The Full Dirty Weekend

On Friday afternoon the Melodeon Master and I collected our hired motorhome and then filled it with all manner of running gear, melodeons (yes, he can only play one at a time but that apparently doesn't mean you don't have to take A Lot More Melodeons with you...), wine, chocolate, hats, wellies, wine and wine glasses.  We had the whole works explained to us about the water, gas, power, loo, bed, windows, heating, waste system, shower (it has a SHOWER!!), diesel, windowshades, tables, chairs, oven, fridge, cleaning, power cable, refilling water...   We took about 10% of it in and off we went.  I drove (it wass really FUN but an awful lot bigger than my Smart car, everything in the cupboards rattled and the loo door flew open every time we turned left) and we arrived at Eastnor about 6.30 without hitting anything.  Or running anything over.  The camping area wass well signposted but somewhat crowded.  It was hard to know how to fit ourselves in amongst all the other happy campers!!

So when we'd carefully found ourselves a space, we rammed the loo door shut for the 85th time and had a glass of wine whilst listening to The Archers.  The Wild Weekend had started!!  Then the portable loos arrived - yay!  And another couple with a tent!  Yay!  We went to have a chat with Kes who was overseeing the loos positioning (he gets all the good jobs) and he kindly piled us into his Landrover for a guided tour of the Race Village.  It was fab - there were huge marquees and proper catering and a brilliant merchandise tent and posh loos.  And the Muddy Tub Of Love, being stoked with coal and looking splendidly clean.  

It wouldn't last...

On Saturday lunchtime Wee Gill and Beagle Nic arrived in their hired motorhome and were able to squeeze into a space right next to us.  It was really filling up...

We walked up to the Race Village for a look-see as neither of them had done any kind of mud running event before, and I kindly led them to the start and showed them just how far they had to run by pointing out the top of the first hill with a big red arrow...  They were Very Pleased.  And, yes, I was wearing a cow hat.  It was one of the many options I brought with me to hide the ginger hair.

We're running as the Happy Cows on Saturday with our T shirts and pink wigs.  Once we're all dressed up we look FAB.  And clean.  Mini Moo posed for the photo but bailed out before the run...

Notice how in this picture there are four really nice pink bobs, and one seriously weird pageboy feather cut - Ice Cream Sian on the left.  

It's only as we're in the start box that we realise she has a 'Made In China' tag on her forehead and, in fact, has her wig on back to front.  Too bad - there's no time to change it, and we're OFF!

This is just one of the umpteen 'waves' that runners set off in.  No, of course we're not in the picture - we're at the back...  

There will be Proper Photos later in the week which I'll save for next weekend's blog, but as we started off Ice Cream Sian and I achieved our target of running ALL the way up to the Big Red Arrow and then we were into the 'woods where no spectators really get to' bit and then some 9.5k later back near the finish to the new, and utterly impossible Tall Wall.  Good grief.  I'm sure there's a technique for this, but we went for the 'shove and hope' method of getting each other over.  And HUGE thanks to the lovely marshall here who helped almost everybody over with a leg-up.

Although we look quite organised on the front of the wall, we weren't quite so elegant on the landing side and ended up in a pretty tangled heap of pink wigs and T shirts...

Then there was a little pond suitable for Synchronised Formation Cow Wading and then another lake...

And finally the FINISH where we crossed the line as a team - hooray!

Quick Ceri gets the prize for Most Muddy and I really do have to get my One Leg In Front Posh Finishing School pose sorted - I'm letting the side down here...

Only one thing to do after a Mud Run - head for the Muddy Tub of Love.  We duly admired the boiler doing it's stuff (that water is HOT!)...

...and then plunged in...  

Just look at the colour of that water...  But it was still cleaner than we were!

We RAN barefoot back to the camping area (I know - how fit are we??), got a bit cleaner, ate something and then headed back up to the Race Village for the evening entertainment - Young Greg singing and playing guitar around a blazing camp fire.  We found we were still hungry and as there was a barbecue nearby I cheerfully marched up and asked if I could buy food.  Um, no, it was actually a private party but Sausage Graham was really kind and clearly thought we looked hungry so took pity on us and shared his sausages with us.  We ate rather a lot...  That's absolutely the spirit of Mud Runner, and the reason we love it so much - thank you to all of Sausage Graham's party, sorry we gatecrashed your picnic, and your sausages were just brilliant!

The four of us from the two motorhomes headed back to the campsite about 9.30, had a cup of tea and went to bed.  Yep, still doing the whole Wild Weekend thing then...

On Sunday morning the Melodeon Master and I were up early so that he could play for the junior race warm-up, just as he had on Saturday. The Melodeon Master had brought, along with lots of melodeons, his stripey coat, cool shades and England cricket baseball cap.  And notice how he's playing just the one melodeon...

The Melodeon Master played jolly tunes while Mike the Mic (do you think he got the gig on the mic because he's called Mike, or was it just because he was utterly BRILLIANT?) had the children in front of us (I was holding a mic for the Melodeon Master) doing 'waving like a tree' and 'running on the spot' and 'holding up one leg' which I was OK at...

...but when he went into 'really bend those knees' I was in a spot of bother...

Notice the natty headgear by the way - a newly bought Mud Runner Buff (sort of neck warmer effort) which I found doubles as an absolutely fantastic 'hide the ginger' headband.  Well worth a tenner...

For the Sunday we'd had T shirts printed with 'Luv Schmud' on the front (a sort of mantra adopted by Wee Gill when trying to convince herself that she actually did like mud) and 'Dirty Girls - Doin' it twice!' on the back.  We forgot to take a picture of our backs...

We also made use of the temporary tattoos provided by Mud Runner - we'd had some of these on Saturday too.  Quick Ceri had 'Earn It' on the back of her calf, I had 'BOOM', and Wee Gill, getting it upside down, ended up with 'WOOB' on her arm.

For Sunday we obviously went for these...

And I'm keeping mine on for as long as possible...

The T shirts were splendidly large and absolutely brilliant for blowing one's nose on...  As I still had the last dregs of the Melodeon Master's man-flu and had taken rather effective decongestants on the basis that 'snotty but able to breathe' was preferable to 'not being able to breathe', having Something Very Handy To Blow A Nose On was really useful.  Until I fell in the mud and my T shirt was too soggy.  It's at this sort of time that you find out who your true friends are, and Wee Gill's offer of 'Go on, use my sleeve' was gratefully taken up.  Oh yes.  I'm sure blowing my snot into my boss's sleeve won't affect my career at all...  Thinking back, it might have been one of those 'I'll offer but you're not meant to say yes' kind of offers....  Oops.

We'd decided we'd run in two batches because of our varying speeds so Ice Cream Sian, Quick Ceri and Beagle Nic went off more quickly, and Wee Gill and I decided to take it really easy at the back.  So here we are taking it really easy at the back right at the start.  We were Very Good at it.

We were slower than on Saturday but we still did it - made all the more brilliant by (a) talking about quitting half way up the first hill but not actually giving up and (b) meeting two fit young men at the top of the last but one hill who were utterly gobsmacked and hugely impressed that we'd done the run twice in two days - we might not be quick, but we have STAMINA!

And how are my legs today?  Absolutely fine.  Really fine.  Not stiff at all.  

Well, not unless I go up stairs.  Or down stairs.  Or walk.  Or sit down.  Or get up.

Really fine then...