Andreas and I are flying off from the start with a solid pace. Over 2 walls, down a hill and we do a loop with a jerry can. Andreas makes the first move and takes the lead for the next 700m, as we approach the balance beams. To my luck he fails and so does Michael, who was trying to take over. With a slight lead I fall into a comfortably hard pace and push through the next running part into the forest.

 Through the water and a 150m pipe we go hard as the forest challenges us with obstacles like chain carries, tree climbs, net crawls and more. I stick to a narrow lead but I feel fine and strong as we run back towards the prison with the first 4 of 8km down and Andreas on my heels.

On our way we have to clear an Urban Sky dipwalk, do a log carry and finally the Stairway to Heaven which leads us back into the main event area. At this point I’m building a lead hoping Nikolaj didn’t do the same 10 minutes ago. Approaching the Low Rig 6k into the race Katrine (girlfriend) is yelling at me, that I have a lead! My time on the first part of the course which had lots of running was apparently great – a very positive surprise! So positive I make a slight mistake on the low rig (grapped something I shouldn’t..) and I’m off to a retake. Still feeling strong I clear the Ice Flakes, Supersnake, Ovals and then I’m tired! The obstacles were right next to each other and I hurried through and got exhausted. Classic.. Slowing down a bit I regained my focus for the last part. 

I smash the hammer against the tire, clear the 70kg atlas stone, slide graciously down the water slide like a damn merman and swing through the rings like an experienced monkey. I’m almost 8k into the race and it’s just 3 obstacles left at this point!

I manage the Wheels of Steel well with a new technique (phew, lucky shot!) and head into the 20m long DOMINATOR. The structure consists of rings, ropes, wrenches, hammers and tires – tt’s hard to get a flow on the tires, but I try whilst I also manage to skip as many grips as possible. It all goes well and before I know it I’m done and it’s down to the last (and newest) obstacle, the Bars. 5 red beams are suspended in front of me, the 2 first somewhat horizontal, the next 2 vertical and the final horizontal again. I climb it like a koala on crack, hit the bell and sprint across the line nervously waiting for the results. Katrine looks super, super excited and she says I’ve won just seconds before the speaker announces the official results. With almost a 2 minutes lead I took home my first win at a Danish race with Nikolaj in it (except OCREC18) ever. 

This is an important race for me, not because of glory, who’s behind me nor prize money. It’s a damn good testimony to my fitness level and a huge confidence booster going into the OCRWC! What Dam and I have been doing is paying off and we’re working hard to make the OCRWC19 become a race we’ll never forget. Now onto the next and final race before London; Red Bull Conquer the Castle!