I ran Pretty Muddy 2015… what’s next?

A few weeks ago, myself and a team of five other ladies met at Cheltenham racecourse on a hot sunny day and ran a five kilometre muddy obstacle course for Cancer Research UK. We called ourselves the Fast Food Fighters, because we were all unfit and we all eat far too much takeaway food, but we wanted to run this race to help fight cancer. Myself and one other member of the team have both had Cancer and we’ve all been touched by family members and friends who have had it. Between us, we raised £2070 for Cancer Research UK by running Race For Life’s Pretty Muddy.

The majority of the muddy obstacles were near the end of the race and it would’ve been nice if there had been more near the start and middle, as the mud cooled us down and it was a scorching hot day with very little breeze. However, it was still a lot of fun, despite being difficult in places. I struggled to keep up with two of our team, but I was determined we would cross that finish line together. Three of us crossed it together with a finish time of 35 minutes, which is actually faster than I ran the 5k without obstacles in 2013. And although we weren’t all able to cross the finish line as a six, I was so proud we all managed it. The mud dried onto our skin as we began to feel like hippos basking in the sun, but we didn’t care. We all cheered each other on and we all earnt every penny of that sponsorship money.

The obstacles weren’t difficult, but they were a lot of fun. They consisted of everything from climbing over hurdles and crawling under ropes, to giving each other piggy back rides, climbing up ropes and jumping through tyres.

In my training for Pretty Muddy, I couldn’t even get near to running 5k and the day of Pretty Muddy, I found it seriously tough running 5k. Yet the following day, I felt ready to go for another run. And so I did. And in fact, since Pretty Muddy, I’ve actually started to almost enjoy running, whereas before I saw it as a form of torture.

And so now I am looking for my next challenge. I’ve been looking at the Monster run and the Spartan race. These are bigger races with much much tougher obstacles but I want to challenge myself. I want to push myself to the limits and see what I can achieve.

I’d like to finish this post with a massive thank you to everyone who sponsored us, including Brioche Pasquier who sponsored not only with generous monetary donations but also with delicious pastries. And of course, I want to thank the five amazing ladies who ran with me. Well done team – we did it!