It’s described as “The World’s Toughest 400m Race” and, let me tell you, they’re not lying.

At 300m into the race, I hit a wall; I didn’t have much left.

At 325m my heart rate was through the roof, my lungs were on fire, and my legs were Jell-O.

By 350m my arms were weak (yes… I had to use my arms), I was light headed, and I was seriously concerned about falling back down the ramp.

Let’s think about that for a minute. I’m not kidding, I actually thought I might faint, collapse, and go for a tumble.

Somehow I finished. I crumpled at the top and laid there trying not to vomit while other competitors piled in.

So what was the race? It was the Red Bull 400 – a sprint from the bottom of a ski jump right to the top that covers 400m in distance, 140m in elevation, and hits an incline of 37 degrees.

Going into the race, I expected to finish in 5:30. I ended up finishing in 6:09, putting me 163/441 for the men and 184/615 overall. The cutoff for the finals was 5:14 and the winning time was 3:29 (insane!).

Will I do it again? Absolutely. In fact, I have brought in the pros to help me crush the event in 2020.

I have started working with Aspire Health and Performance here in Kelowna, B.C. and Shane will be putting together a program for me. We’re going to start right from the basics and go through his systems to build an athlete from the ground up.

The best part is that we are going to document the whole process and make it a case study. To stay up to date on my progress, continue to check out this blog and give Aspire a follow on Instagram (@aspire_perform) or Facebook.

Brian McFadden