Review: SurvivalRun Zeist

Zeist’s run, scheduled at the 24th of March, had all the preliminary indicators that I was going to like its run; my starting time was late so I could sleep in, we went with a large group, the sun was shining and Laurence wasn’t able to come. I did not get pushed hard enough in my last encounter with Zeist’s run, when I did the 5k beginner run two years ago. This year I am checking out the 8k run.
The run contained the usual elements like wood sawing, budgees, tarzaning and monkey hangs. Contrary to most 8k runs however, they put a lot of these elements in the same obstacle. The run had a lot of combinations, something I usually like a lot. However, running recreationally (especially when starting in the last starting group) can be blessing (you can chill during the run and have the time to say hi to a few people) and a curse (you have to chill during the run because there are 30 people waiting lines before every combination).
If you come to runs for completion and to hang out/struggle with some friends doing a sport you like, this can be perfectly fine. If you want to achieve a certain time or if you want to compete with certain other members, then it is best to join KSR if you can or at least ask the organisation if you can start in an early starting group.
The difficulty for both the KSR and the recreational run was the same in Zeist, which meant that some recreational (obstacle) runners ended up with way more than they bargained for. Some of the combinations were pretty though, asking you to do some entering, traverse under pallets or push yourself with your hands through tires to the other side of a beam. Especially this last one was a bit of a struggle, since you had to push the tires upwards, as the high friction between the tire and the beam did not really allow you to just swing yourself forward easily. For All Terrainers comfortable in A, the course is though but fair, but T or Z members will probably struggle a lot here. Still, if you ran a 5k ‘beginner’ run already and you felt it was a bit too easy, it can’t hurt to try the 8k here though, as I feel it is a good representation of what a KSR should be.
Further highlights were the pancakes and the people. The pancakes at the refresh post speak for themselves obviously, but the runners and the volunteers I saw at the run were all very cheerful and relaxed. There will always still be those guys that want to go first on an obstacle just to take 20 million years to finish it, but it did not see it that much, during my 150 minute journey through Zeist’s woodlands.

~Jesse