WIRRAL DENTISTS’ COMPETE IN OBSTACLE
COURSE RACING - AND ALL FOR A GOOD CAUSE!
Wirral Dentist, Richard Gibson, shares his story about his passion for Obstacle Course
Racing and how him and his wife, Rachel, are competing in the World Championships
to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy UK.
Weekends used to be very different! Prior to 2012, I’d often
be up or down the motorway to play hockey and doing our
best to catch up with friends spread throughout the country.
My eldest was born in 2011 and then his little brother arrived
in 2013 – the same year I was diagnosed with an auto-
inflammatory condition which knocked me for six.
My diagnosis took a bit of working through and recovery
rendered me essentially incapable of doing my normal sporting
activities. In 2015, the boys were growing and I was feeling a bit
more like myself but couldn’t work out how to get back to losing
every Saturday to sport at the expense of seeing my wife and kids.
It was one day in the summer that my wife, Rachel, came home
and said: “We should do a Spartan Race!” “A what?” I replied.
She went on to explain that it was new type of competitive
obstacle course race. Her friend had competed the previous year
in Manchester and the next round was July. “Perfect!” I said – it’s
always good to have something to train towards.
Rachel started training with her friend and I started getting
back to some running and functional training. September came
around and with a certain amount of trepidation, we pitched
up at 8am on a Saturday morning in Manchester for the race.
Now going in, they don’t tell you how far it is or what obstacles
you face along the way. Experience now suggests that anything
is fair game but you should likely expects walls to climb, nets
to scale or crawl under, ropes to swing on, spears to throw and
oh did I mention hills! Yes they love hills! 40 minutes later I
dragged myself across the line but with a smile on my face. The
experience had me hooked and the support and camaraderie on
the course was fantastic. To top it off, Rachel turned out to be
pretty good and in her first race had placed in 3rd and somehow
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had qualified for the Spartan World Championships in Lake
Tahoe (California). I was bowled over and very proud. We went
to compete in America but come 2017 both set ourselves the
goal of qualifying for the OCR (Obstacle Course Racing) World
Championships. Rachel unsurprisingly qualified first and in
our last race of the season, I was ranked high enough to get my
invitation! But life at times can be an emotional rollercoaster.
The same weekend we found out about the race, we also heard
from our friends, Nick & Kirsty, in Scotland that both their
little boys Owen, 3, and George, 9 months, had been diagnosed
with an aggressive type of muscular dystrophy. Duchenne
muscular dystrophy is a severe form with the main symptoms
of muscle weakness beginning around the age of 4 in boys and
worsening quickly. Most are unable to walk by the age of 12 and
commonly require ventilation to assist the weakened muscles
with breathing. NO cure for muscular dystrophy is known and
the average life expectancy is 26, however with excellent care can
be into the 30s and 40s. This hit us particularly hard with two
boys of our own and really put into perspective how insignificant
our achievement was. The timing, however, made drawing a
connection between the two situations easy. It gave us increased
motivation to not only compete but try and do everything we
could to raise not only the profile of this disorder but hopefully
funds to help support those little boys, their parents and other
people with Duchenne. Nick & Kirsty have set up Project Go
– a charity geared towards raising awareness and vital funds to
support the work of Muscular Dystrophy UK and the Duchenne
Research Breakthrough Fund.
The World Championships were held in Canada’s Blue Mountains.
Your support can make a real difference. Please visit our just
giving page to donate what you can: https://www.justgiving.com/
fu ndraising/Rachel-Gibson22