Commemorating the battle of Passchendaele in 1917, which lasted from 31st July until the 10th November, this Royal British Legion event is a great fund raiser and held at Penpergwm, near Abergavenny.
The course was about 5 miles long over mainly flat fields with various obstacles to negotiate along the way, including mountains of hay bails to climb over, cargo nets to scramble under, and a tunnel to crawl under which had wires dangling from the top to give anyone a small electric shock should you touch one of them.
There were a good number of Caerleon Running Club members there who signed in and were given their run T shirts to wear. The camo paint was handed around which was liberally applied to our faces, but I have to say that it didn't make any of us look like steely eyed killers, but it helped us to get into the atmosphere of the event.
Caerleon Running Club ready for action
The organisers gave a heath and safety talk before we were put through our paces with a warm up, then split us into starting groups so that not everyone started at the same time, which would have created large queues at each obstacle.
We began negotiating some simple hay bails where team work was the name of the game to help others get over them before we arrived at the river, which we had to cross. The water was fairly fast flowing, about knee deep and icy cold, and one or two people lost their footing and got an unexpected dip.
By this time some of our club members had pulled away and formed their own group, so I hung back with Phil, Tania, JoJo, Ann and Shell. The next section was mainly running with only a couple of simple obstacles to negotiate before having to cross the river again, but we had to join a queue and in the mean time I was cooling off and beginning to feel chilly.
My turn came and I entered the water first with Phil and the girls behind me. All was OK until I reached mid river, then I don't know what exactly happened, whether I lost my balance, (which is pretty crap at the best of times), or I slipped, or if the force of the current just swept my legs away, but the next thing I knew was that I had lost my foothold and I got a complete dunking in the water. But then, due to the force of the flow, I struggled to get my legs down so that I could get a foothold and stand up again. The thing was, that my dunking caused Phil to get a dunking also, plus the two people ahead of me as well, so there were four of us got a soaking. Sorry guys, but we all had a good laugh about it.
I waited on the far side of the river bank, soaking wet and cold, for the rest of my group to make it across and we headed off to the next group of obstacles, a cargo net to scramble under followed by a muddy tunnel with wires dangling from the roof to give a small electric shock should you touch one of them. Fortunately I didn't, phew.
Then a series a boggy ponds where the water came to just above my knee, but the mud felt like it came up to my calf's and at times it was a struggle to release my feet from the mud due to the suction.
More obstacles to climb over came along where we all helped each other to negotiate before the final jog to the finish line.
Of course there has to be the almost obligatory after race photo. Fortunately we were all as mucky as each other, and we all smelled of muddy bog and cow pats.
Well that was fun, and a different way to spend a Sunday in the Welsh countryside, but it was also a great way of raising funds for the Royal British Legion, who look after ex servicemen and women who need help after leaving the service.
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