I am an Accidental Tough Mudder

I planned a more adventurous, more interesting sort of run today, but I had no idea how much of a hack it would turn out to be.

I wanted to run past the huge Knowhow buildings, over the A17 and along a country path to Newark Air Museum. But I've run the route before, and the section along the A17 is a bit bloody frightening, to put it mildly.

So I thought I would be devious. I've noticed the flyover across the road before, and figured that if I ran round the back of Knowhow, I would be able to then find a farm track would lead to the bridge and get me over the road safely.

What actually happened was that I got stuck in dense urban jungle twice! One was stumbling along through foot high nettles on a steep embankment next to the A1. The second one was some kind of hell of thorns and grabby, nasty twigs that cut my hand, and covered me in green lichen spores like I was undergoing the transformation the astronaut suffered in "The Quatermass Experiment."

Luckily I didn't turn in a ravenous octopus plant that planned to take over the planet. It just took me 40 minutes to move two kilometres, and by the time I finished, I found myself in a world of ploughed fields dotted with piles or tired, rope swings over dirty ditches and fifteen foot walls with ropes attached.

I was lost on the Airfield Madness course!

I didn't do the obstacles. I'm too weak and useless. Instead I ran around looking for the bridge, missed it, and ended up running half a mile along the A17 anyway before crossing the road UNDER the bridge, and running past more obstacles past the Air Museum, before heading for Coddington, and then home. In the end I did 9 miles, saw only a kestrel in the wildlife sense, and was covered in plant debris.

There should have been someone at home to give me a certificate.

Si

The strange house on an island between A1, A46 and A17

You'd be able to have great parties here

Faintly exotic looking rushes

Jungle part 1

Cut hand in jungle part 2

Lichen

Obstacles for tougher folk than I

My Krypton Factor is zero

The bridge I never crossed

But I did go up and have a look

Mad Max obstacle

Kestrel

Air museum

A different sort of Vixen, and Gannet

Oinkers

No idea!