Battle of blood, sweat and mud in Tough Mudder challenge at Belvoir Castle near Grantham

It was quite literally a battle of blood, sweat and a lot of mud (and that is an understatement).

I’m not usually a girl who will volunteer to run through thick mud and water on one of the hottest days of the year, but when Marta convinced me to take Tough Mudder challenge on, I thought I would step out of my comfort zone and go for it.

While we originally planned to do the 5K trail, but after we got off track and got lost along part of the way, we ended up along the 10k route and completed this instead.

Some obstacles were definitely harder than others, but some I did surprise myself at.

Normally, I am not a fan of small spaces, so when I saw obstacles where we had to crawl through a tight space, I thought this is not going to be good.

However, they ended up being the obstacles I was quicker at.

My favourite obstacle that we tackled was the block ness monster, which involved us having to slide in muddy water and grip on to dear life to a rotating block, taking us over to the next side.

The obstacle I don’t think I would be the first to do again is Arctic Enema.

Me and Marta knew ahead of time this one was coming and we were looking forward to it.

The thought of being in that ice cold water on a hot day like it was seemed like a dream. I thought wrong…

What we didn’t know was we had to get a slide into the water and the shock I got as I hit the water, I had never experienced anything like that in my life.

Surprisingly, once I completed that obstacle it felt refreshing coming out of the water.

The team spirit of the runners around us was amazing.

Despite all being strangers, everyone helped everyone and for those who were competing in bigger teams, it was great to see the support they had for each other as they went around the course.

A special thanks goes out to Simon and John who were raising money for the Jam Foundation.

Not only did they help me and Marta out on the Everest obstacle, where we had to run up a half-pipe and grip on for dear life, but also the block ness monster.

Despite being tired and unable to do anymore for the day by the end of it, the Tough Mudder experience was a great one and I would definitely do it again.

On her Tough Mudder experience, Marta said: “Tough Mudder was as tough as people describe it but it was undoubtedly one of the best experiences of my life, despite being extremely sore whilst typing this article, I am proud.

“Some obstacles were harder to overcome, but in the end I was quite surprised with myself.

“I crawled through mud, fell on it before the challenge even started, swam, drowned, climbed, run, there was a bit of everything and intense is not a word that comes anywhere close to how it was.”

For me, it was great to do the challenge with one of my best friends who was a great motivation around the course.

This feeling resonated with Marta as she added: “Doing this challenge along with one of my best friends made the whole experience more wholesome, there is no one else I would rather live blood, sweat and mud with.”

It was also great to raise money for the BHive, who I hope I have helped in some way with the money we have raised.

Marta chose to raise money for Newark’s Careers Group. She added: “Raising money for Newark Careers Group, a charity that isn’t known enough for its incredible work with people with dementia and their careers, gave me a higher purpose for doing the challenge.”

If you’re reading this and thinking could you maybe do Tough Mudder then what is stopping you from going to it next year!

If I can do it then you definitely can!

We are still accepting donations at www.gofundme.com/f/tough-mudder-at-belvoir-castle-fundraise.

Donations are being accepted until Sunday, July 2.