I’m not quite sure why I decided to sign up for the Tough Mudder event to be honest. I must be mad!

It will however be a fantastic way to raise money for a cause that lies very close to my heart.

We made a start on the training last month by booking ourselves on to a mud run session at a local outdoor adventure centre.

Our training progress

The 5km course involved climbing, swimming, crawling, running and generally getting filthy. There were also a couple of swamps included for good measure.

There were about 40 obstacles on the course that all involved getting filthy and freezing cold. It didn’t help that we had picked one of the coldest days in March to go along to this session. It rained, snowed and blew a gale, but I’m pleased to say we managed to keep smiling all the way around the course!

The worst part for me was having to crawl under really low netting netting whilst up to our necks in swamp water. The water was bad enough, but knowing that there was netting above us meant there was no easy escape! I’m pretty claustrophobic at the best of times so this was a make or break moment for me! It’s certainly something I’m going to have to work on ahead of the Tough Mudder event!

It was a great way to get us all working together as a team. We all pulled together and managed to conquer various obstacles that included vertical walls, monkey bars and super steep descents into an array of bogs, swamps and freezing Welsh Water!

Since then we have all been trying to meet up once a week to do a team run around our local town. We have been doing this in our Mencap t-shirts in the hope of raising some awareness about what we are doing. We have another mud run planned for later next month and a 10km run planned towards the end of April.

Once we have our fitness levels up to a slightly better level, we hope to push ourselves to the limit and take on some more challenging adventures in our mission to get fit for the Tough Mudder marathon in August. 

My top 5 tips for training

Tip 1

Be prepared to get filthy!

The clue is in the name. It's not an event for the faint hearted, so be prepared to tackle water, mud, ice, fire and electricity on the day!

Tip 2

You need some degree of fitness to take on the event.

It's a gruelling 12 miles of army style obstacles, so not something you can just 'have a bash at'. You will need to train for this type of event.

Tip 3

It helps if you can get a team together.

You can work together to make sure you have the best possible chance of completing the course.

Tip 4

Train hard!

You will be disappointed if you get to the event and realise you haven't trained hard enough for it.

Tip 5

Go for it! Do something amazing, both for yourself and for a charity.

By running for Mencap, you will not only be having a great time, you will be raising money to support people with a learning disability all over the UK.