Warwick Lacrosse complete the Mudder of all challenges

Warwick Lacrosse have raised £700 for charity by competing in the notoriously difficult Tough Mudder challenge.

16 members of the club – 12 boys and four girls – completed the North West course in just under six hours for Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, which cares for 50,000 patients per year.

The challenge was in honour of Warwick Lacrosse member Michael Wooldridge, whose five-year-old cousin Erin has acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a serious disease which affects the white blood cells.

One member of the club, third-year English Literature student Sean Okundaye, returned from his year abroad in France to complete the challenge, which consists of a 12-mile run and is laden with obstacles ranging from high walls to surfaces laden with 10,000 volts of electricity.

President Jenny Harris admitted that it was a tough day for the participants, but that it had helped them to grow closer together.

“It was all about camaraderie and it was a challenge not a race,” she said. “Everyone stuck together. Occasionally people would get the cramp, but we would collectively massage the cramp out.

“It’s definitely up there with the hardest exercise I’ve ever done. I’ve certainly never had to jump into an ice bath before! It was massively character-building – I really feel like the club is now closer than ever. It was such a group achievement.

“It was a great day out – we got so many people involved from all across the club. If we’d told people to sign up for a Half Marathon I don’t think 16 people would have signed up.”

Jenny admitted that her attempts to lead the way as President fell flat.

“Most of the girls asked the boys to help them over the walls, but I thought I could do it all on my own. Realistically I was one of the worst people,” she said.

“Before we left, the girls said they’d stick together and they assumed the boys would run off ahead of us. But they were there helping us over the walls and out of the mud. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

The Tough Mudder challenge has attracted over a million entrants worldwide, although only 78 per cent of participants complete the course.

And Jenny revealed that Warwick Lacrosse have plenty of other charity-based events in store, including a beer pong tournament in mid-November.