A few months ago, I saw something on Face Book, which caught my attention. It was an advert to take part in ‘The Muddy Dog Challenge‘ to raise money for Battersea Dogs Home. I’d never heard of it before, but the video looked like so much fun. It’s a 5K run with your dog with obstacles and plenty of mud! Who wouldn’t want to do this?!
This was definitely my thing, doing something which looked like a lot of fun with our dogs. The 5K part? Well it’s been a long time since I’d run a 5K, I fast walk that distance regularly, but running? I’d worry about that later.
I got in touch with my two sons and it was a YES from them and my youngest niece was also interested to run it along with her boyfriend. I would run with Rosie, our collie, my eldest son would have Millie the pug, which would be interesting! My youngest son would run with his dads collie, Blue and my niece and boyfriend would run with her sisters dog, Bruno. We had a team! We signed up!
Those few months went by so quickly and as my planned, hardcore training hadn’t really happened, I was a little nervous for my dodgy knees when the day of the run came, but we were all excited, because whatever happened, we’d have fun!
After a few days dosing up with Ibuprofen, getting it into my system and rubbing the gel on my knees the night before and the morning of the race, a couple of good knee straps and I was raring to go.
Our particular venue was Harewood House in Leeds, (Battersea arrange many ‘Muddy Dog’ runs across the country) which is a perfect place for this because of the stunning surroundings and as we arrived we were immediately struck by how well everything was organised.
With our Muddy Dog Challenge T shirts on, bandanas on the dogs – this team was ready to go!
Let’s Go!
A quick warm up first…and we’re off!
The first obstacle was wet, muddy rags – Lovely!
Then a lot of running in mud, crawling in mud and generally splashing in mud!
Running through tyres…
More crawling…
More running…
And plenty of smiles!
All the dogs did so well, including Millie! I guess being raised with a collie, makes her already a fit pug and used to joining in with long fast walks and some running too. Blue totally pulled Joe around the course, he was always in the lead and Bruno seemed to love the whole experience, enjoying all the puddles! Rosie, of course could’ve just kept running, it’s a pity for her that she had me to slow her down! All the dogs, not just ours, but all the dogs who took part, absolutely loved it and all were more than happy to join in and try all the obstacles.
It was a laugh from start to finish and something brilliant to do with the family, including our dogs, we all loved it and are already talking about doing another next year.
Thank you to Jon and more of our family who were there supporting and taking photo’s, it was lovely having them there cheering us on. Jon was funny, because as we were running around the grounds, we kept seeing him popping up at certain obstacles with the camera. Goodness knows how he kept up, he must’ve known a few short cuts, but thanks to him doing his SAS style stalking around the woods, we got some great photo’s!
The Big Finish
This is the finishing video. Very funny with Millie and Jack coming in at the end. And notice a certain Rosie waiting, making sure her best friend makes it through the water 😍
What a fabulous day! Thank you to Battersea for organising these events, I believe they raised over £65k just through this days’ event alone. A fantastic achievement for an amazing cause.
Thank you to all who have supported by sponsoring us already, we really appreciate it!
This is my ➤ Just Giving link Here, in case there is anyone out there who would like to chip in to help the fantastic charity that is Battersea Dogs Home.
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Have a great day! 😍
That looks like a whole lotta fun, for both 2-legged and 4-legged participants!
Deb
I can’t say that I would enjoy the mud, but a 5k run is always fun.
Oh the mud is definitely the fun part 😂
It was deb! Muddy and wet fun 🙂
That’s a great blog Sam, you captured perfectly what a fab day it was – so glad I was there to see you at the finish line with all the crew and the dogs 😆
😄 I loved that day & it was great you were there to cheer us in at the end, it made all the difference! 😘
That all looked like so much fun and well done for raising money for a great charity. Caz x
Thank you Caz, it was a fabulous day, just full of mud and laughter. Battersea are a fantastic charity who do so much for our furry friends 🙂
Now, why would any of us turn down a chance to get muddy? I can’t think of any. 🙂 Looks like a fun thing to do in creating more family time memories.
Another mud lover – yeahyy! It was a fantastic day Suzanne, certainly one for the memory book 🙂
What a fun afternoon! I would love to take part in something similar. First, I would need to borrow a dog. Next, I would need to do tons of training (as I have never done a 5K of any sort — other than walking)!
Gorgeous photos!
It was a brilliant day, Donna I recommend it and great to see such a lot of happy dogs too 😀
What fun, Sam! I am sending your post to my brother. He has done Tough Mudders and he has a dog he loves. There may be events like this in our part of the world. You put together an amazing team. Family, Dogs, Fun. It does help when all is organized well. I love all of the photos and the smiles. Thank you for sharing your event!
Thank you Erica it was amazing, we laughed from start to finish. Let me know if your brother finds a similar event, it’d be interesting.
Aww, what a fun family and dog event, Sam. Congrats and thanks for sharing your photos!
Thank you Terri, it was such a wonderful day 😊