We Few, We Happy (and muddy) Few

Yesterday morning at 10:25am Karina and I and 8 lovely people looked like this:

About an hour or so later - we had turned into this:

(that's meant to be some sort of Wolf growl face, although some seem to be channelling The Walking Dead)

This was my second Wolf Run, but the first for almost everyone else. Our group had a mixture of abilities - from Paul the recovering marathon-addict (the run, not the chocolate) to Jemma who had never run 10k before, let alone with obstacles, mud and a lake swim thrown in.

We had all trained for this. Some more than others. Several had attended our Boot Camp sessions, others had followed our online training plans. We were sort of ready for a warm summer's day - which didn't necessarily help when what we got was a dreary and overcast autumn day instead. But with our trail shoes done up tight (don't want to lose one of those in a chest-high pool of mud), our bright green FreeRange Fitness t-shirts on, and our numbers attached or written on us we got warmed up by the Wolf Run crew before charging off into the Warwickshire countryside.

I won't give away all the fun and games that we got up to yesterday. But what we all learned was how far we are prepared to push ourselves, and how much we needed each other:

There is nothing in the Wolf Run that is impossible.

There is nothing in the Wolf Run that can't be conquered by someone with enough grit and determination.

There is nothing in the Wolf Run that a small group of people, working together, can't help, push, pull, lift, manhandle, shove, cheer, whoop or just drag enough other over, under or through.

And when you get to the end of it, wet, covered in filthy (and I won't lie, smelly) mud - probably having picked up an extra bruise or two along the way - you will know a little bit more about what you are capable of. You will be that bit more resilient, the next time you get a small twinge when running, or you have to clean up something icky. You will have put yourself through things that you probably thought you never would do. And you will have seen how many people, even complete stranger, are prepared to help you do it.