On Sunday I took part in Total Warrior which is one of a growing number of weekend obstacle course events involving lots of mud. The event is located on farmland near the village of Shap in the Lake District. The obstacle race consists of endless hills, rivers, mud (tonnes of it!), woodland and the rugged Lake District terrain. And then there’s the small issue of the 25 – 30 obstacles that they construct around the 10 mile course.

I hadn’t trained especially for the event as I tend to keep fairly fit, although I had tried to add a few 5k runs into my routine. However, as someone who hates running, I was always happy to find an excuse to skip a run.

We arrived at Shap on Sunday in plenty of time – excited and nervous. We set off in the first wave of participants and the first “obstacle” was to run up and down a 150m embankment 3 times. My legs were knackered already! I was already wondering how I was going to be able to complete the course! The terrain was gruelling; steep hills, boggy underfoot, and hardly any running on the flat. 3 miles in, we broke off the course to do a 4 mile fell run. I’ve not been on a fell run before. It was hard!

After climbing over countless obstacles – swimming through rivers, running through obstacles with 10,000 volt electric shocks, climbing through mud whilst avoiding the barbed wire, sliding down a 120ft waterslide and being submerged in a freezing cold ice bath – we all reached the finish line in one piece in around 2.5 hours. Tough going, but the feeling of achievement was amazing.

Last year I took part in a very similar event, Tough Mudder, so I was feeling quietly confident about Total Warrior. The difficult and hilly terrain made this a much harder course to complete. I felt like I’d been involved in a car accident! Having said that, I loved every minute of it (although I don’t I would have said that part way through that fell run)!
I would highly recommend this event to anyone who wants a challenge but with a fun element.

Written by Jonathan Broadley