On Saturday I packed up my KitBrix bag and headed up to Wembley with my friend Helen, and her sister and boyfriend. They were in a team completing in the 10k Mens Health Survival of the Fittest obstacle run. I was not. I was there to marshall.
I’ve never marshalled an event before and thought it might be fun and interesting to be there from the other side rather than participating. It felt a little strange. We all arrived and as they got ready to run I headed over to be told where I should go and what I needed to do.
I met one of the guys who was part of team No Fear on Wheels at Nuclear, which was amazing as I had seen those guys in action and have so much respect for them. I also met a lovely lady called Luzanne who had marshalled loads before and knew everyone so I stuck with her! I was hoping we would be paired up as she clearly knew what she was doing but every post was a solo one.
At first you are given a high viz vest, lanyard with all contact details and a whistle. We headed in to a briefing where it was explained what was expected of us and given health and safety tips and what to do in an emergency etc then headed out. As we were making our way around the course we would stop at each obstacle and you were assigned your post.
I ended up on a post that was a double one – runners coming from one direction at about 2k to then hurdle and then the runners heading back my way at about 4.5k on a running stretch of the course.
I was layered up prepared for the cold, proudly wearing my Mudd Queen wrag and had bought with me 11 bags of jelly babies to hand out to the runner as I remembered this was a godsend when I was doing Nuclear Fallout last weekend.
Wearing my wrag was great as other Mudd Queens recognise you cue lots of cheering.
I was cheering everyone on, telling them how well they were doing and handing out jelly babies. I got hugs, high fives, smiles, some people cheered me and I had loads of runners saying thank you for standing out in the cold for them. It was such a great experience and i would definitely do it again!
It was really nice when I saw Helen and her group running back shouting out my name and also shouting for jelly babies!
There were lots of crazy people there doing laps. I thought I was going mad until they said they were on laps. I soon started being called Jelly Baby lady as they came around and around knowing there I would be withe sweets for them and by the end of the day I had none left!
The day was set up with 10k runs of the course through the day and then in the evening started the 5k runs. I saw Tom from Mudstacle who I had done the Commando Series OCR with.
There was one guy who was AWESOME!! He was lovely and stopped for a hug every time he came round and I say every time as he was doing laps but many many laps. He did 6 laps of the 10k course and then when the evening 5k runs started he did 2 of those as well so 8 laps in total and 70k!! He smiled the whole way and on the last lap we had joked he should wear all of his medals and he did! I heard this noise before I saw him and I cracked up as I knew immediately – legend!
I headed home cold and tired but with a huge smile on my face – met some lovely people and if you’re thinking about doing it I would highly recommend.
And to top it off its weight day today and I’ve lost 1lb so back on track to the most I’ve lost to date – onwards and upwards! Just 28lb more to go!
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