“We came. We saw. We kicked its ass.”
Saturday, October 5th – my Ogilvy colleagues and I completed the Tough Mudder North West challenge. 12 miles. 25 obstacles. One amazing feat.
Back in May, I started working with Ogilvy & Mather London Advertising on the Expedia UK account. The team were awesome and welcomed me with open arms. However, as an official member, I was told that I would have to join them in their Tough Mudder.
Comedy moment in the office as the O&M bunch attempt to rope me into their Tough Mudder team for September. My response: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
— James Whatley (@Whatleydude) June 19, 2013
30mins later (after much heckling and also the clincher comment ‘James, it isn’t a race – it’s about TEAM BUILDING’ – I’m such a sucker for that stuff), this happened –
Comedy moment in the office as the O&M bunch manage to successfully coerce me into their Tough Mudder team for September. My response: ARGH!
— James Whatley (@Whatleydude) June 19, 2013
Turns out the best date we could all do it wasn’t in September after all. It was today. And guess what? We nailed it.
— Briony, me, Amelia, Harriet, Stephen and Joey —
There was blood. There was mud. There was euphoria. We climbed 12ft walls, we ran through electric cables, and we plunged ourselves into ice – and that is very much not even the half of it.
So far, we’ve raised just over £800 £1000(!) for Action on Bladder Cancer, the charity of choice of the Expedia UK marketing team, and there’s also (perhaps somewhat delirious) talk of making TM an annual Ogilvy event too – amazing.
If you’d like to sponsor me, or anyone else on my team, then you can do that on our dedicated sponsorship page (please do, even if it’s only a couple of quid it’d be appreciated).
I think I have a longer, more meandering post about how much of a personal achievement I feel this is (given that I only started running back in January), but that can wait for another day.
In the meantime, I’m headed home for a very long bath and while I do that, you’re going to sponsor me, right?
UPDATE: Photos now up on Flickr.
yes, i sponsored you! i read about Tough Mudder in a book called Happy Money, which discussed how it’s not just about the obstacle course but about it being a valuable experience in teamwork
and camaraderie. the picture in your post seems to confirm this, well done!
James Whatley Reply:
October 5th, 2013 at 18:50
Hey Bushra, I clocked your sponsorship earlier – thank you for that! 🙂
You’re totally right about the experience/teamwork element. We went as a six person team, and we finished as a six person team. But throughout the entire course you’re looking out for your fellow Mudders, and helping them too. Whether it’s pulling a stranger out of a particular sticky mud pit, or leaping up into the arms of a stranger at the top of the Everest wall run – all of it is about teamwork.
And it’s AWESOME.