Hell Runner – I did it!
Wow, never before have I seen / ran through / slipped all over / waded up to my chest through quite so much mud!
It was VERY tough, but I completed the 10-mile Hell Runner cross-country race quite a bit faster than my 2 hour target – in 1 hour and 31 minutes 
The first muddy puddle that you had no choice but running through was the moment I realised, right, let’s just go for this. Yes, I’m going to get ridiculously muddy, and yes, my feet will be absolutely squelchingly soaked. But 2000 other people are doing this with me, and at least it isn’t raining!
From the firecrackers and smoke grenades that marked the start to the 3-piece band marked the half-way point, it wasn’t actually too bad.
Then came the “bog of doom”- chest-deep gloopy, cold and energy-sapping thick mud, followed of course by a massive muddy scramble. After that they just kept it coming – ridiculously long, steep hills, lots of scrambling and sliding up and down – it was certainly hard to keep going at times.
Then atop another tough hill, suddenly there was another steeply-embanked 20-30m river crossing, just as deep as the first. Then more hills, more mud, and more wading. You get the idea.
But then all of a sudden it was the finish line. And I sprinted for it! I had completed Hell Runner. I felt ready for anything!! Ready for Borneo certainly, bring it on!
[...] wizards, cows and brides; spent hours in the freezing cold with collecting buckets; ran through chest-deep mud; adapted to veganism for a month (mock duck!); injured ankles, recovered gracefully, and endured [...]
Pingback by Borneo For This » Competition: What’s the CRAZIEST thing you’ve ever done for charity? — January 7, 2010 @ 9:25 pm