regular participants, which often includes teams of people who view the race just as much as a team-building exercise. Finally, there's the "Seal"-class, for those who are tough enough to compete wearing a weighted vest, 10kg for men and 5kg for women.

Consequently, you see a great range of people here. From try-hard fitness geeks who participate in all similar events across Europe, to your everyday person doing this as a fun challenge and team-building exercise with friends or colleagues. And although the event is organized dead-serious, it is still an arena for people to just have fun. Amongst the dead serious competitors, you’ll also find a handful of people participating dressed up as Batman, Wonder woman and Captain America or wearing other ridiculous costumes.

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^{Picture I took of the Navy Race's finishing line with the ship in the background ontop of which everyone had to climp up from the water and then make a jump back down from the front of the ship.}

Pushing yourself

What's great about events like these is that more than anything, most participants are only competing against themselves. You show up with a certain set of beliefs of what you're capable of, and perhaps also a given attitude that may include being careful or avoiding pain. It can then be almost a transformative experience to see yourself get through obstacles that you may have thought would be too tough, or to see that despite being tired only a quarter of the way in, you still managed to complete the race.

Everyone I participated with experienced a sense of joy seeing that they were able to overcome what they had anticipated would be a rough challenge. Having witnessed some of them being rather an anxiousness during the hours leading up to the event, it was a stark and positive contrast to see the same people beaming with joy and high-fiving each other after getting across the finishing line.

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^{A picture someone took of me climbing the vertical ropes which made up one of the initial obstacles of the race.}

General thoughts on the event

As with any game, there will be some imbalances. Looking at the event-page and mao of the course, you would think that this would be equaliy demanding of stamina, strength and athleticism. However, it is more of a 90% running competition with some fun twists added to it.

Most of the obstacles can be passed by instead accepting the penalty for failing the obstacles, which tends to be something like doing 10 pushups, or body squats, or burpees. Exercises that are both very easy and also often take less time than doing the obstacle properly.

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^{Me half-way up on a climbing wall that felt taller than it looked.}

Of course, the organizers want the event to be accessible to as many people as possible, and thus don't want it to be too daunting or for any single obstacle to be too difficult. However, this still results in an imbalance at the higher level, where everyone can do the obstacles with ease and it then only comes down to who can run faster in between. I wish that the penalties were a bit more time-consuming. They wouldn't have to be more physically difficult or tiring, just take more time. That way, doing them instead of attempting the obstacle would not be a valid strategy, and the race would be less dominated by running ability.

Looking ahead to next year

But nevertheless, I am determined to be back next year and go all-in to win the whole thing. I've had one run to get familiar with the course, the many obstacles and the running distances inbetween, and thus know what to prepare for next time around!

What about you? Have you ever participated in something similar to this? Or would you have liked to try it out?

Let me know in the comments!