Proper photos!

Some of the more astute of you will have noticed a lack of reference to Fit Mark last week - he was entered for Ice Breaker too. The day before he emailed me to say "I've bled my brakes, set up my gears, changed my tyres and wheels for lighter ones, greased and lubed the drive chain and attached my number to the bars. You?"

I emailed back to say I'd made a picnic.

Fit Mark was going to be brilliant at the running, fantastic on the bike section and superfast on the last run. If only he'd remembered his bike... Oh yes! Well, to be fair, he brought the frame, just not the wheels.... So he went home again. Sigh. This means, very sadly, that whilst Ice Cream Sian and I have achieved Mud Master status, Fit Mark hasn't. Not that we're rubbing it in or anything. And when we all went out on Friday night to a comedy night at our local Village Hall (Madame Galina, hysterically funny, made us ache all over we laughed so much) naturally the most practical things to wear for Ice Cream Sian and me were our Mud Master hoodies... Bragging? Us? YEP!

And we had the added excitement this week of proper timings (well, let's just gloss over that - there should be a category for s-l-o-w) and proper photos. The photographers (Peachy Snaps) are brilliant - the light looks amazing. And we look happy - which, in fact, we were! So here's the week again in photos:

Fairly early on, before we started shedding layers. We're very proud that Mud Runner are using this photo to publicise all the other photos.... (blushing happily)

I love the background in this next one - it shows how STEEP the hills are! It's at about 8k, just after I'd drowned the walkie talkie and as I obviously wasn't to be trusted with expensive equipment we'd just put it in Ice Cream Sian's backpack.

So she fell over. Nothing broken. Well, obviously the walkie talkie was but, to be fair, it was broken before Ice Cream Sian sat on it...

And after that we decided to look where we were going...

Still grinning!

The bike section was 20k... the brave photographer who stayed out till the very end was at about 19k and by this time Ice Cream Sian was suffering from a serious lack of sugar... I wish I looked that good when I felt that rough!!

And then me, still grinning. By now you've worked out I had gin in my backpack...

And we had enough time (and then some) to stop and pose for a smiley photo...

Then on to the last 3k run - notice the distinct feeling of 'dusk' creeping in...

And finally... With feet like blocks of ice, the last field. The poor frozen photographer's very last shot of the day. I think he was using a wide angled lens for those two backsides...

Next year we'll do our best Morecame & Wise dancing....