A rather full weekend culminated in me heading to the military town of Aldershot to join nearly 1500 other foolhardy individuals for the annual “Grim” challenge.

The course was 8 miles over rough terrain at the Army Driver Training ground in Aldershot which is commonly used to teach drivers how to get their jeeps, trucks and tanks over a variety of natural obstacles. Ideal place for a gentle jog on a sunday morning. Although the sun was out, it was bitterly cold and the puddles at the start of the course were covered in ice.

The puddles were only the start of it though. The first major obstacle was a narrow gulley, filled with freezing mud. Coming out of the other end, it felt like I had left my feet in the mud and was running on stumps. And that wasn’t the worst of it either. The puddles became big puddles and then stopped being big puddles in favour of being even bigger puddles. Every now and then there would be a long stretch of undulating track where you could recover and hope that your feet warmed up again. But there was always going to be more.

After 5 miles we came to the rather disappointing camoflauge net which we had get under. It was only a couple of metres long though and it wasn’t so much a case of crawling as crouching and getting under it quickly. The masochistic side of me hoped there would be more like this but there wasn’t. Not that it became any easier. Shortly afterwards there were the biggest puddles of all, waist deep on some people who tried to navigate through the middle and thigh deep even on the likes of your friendly, neighbourhood 6′2″ Dragon.

From there on in it was a long slog to get through the last couple of miles, made up mainly of a long, energy draining incline and the only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that in under ten minutes it would all be over. But there was one last challenge - a narrow track with the deepest puddles of the lot. Most people attempted to go down the edges, avoiding the centre of the water and with good reason. The centre got very deep and more than one person stumbled and went into the water, up to their chests.

Falling into that water was a total system shock! The word “cold” does not even begin to describe the sensation. Half a mile from the finish line and I’d had enough. I couldn’t catch my breath and I struggled trying to put one foot in front of another. But spurred on by the crowd and unwilling to give up that close to the end, I pushed on and finished in under 65 minutes for the 8 mile course, 20 minutes behind the winners and in the top half of the finishers. Not bad for a fat chuffa dragon!

I really enjoyed it (as testified by the “official” picture of me I found on the web today in which I look like I’m having a good time, despite the fact that it was taken after about 5.5 miles) and am looking forward to next years already. Although I think there are a couple of races that I might think about doing in between now and then. Anyone want to join me?