Now I am beginning to panic...

Back in January in the early weeks of my C25K we had a dinner with my husbands boss which he had planned to repeat on a regular basis (but Covid-19 put pay to that). I had been dreading the occasion as I had visions of me sitting there with nothing in common with them other than my husbands work. The conversation got around to food and healthy eating, then onto exercise where my husband brought up the fact that I had just started running. Suddenly our hostess was filled with excitement as apparently she was a keen runner. Now at that point, I could hardly class myself as a runner as I was doing more walking that running but that did not stop her taking a keen interest.

Now seeing her immaculately dressed with perfect hair and makeup my immediate thought was of the human gazelles that we see running from the school. These are the women that inspired us as they made running look so easy. They return from their run looking as pristine as when they left without even a hint of glow to their cheeks and not a hair out of place. Our running group soon discovered that we are not gazelles.

After the meal, I was show her running scrap book which contained photos, certificates of completion, and numerous high placed positions in various everts. Many of the photos are of her clutching a meddle or trophy of some kind.

She can obviously run, however, the most noticeable fact was that in most of the photos, she was completely covered on mud!!! Wow, not at all what I was expecting.

Now out of politeness, I felt I had to express the same interest in her running as she had in mine. BIG MISTAKE!! As the conversation went on, somehow I ended up agreeing that once I could run 5K confidently (with the emphasis on confidently), I will give her events a go.

Now at that point I had no confidence I would ever run for 5K, I had it down with the same odds as winning it big on the lottery. Adding the word 'confidently' really just confirmed in my mind that it would never happen. If I had realised now how good the C25K program is, I may have thought twice about agreeing as I have now progressed from that and now up to 10K. Some would say that as I run 5K 3-4 times a week, and now 10K almost once a week that I can run 5K 'confidently'. Well my helpful husband did just that! He has told his boss how I have progressed who has now told his wife.

A message has now come back from her saying that the provisional dates for these mud events next year are likely to be confirmed as the covid vaccine is now being rolled out and that we will need to book out place soon. I had hoped she had forgotten!!

The only thing I know about these events is that there is a detergent advertised on the TV that will get your clothes clean after. From the various web sites I have had a quick look at, they require a bit more that just being able to run 5K. So far the only excuse I can think of not to do it is that I will get my nice pink running shoes dirty.

Help!!

[BellaTheCook Graduate]

Wow! You've clearly taken to running like a duck to water (if not to mud 😆).

I've no experience to offer with the mud challenge, but if you are really unsure about it how about getting in there first and inviting her along to a normal 5k or 10k race. It might be easier to confess your doubts when running alongside her, plus you might feel a bit more confident about it if you can measure your prowess against hers.

Or just go for it. I bet they are really fun 😀.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

If they are Tough Mudders, just keep up your training...........and get some trail shoes.

As with any event, you will manage what you manage on the day and nobody should judge you.

Have confidence, have fun.

[Curlygurly2 Graduate]

Oh gosh! If it were me I would be looking up the mud events that take place near you to see what they look like, you never know you might fancy it!

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Thanks for all you suggestions and encouragement (I was rather hoping for some good excuses not to do it ) I think I will look into it a bit more. So far, the only other people I have run with is our running group. With that, although we run at our own pace, we were all conscious of not leaving anyone behind. Our motivation to improve has been more to do with ensuring we don't hold others back rather than to beat them. Although we are now taking the actual running more serious, there is not much competitiveness between us.

From the little I have seen of these mud events, it involves climbing and crawling etc. and probably more upper body strength is required.

Thanks all for your posts.