I did it! And that wasn’t even the best part… I beat last year’s time! We – Transition Zone’s Sophie Heywood and I – completed the course in three hours and 26 minutes. I’m so proud!
On the morning of the race I was so nervous that I just couldn’t wait to get going. When you are there, the buzz of waiting to go to the start line is amazing. It was a mixture of nerves, excitement and terror. The terror part was fear of falling into the freezing cold pools!
My main goal was to beat my previous record from the year before and I smashed it. I did have another little secret goal, which was to get at least halfway across the monkey bars – and yes, mission was accomplished. In the run up to the event, I worked so hard on my strength and endurance that this in itself was a real test. Plus, I didn’t want to spend a second longer than I had to in the muddy pool below – the water, as expected, was freezing!
All I could think about afterwards was getting out of my cold, wet clothes (thanks to Sweaty Betty for providing me with my kit that somehow managed to make it through in one piece) and into a big, deep, bubble bath. First of all, though, I needed to shower to get all the mud off. I had about three or four showers before I started to feel clean. I don’t think I will ever be able to get all of the mud out of my hair… When I woke up the next day, my arms and legs ached all over, but thankfully it wasn’t as bad as I predicted. This was probably down to all my training and my body being well-prepared for the run.
I went for a 90-minute hot yoga session to stretch myself out on the same day (Sunday after event) and then I treated myself to a facial. It was well deserved. All the months of training definitely paid off, and now that Tough Mudder is over, I have no intention of letting that hard work go to waste. I aim to keep training on my speed and strength. I’ll need to if I am going to beat my time again next year…
