Pretty Muddy - Finsbury Park 2014

Today my friends Liya and Liz got Pretty Muddy in Finsbury Park, as part of Tesco's Race for Life charity event series. Their events are not timed but are much more friendly and appealing for first timers to organised races. As this is a women only event (see here why) I went along to support my friends in their inaugural OCR event. 

The event camp had lots going on, with shops to get even more pink running gear. No showers though. It says there aren't changing facilities or valuables drops on the website, but I'm sure they did at this particular event. Music was getting everyone pumped, even for us supporters. It was very muddy at the base so I was glad I chose to wear my trail shoes.

In the starting penn they reinforced their Cancer campaign message. A girl gave her own story to add the personal touch and connection. They then had some military types to get everyone warmed up. Liya and Liz was on the 10:15 wave which was pretty big so it did take a little time for people to get through the starting line. Once through things started to pick up pace.

There were four of us supporting. Chidi, Tanya, Emdar and myself. Tanya was better prepared in that she had a copy of the circuit and she wanted to see the girls at each of the obstacle. So although we could take shortcuts though the park, we ended up doing quite a bit of running ourselves. Especially as our orienteering went a bit wobbly at one point. Once again I'm glad I brought the trails shoes!

The obstacles looked fun and varied. (also very pink!). Some bottlenecks occurred for the early obstacles. This made the first inflatable hurdles particularly hard by the fact they were trying not to knock into another person whilst leaping over.

The finale was a big inflatable slide into a pit of mud. Looked like fun. Once they passed the finish line they were presented with a medal. 

Summary.
Whilst I was gutted that it is a women only event, I still had a great time supporting and running along side, snapping photos along the way. Just next time I'll wear something more suitable for running too!

For £15 this is an absolute bargain for an OCR event which are typically four times this price. (Girls under 16 pay just £10). There were a whole lot of smiles throughout the day and couldn't recommend this enough to any girls over 13 years of age. All the girls we went to support said they'd definitely be up for it again next year...





More photos from the 10:15 wave slot can be seen on the Facebook page.

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