No Ego Torch Challenge

So in a bid to take part in more local events. I found a local one a few miles from my house, the no ego torch challenge. A night run off road that required a head torch, or torch of some description, as it was only five miles I thought this should be relatively easy.

I got the bus over to the nearest stop and started to walk to the event site and of course I'd completely screwed up and plotted a walking route to Lambton Castle, rather than the event site. So luckily I'd printed off the information on where the event site was. So after walking through Lambton castle, I made my way across the grounds, finding arrows that mark the route and following some of those. I walked towards the sound of a main road and hopped the wall and made my way down the road.

After quite some time and the start time looming, I finally came upon the garage that marked the turning onto the entrance to the castle grounds. I made it with ten minutes to spare, quickly changing and pinning on my number as I crossed the start line.

As it had been raining the ground was pretty muddy and made me retie my shoelaces as I almost lost a shoe on the first muddy patch. I felt a little tired which wasn't surprising as it seems walking five miles before doing a race is never a good idea. Still I continued on passing a few people on the way. The ground was firm and boggy in equal measures with the occasional hard path, there were a couple of downward inclines that were a touch muddy and a couple of inclines that were also hard going, I opted to wear my regular trainers which was in hindsight not the best choice as they don't have a lot of grip on muddy hills but I didn't slip over which was good.

I ended up chatting to another runner who mentioned they were doing Tough Mudder Scotland in June so I offered some advice on how to prepare and what to expect when taking part. We walked for a bit and ran over the finish line, to some cheers which was nice to hear.

After getting changed I bought myself a t-shirt and headed for the bus, I discovered that I had the start of blisters on the soles of both my feet which wasn't great but if I'd went to the right location to start with, that could have been avoided, overall a cheap and rather decent mud challenge on my doorstep, I think I'll be taking part again next year.