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On a sunny Saturday in June, Nick Sissling, Ben White and Tom Blake conquered the Tough Mudder London South, an obstacle course (designed by Special Forces) to test your strength, stamina and determination; a challenge not to be taken lightly!
The boys had no idea how long the course would take but being just shy of half-marathon distance and involving 21 muddy, wet and sometimes electrified obstacles, they were aiming for a 3 hour finish time.
Team inspiration, Tom said “Jumping, crawling, climbing, wading, log carrying, submerging yourself into an ice pit and getting electrocuted multiple times with 10,000 volts whilst running 12 miles cross country in drenched kit is not the most relaxing thing you could do on a sunny Saturday afternoon! Fortunately, the weather was fantastic, so we could at least warm up between the regular dunkings! The main difference between this event to others (apart from the gruelling obstacles) was the teamwork and camaraderie, not only between the three of us, but everyone else participating too. We were reminded at the start of the challenge that the length of time taken to complete the course was not what was important; but that each one of us completed the course and helped each other to complete the obstacles! The mindset that we were encouraged to take was inspiring!”
It also happened to be Ben’s birthday which made for more fun times on the way round as the boys chanted “Happy Birthday Ben” around most obstacles and carried him on their shoulders for the 100m “Hero Carry” obstacle!
Many photos were also taken by the WSM team supporter, Emma Digby, who chased the team round the course with her camera and caught them at their most vulnerable. Ben also wore his Go Pro video camera so check out the great ‘WSM conquers Tough Mudder’ video.
In the end, the boys managed a very respectable time of 2 hours 35 minutes and were treated to a banana, a pint of cider and the hallowed Tough Mudder finisher’s orange headband!
Team captain, Tom said “the real reward was knowing that, as a team, we had taken on ‘probably the toughest event on the planet’ and yet we still came out smiling”.
So far, the boys have raised £167 for Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity – if you would liek to make a donation, please do so here.
To view the video of their challenge, click here.
Amanda graduated from Brunel University, with a joint honours degree, achieving a BSC and BA degree in Leisure Management and Television and film studies. Amanda started her career in a customer service role before joining the hotel group Le Meridien as an Events coordinator, she was in the hotel industry for seven years and during her time won an award from a major international airline for her outstanding attitude and dedication to customer service, which she achieved while working for the Rezidor hotel group in the position of Airline Crew Manager. Amanda has over 20 years experience in customer relations and event management.
