Saturday, 21 May 2016

Absolute filth ..



That is the only way to describe the delight that is Tough Mudder. Muddy. Cold. Wet. Long. Filthy. But I'd do it again in a heartbeat!
Maybe I'll train for the next one though, nobody told me it was 12 miles. 




And here we are in all pristine, shiny white glory. It really didn't last long.
When my friends first asked me if I wanted to join their Tough Mudder team, I jumped at it. Whilst back in the day I was quite a sporty child (competitive swimming pretty much consumed my school days), in recent years my activity levels have certainly dwindled. This seemed like a great chance to get active and have fun (for the most part) in the process.

When I stopped to think about it, it suddenly dawned on me what I had agreed to. 12 miles up and down steep hills with a mass of obstacles along the way. I was actually paying for the privilege to complete near enough a half marathon, be plunged into ice cold water (complete with ice cubes), get mud in places I didn't even know existed, get electrocuted and many other unspeakable challenges.


Allow me to introduce you to the team;

Me, in all my monkey bar glory. Pretty certain I dropped into the water 2 seconds after this photo was taken.


Stef, I swear she is hiding down there somewhere.



Matt M, being a former Rugby played I don't think he found this challenging enough.



Alex, never have I seen someone so graceful swinging across the monkey bars. He could actually be a monkey?






Caitlin, although she seems to be burying her head in the hay stack.



And finally, the 'seductive' creature that is Matt S.


Collectively we became 'Streatham Spirit'. 

We prepared how every great team do in anticipation of a sporting endeavor - a pasta party and activity session customising t-shirts. 
For some unknown reason, the team felt I was a responsible enough party to be in charge of ironing on the t-shirt transfers. Thankfully they all came out just fine, they even stayed in one piece throughout the event.


One of the great little features about Tough Mudder is their Shoe Amnesty. After squelching your way through mud mile, the last thing you want to is take your shoes home - I was actually struggling to walk in mine at all after that interesting experience.

Just leave your muddy footwear behind in the designated pile and they'll be cleaned up and sent off to someone that could really use them. Magic.



By some miracle, I made it to the end. Look how happy I am! I have to send out big love to all my team for waiting for me at near enough every obstacle. I was struggling with the pace and walked the majority of course. I did feel bad for not training as much as I should .... but then I remembered that I struggled to even run a mile back in my swimmer days so I don't think I'd have been able to do much better. Maybe I would have made it across the monkey bars?


Or perhaps next year I'll manage to ring the bell.







Anybody giving Tough Mudder a try this year?

TTFN

x

Share:

No comments

Post a Comment

© C R E A T E T H E C O V E R | All rights reserved.
Blogger Template Crafted by pipdig