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Mud larks romp through the swamp

Running at you! Monday morning after school assembly

Mud, mud, glorious mud. Students from Gordonton School were out there getting dirty with the best of them at the first-ever Junior Tough Guy and Gal last Friday. Fiona Gillespie filed this report.

Mud 1 — Caitlyn Day and Dayna King enjoy the experience

IT WAS the ultimate obstacle course, with lashings of mud. The morning was cool, but that didn’t hinder the excitement in anyway. Fifty eight of our toughest kids joined about 1300 others at the event, held at Ngaruawahia Christian Youth Camp.

Parents and kids alike were brimming with pure adrenalin in anticipation of getting started.

The Gordonton kids donned their bright orange tee-shirts – Mud Run 2015, Gordonton School – blazed across their backs, their black shorts and their blue socks. They looked amazing, especially with their looks of trepidation and an overwhelming desire to just ‘get going!’.

The course was lined with onlookers, the parents, teachers, grandparents, caregivers, helpers came out in force to cheer all the kids on and keep them going, the atmosphere was almost electric.

Tthe first kids off were the 9 to 13-year-olds – the rumble of hundreds of feet bursting into action was simply awesome as hundreds of smiley faces raced off from the start line.

They soon hit the obstacles, absolutely full of mud. They were crawling on tummies through tunnels, wading and slipping through pools of mud, sloshing through creeks, scrambling under barbed wire, climbing up and over frames – all with loads of glorious mud.

mud mud — Nick de Vries, James Johnston, Marc & Paul Walton, Ryan Salmons, Alex Mitchell showing great form

The first runners did just over 3km and returned cold, wet and shivery but with massive smiles on their faces.

Mud 2 — Helen de Vries and Emily Pari working on footwork

The next to go were the 7 to 8-year-olds, just 1.5km of the course. Everywhere you looked there were hundreds and hundreds of muddy, smiley kids, with loads of laughter and encouragement ringing loud and clear.

It was such an amazing experience for our 58 runners, some have vowed and declared they will ‘be back next year’, some have said ‘no way’, either way it’s something they will remember forever.

Big ‘thumbs up’ to those kids and their families, and all who took part to support the kids, thanks to principal David McNair for his support of such a terrific event – the biggest one in the country, and probably the only event where you are totally allowed to get ‘down and dirty’!