Raquel's 40 Race Challenge

I love the fact that every single one of these events is such an experience. I set out to do this challenge to raise money for Grassroots but I never realised how much the challenge would benefit my life and mental health. I needed to do something with my grief when my sister passed away - I felt I was sinking into an abyss of depression. I didn’t intend for this to be a solution to my (what felt like) constant sadness, the motivation was more to do with doing something to help others at risk of suicide and their families because the result of suicide is just so devastating. I couldn’t bear thinking of other families having to experience this type of death. I felt completely helpless. But this challenge has been a journey of self discovery, positive mental health and acceptance. It’s such a bonus that these things have happened and I feel so lucky that my life has really turned a corner and all because I made the decision to fundraise and stick my neck out doing the craziest of physica...

A fun, messy, friendly event (sadly for over 12’s only) otherwise it’s family friendly. Myself, Seb and his friend Zeb made our way to Brighton Racecourse in the glorious sunshine. This is an obstacle run over 4km with powdered paint being chucked all over you! We had a few packets of colour given to us at the beginning and an event t-shirt so we got a bit messy before we even started. We crossed the track to the the start for the warm up and I heard someone call “mum” and there was my eldest son Josh working as a marshal! He’d been called up late last night to support the event - what a lovely surprise! The music is pumping pretty much throughout this event which makes the atmosphere very upbeat. No one really runs so we jogged and walked between the obstacles. The obstacles were fun and quite a few I hadn’t seen before so that kept my interest. We raced on quite a few as you go three or four at a time on each obstacle which was super fun but Seb and I ended up with friction burns o...

I thoroughly enjoyed this event! I have been so tempted in the last few days to sign up for next year but I have promised myself and my family a break from events and fundraising for a little while after my challenge ends in April 2020 so I didn’t complete the entry for next year.... I almost did! My lovely neighbour Debbie couldn’t use her entry so my pal Rachel took her spot and I couldn’t have had a better person by my side for this event. We chatted and grimaced at the rain and drank (yep beer and wine haha) together and just had the best time despite the crappy British weather. Neither of us are cyclists - we’re runners at heart so we even had that in common! We were so laid back about this event - perhaps a little too laid back? Rachel popped over to my house at about 7pm the previous evening to sort something to wear and good old Amazon delivered my storage bags for the bike at 4pm (ordered less than 24hrs previously) to store the things I’d need for the ride. We had tot...