Situated on a 10k route through the rolling hills of the Lake District, Total Warrior is the latest — and arguably greatest — of the obstacle-based endurance challenges. With muddy crawls through foul-smelling slop, barbed wire, electric fences and fire, it’s more than your average race.

We attended the Lake District Saturday 10k with a team of people from varying walks of life and with different levels of fitness. We all had one thing in mind: completing the race for a well-earned free beer and glory for the big blue ship!

After a brief coffee break for some caffeine-induced motivation, we arrived at the event, got our gear strapped on and were ready to go!

 

We watched other waves being sent off on the course as we warmed up, slipped on our headbands and pressed temporary Total Warrior tattoos onto our cheeks. We crawled through hay bales into a starting area, where we were whipped into a warm-up dancing frenzy with hundreds of other people.

 

What followed was a gruelling 10k run up and down some brutally steep hills, diving over fire into water, crawling through foul-smelling liquid mud, squeezing through mud-infested tubes and even diving into an ice bath, which gave most of us brain-freeze as we were running.

 

Here are the main things we learned on the way round.

• It’s tough to stay as a team as the pace of the race and hundreds of people naturally splits you up.
• The ice bath is not very pleasant, no matter how warm you are. Solid chunks of ice and freezing, dirty water that makes your head ache — not fun.
• 10k isn’t too tough when it’s split up by obstacles.
• Upper body strength is needed but everyone is friendly. Strangers are more than happy to help you over the wall.
• The camaraderie the race creates is fantastic!
• Post-race beers taste amazing.
• You don’t have to be super fit, as you can walk sections and be helped on tougher obstacles.
• Mediaworks is fast! Our team of 14 averaged a time of 2 hours. Not bad at all!

 

Finance director Graham lugged his GoPro with him throughout the day, capturing all the swearing, trips and disgusting belly-down crawls through the mud for you to enjoy in video format, available below.

http://bit.ly/1Lbep65

Check it out to see us suffering through one of the muddiest, most gruelling but most enjoyable weekends ever!