We were tough enough (just!)

Nearly two months and the Annual meal later, it’s time for the Tough Mudder report.

Sometime late in 2012 I (Natalie) was approached by my youngest sister, Zoe, who had the idea of ‘having a bit of fun’ by completing an event. That event was the Tough Mudder challenge. After agreeing that this was indeed a good idea, I looked the event up online (http://toughmudder.co.uk/), and chose Tough Mudder Southwest (which bizarrely turned out to be in South Wales!).

Ah! It was time for reinforcements.

By 21 September the TEAM SMC had 11 primed, enthusiastic and slightly crazy members:

Andy (work colleague of Lee & Theresa's)

Barry (friend of Bernard's)

Bernard

Celia

Fred (friend of Bernard's)

Lee

Natalie

Simon

Steve

Theresa

Zoe

The team arrived at a caving hut in Rhigos (booked courtesy of Steve) to spend Friday evening discussing pre-race tactics and kit checks. It was also the first time the whole team were united, and it was a brilliant moment. It was all coming together!

As a team dedicated to the ‘Tough’ cause, Bernard braced the cold night in the caving hut lounge, to make the hungry carbo-loading team members a healthy breakfast of porridge. After trundling down to breakfast at 6am and wiping those bleary eyes, we all finally realised- this was it!

After a short drive to the Glanusk estate, we arrived prepped and ‘tough’ as we could be. It was a proud moment seeing TEAM SMC sporting their t-shirts (thanks Celia!) and roaring with the crowds.

A short jog later and a quick climb over two short army walls (really, those are the easy ones?), we were at the start line. Tough Mudder pledge completed, we charged across the start line with the 10am wave. Quickly the leading pack (Teresa, Lea and Andy) tore through the crowd, paving the way for the rest of TEAM SMC.

We had reached our first obstacle, the army crawl. After a few t-shirts were snagged on barbed wire, the team was ready to charge forward. 2 cross-country miles later, TEAM SMC were working at a steady pace, cheering with the others surrounding teams.

Some time later it was time for the Arctic Enema, ‘GO GO GO!’ yelled the scary man at the edge. Screams from various ice buckets filled the air. After taking the plunge and re-surfacing disorientated, it was time to duck dive under the wall. ‘GO GO. DO IT NOW’. We re-emerged cold and wet. Bernard, Celia and Steve hauled out various team members and we re-grouped.

Slightly warmer after a rather long 1 mile of mud and monkey bars, it was getting tougher. The Electric Eel loomed. Wires up to 10,000 volts dangled in our muddy crawl space. After being zapped in places one should never receive an electric shock we continued on with the challenge.

Several obstacles later, it was time to complete the half-pipe and run through the electric shocks one last time. Phew! All 11 of the team completed Tough Mudder South West 2013 without injury.

Watch this video for real course footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUNqA9UKAcU

If this report has tickled your fancy, or perhaps you’d just like to be shocked, the next event is March 2014. Maybe see you there?

Hoo-rah!

Natalie