Miss Muddy wrap-up
Cluden Racecourse rang with squeals, shrieks, laughs, cheers and the occasional expletive on Sunday as about 2600 women of all ages, shapes and fitness levels tackled the dynamically dirty multi-skilled obstacle course that is Miss Muddy.
The first time the Sydney/Brisbane-based charity event has been held in Townsville, regular waves of women crossed the start line throughout the day to tackle everything from climbing walls, monkey bars and balance beams to mud pits, ice baths and inflatable slip n’ slides.
The best part of the day was seeing these ladies enjoying some good old fashioned not-so-clean fun. They spear tackled each other in the ice bath, gently coaxed each other down the climbing walls, and shared celebratory sweat and mud-laden hugs at the finish line — the sisterhood was certainly alive and well. For 4km, all the stresses of work and family life were washed away… with mud. And plenty of it.
“Everyone was helping each other; even other teams helping other teams,” Pam Pemberton said, who is no stranger to active events as one of the founders of the Tri-Be Free Radicals Family Triathlon Club. Pam did Miss Muddy with other women from work and enjoyed crawling through the mud run the most. “From the third station or so everyone had to work together so it was a really good bonding exercise and there was a fantastic atmosphere.”
Fellow Miss Muddy contender Jessica Pampling was in a group of six girls, with half the team part of the same fitness group. “Three of us are in Iron Rose Project, which is about helping women to get their fitness back, so we wanted to sign up to see how far we’d come,” Jessica said. “My favourite bit was helping each other over the tubes, as there was real teamwork there; plus the shirtless firemen were nice to look at (laughs). The worst bit was the icy water — oh god! I would definitely do it again and hopefully get bigger group together.”
If you missed out on the fun this time, Miss Muddy is planning to return to Townsville next year. That gives you plenty of opportunity to get that eye-catching team costume sorted.
Check out our Facebook album for our Miss Muddy photographs.
