Jungle gym on campus, for the fit and unfit

Jungle gym, but this time with students, and the whole campus is your playground. Tuesday is the date: the Campus Obstacle Run. Erasmus Sport ‘has pulled out all the stops’ for a half hour run over ninja walks, monkey bars and other obstacles. Staff are welcome to take part too.

This is the very first edition of the event. Erasmus Sport intern Maro Merk is one of the organisers of the run. He explains: “Anyone can come along. You won’t get dirty, apart from a bit sweaty. There’s no water or any ten metre climbs, so anyone over forty or who isn’t fit can do it.”

The course does include a haystack, springboards, ninja walks (sloping walls you have to climb up) and monkey bars (railings on which you have to hang like a monkey). Some crawling will also be involved.

No competition

There will always be those people who want to turn it into a race, but the Obstacle Run isn’t a competition, says Merk. “It’s just for fun. An average participant will take around half an hour to complete it, the fastest perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes. And you can do an extra round if you like.” According to Merk, more important than ‘winning’ is the fact that you’re training your body. “The first part of the run is intensive and mainly cardio-based. Other parts are more about keeping your balance.”

All the participants will receive a free sports bottle to drink from during the run. At the end, they’ll get a drink in the sports canteen. Enrol until 8 June at the reception desk in the sports building.