In March this year I made the ill-considered decision to take part in Tough Mudder in the upcoming September. I say ill-considered because as I sat in a seminar at Uni was convinced by my friend, Mollie, that it?s a really good idea, that we?d train in time and that ?we?ll be fine?. Anyhow, September came around and with it the 27th day AKA the-day-we-were-in-no-way-prepared-for.
The days itself started out with myself getting up at 5:30 to go and meet the rest of the team (Mollie and Elle) to make our way to Winchester, arriving at around 10am (we had a bit of breakfast and a leisurely drive there). Upon arrival we psyched ourselves up, went to register, disclaimer in hand and prepared ourselves mentally and physically for the upcoming endeavour?
11am, the start line. After a short warm up our wave of Mudders make their way to the start line, take a pledge, have a little dance around and are generally hyped up by a man with a mic. Que, running.
The course itself is 12.5 miles long with an obstacle at every mile (not including the uphill slog in-between) so after a while found ourselves at the first proper obstacle- the Arctic Enema, yep. If you would like to see a visual of probably the worst obstacle of them all you can here. Essentially we climbed up to a platform, shot down into a pool of muddy, ice-water, caught whatever breath we could, ducked back down and swam underneath tires and made our way out of the pool. By far the worst obstacle there was, I?d say never again but my ego won?t let that happen unfortunately.
Adrenaline fuelled determination set in and off we went for the remaining 11.5 miles, as impossible as we thought the course would be, it wasn?t. One of the core values for Tough Mudder is the camaraderie, we?re all in the same boat and help each other to get to the finish line no matter what. There?s a community-like feel to it, and we are all there to lift each other up?sometimes literally.
About 4 hours later we found ourselves staring at Everest, see here. The penultimate obstacle, almost done! One huge run up later and I find myself holding on to a muddy, slippery piece of rope on a near vertical ramp…not this time, back down I slid. Second time lucky my hand was caught and three people dragged me onto the top, I can now say I?ve climbed Everest (sort of). Now for the finale, Electroshock Therapy. Essentially a wall of live wires hang down and we have to run through it to finish, here?s a picture of me making my way through:
Aaaaand we?re done! All three of us had made it through the highs and lows of Tough Mudder London South 2015, who knew we?d do it? All in all it was such an incredible experience, like nothing else and I?m so glad I could be a part of it, all the while raising money and awareness for MNDA, roll on next year!
You can see a list of the obstacles on course here (some of them are different in America but it?s essentially the same) and our JustGiving page is still live and can be found here. Money has also been raised via friends and family offline and will soon be heading to MNDA!
Here?s a very unflattering post-Tough Mudder picture (L-R Mollie, Elle and Myself):
Eve Batts – October 2015
Congratulations to Eve, Mollie and Elle for completing such a tough course to raise funds for persons living with Motor? Neurone Disease in East Kent.
Please head to https://www.justgiving.com/eve-batts/ to add a donation to support this fund raising effort.