We did it! Last weekend we ploughed through mud and rain and ice and more rain, but after 4 hours of team effort and a lot of hilly runs we made it to the finish line!
In 2017 I took part in my first Tough Mudder. It was part of a year where I massively challenged myself by a) doing a 40km walk for charity in the Cotswolds b) running the Birmingham Black Country Half marathon, and c) joined a seasoned team to do my very first Tough Mudder.
As I announced earlier on the blog – this year I set up a team of 9 to tackle Tough Mudder Yorkshire. My other half has completed 9 Tough Mudders in the past few years, so I thought it would make a nice 30th birthday present to gather his previous team mates for his 10th round.
We flew from Brussels to Birmingham last Friday, and then drove all the way up to the Skipton area, where Tough Mudder took place. It’s Yorkshire, so it’s very hilly. Gorgeous countryside, but a killer to run up and down those hills.
In that previous blog post I spoke about how I had started training by making my own fusion of runs and Kayla Itsines’ BBG. Usually I’m quite disciplined and good at sticking to my training. This time round I had every intention to, but I got ill which knocked me off my training feet for more than a week and injured myself at least twice, so out for a week each time as well. Not the training I imagined. This left me feeling frustrated and insecure, especially in the week before Tough Mudder. I squeezed in a few more abs and arms sessions and then focused on the carb loading (which is quite nice to focus on anyway).
The team mates wanted to wear fancy dress. At this point I was stressing out big time, so only agreed to it if I could find something that wouldn’t hinder me getting over obstacles, or just moving in general. I digged up a very in-your-face bathing suit that reminds me of 80’s aerobics, so on top of some leggings and a long-sleeve T-shirt this was perfect.
D-Day is preceded by not the best night of sleep and a breakfast where you try to pile in as many avocado on toasts and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, all whilst trying to fight the nervous nausea. But it’s worth it, because we spent 4 hours on the course after which I pretty much inhaled the Snickers bar we got at the finish line. 4 hours, 27 obstackles, 8+ miles.
Favourite obstacle? Block Ness Monster
Coldest moment? Waiting for Augustus Gloop (yes, worse than Artic Enema)
Biggest team effort? Pyramid scheme
Caused most bruises? Shared first place between Trench Warefare and Everest
Proudest moment? Getting through Electroshock unscathed
The Yorkshire edition was smaller than North West, and not as long – but a good thing probably with all those hills. I guess it was also less pressure with it being my second time. And I wasn’t as cold this time round. At North West I was so so cold, to the bone, whereas with this one the cold only really got to us because we had to wait about 15-20min at Augustus Gloop. Last time they closed Everest and Electroshock because of the bad weather. This time I could have a go and managed to get over/through both of them (though my knees don’t thank me for it). All in all very proud and super grateful to have done it with this team. And we kept our tradition alive of sharing a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts at the end – the best kind of sugar rush!
Not sure if there will be another Tough Mudder for me any time soon, but definitely up for a new challenge! What is your next challenge?
Annelies Explores 