What I Learnt During My First Mud Run Experience

ByLisa Jayne 



Recently I’ve been talking a lot on Twitter and on my blog about learning to run, and the main reason was to start training to do a 5K mud run at the end of September. Somehow two friends of ours talked me and Chris into entering with them and a few other friends to help raise money for Dementia UK. Being completely unfit, and unable to run, it wasn’t something I wasn’t looking forward to at all, but I decided to start training straight away, so that it would hopefully be a lot easier come the main event. I even hired a personal trainer who helped to give me the kick up the ass I needed, and helped me to start being able to run.
 I spent 16 weeks training, and managed to finish in 2hrs 9 minus a pair of shoes, and very very muddy. My team originally set out to raise £300 for Dementia UK, but we managed to raise over our target, and made it to £1315, which was amazing! As a newbie runner I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I found it to be an amazing experience, and I learnt a couple of things along the way. 
 
I hate mud
Like seriously, I hate mud. I got absolutely covered in the stuff and it took me about two days to get clean. There were points during the obstacle course where we had to jump into huge lakes of mud, and I thought at some point I’d get used to the idea of being muddy. I didn’t.
Don’t wear white t-shirts
Our Dementia t-shirts were white, for some reason we thought these would be okay for the run… 
You will get muddy
For some reason I didn’t think I’d get as muddy as I did, or as wet. 
Wear clothes you don’t mind throwing away 
None of my clothes made it home with me. I thought I might take them back home and wash them and they’d be okay. But after how muddy we got, I decided to just throw them away after the run. 
Wear tight shoes
About 4K in I lost my shoes and the bottom of a muddy bog. I got myself completely stuck and when someone helped to pull me out, my shoes got left behind, leaving me to finish my run in my socks.
Run with a team
Completing this with a team was the best part of the run. There were parts where some of us (mostly me) struggled, and there was always someone to help out. It also made the whole thing so much more enjoyable being able to run alongside other people and laugh when one of us fell over in mud (again, mostly me). 
I need to work on my strength
While training for the run I only focused on learning to run, when really a lot of it was an obstacle course. I’d love to be able to do this again next year, and I really need to work on strength, especially my upper body. 
I like running
It’s only been in the last 3 months I’ve been running, and I’m really starting to enjoy it. I might even do another type of run one day!
Overall I really enjoyed my first mud run, and our team were even talking of doing the 10K version next year. I think I’m going to start training for the next one a lot sooner, and definitely going to start working on my strength so my poor friends don’t have to help me over obstacles again next year! 
If you want to see some of the pain we went through, and the mud, someone in my team filmed the experience on their go pro which you can watch here. And if you fancy a laugh, skip to around 6 minutes where you can see me stuck in the mud and losing my shoes…





	

	





			

			

				

					
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