Battle Bunker

After a sloppy 2nd place finish at the Spartan SoCal Super just 6 days before Battle Bunker, I was worried about recovery and performance going into race weekend. Jetlag, a year of hefty travel, ton of work and also competition was showing – it was time to relax. So I did just that, and arrived well rested at the Chula Vista Elite Training Facility, a team USA Olympic training facility. It was, to say it briefly, an amazing facility for athletes and for the competition!

Seeing many old American friends and making new was a blast. I’m a social Dane and the first evening was all smiles and fun. My roommates were hilarious, and strong! I could see I was easily the smallest dude at this event, by quite a margin. But hey, not much to do about that, except get some shut-eye and show up ready to throw down.

The Triple R was an event I expected to do OK in. Short legs are no good for rucking, but I do have massive lungs and determination – but they unfortunately didn’t make the cut! I quickly fell behind on the ruck with the leaders putting down insane paces up in the front. I ran packman style all the way to the rowers, dropped my bag and started pulling on the rower. I managed to hold a 1:55 pace for every 500m, which is OK, but not nearly enough to be competitive. So although I ran a descent 800m, I found myself in 20th place. Hardly ideal for my top-10 goals!

The FU(N)BAR event was interesting to enter. I dreaded it and knew it would be a real struggle to even finish it. I had hired an olympic lifting coach to help me with technique, but those sandbags were as sloppy as the get. Seeing the first heat of 8 athletes put down thunder times was both amazing, and scary. I did quite a lot of mental prep before stepping on the startline. I talked to myself about my comeback after injury, how other peoples expectations towards my performance didn’t matter, how that sandbag had nothing on me, how bad I wanted to make it through the workout, how much I would hate looking like a fraud. Also, I actually did put in the work! I can easily power-clean more than my bodyweight and my form is damn good – so hearing the countdown all I could do was lift and stay focused. 

The lifts actually went decently, but carrying that monster bag didn’t! It’s still mind-blowing to me, that other athletes could run with it! Hahaha, I wobbled so slowly over the field and it fatigued me heavily. I went for the slightly conservative “no-no-rep” strategy and eventually made my way out of the field, collapsing at the time cap with the bag next to me. I finished 26th, but still felt kind of proud about the performance. I’m normally not very proud getting my ass kicked so hard. 

The HYBRICON course was my jam. I knew that! But to be frank, imposter syndrome hit my heavily after the first 2 events. Thoughts about strength had it’s place, but getting beat so hard in event 1 bothered me. All that work and dedication, the sacrifices – and still getting knocked out like that. Just because of things I can’t control like size, talent and fucking weight? It was very frustrating. So when everyone said “you’ll kill this one”, I didn’t feel very confident. That, and also the fatigue of the day, showed in my run through the course. I felt heavy and didn’t lock my movements in 100%.

Luckily, a 95% performance when you’re a world class obstacle racer isn’t bad at all. I destroyed the course record and the only on to beat me was Veejay Jones, the 2-time OCR World Champ. All that worrying for nothing. Of course I deserve to be at this event. I’ve worked insanely hard to get to where I am, and the desire to overcome thoughts like those also drives me to overperform in 2023. Enough so, that I just quite my job at Ernst & Young (EY) to chase to OCR life full-time. 

Thanks to Hunter, Austen, all the volunteers and the amazing athletes for an experience I will not forget. I definitely plan to attend the next Battle Bunker competition, and I’ll be rooting for a 2-day competition. I probably won’t be much heavier, taller or stronger – but I will show up with a big fat smile and run damn hard!

Men’s podium:

1st – Isaiah Vidal
2nd – Ryan Kent
3rd – Jarret Newby

Women’s podium:

1st – Ida Mathilde
2nd -Jerine
3rd – Lauren Weeks

Massive shout-out to the ONE OH SEXY gang for a dope afterparty. I was wrecked for a few days after that night – totally worth it! #yetilove