Good Morning Britains Tough Mums

Having got myself back into (what I would call) pretty good shape since I was first diagnosed, things started to get a little boring. I was looking for a new challenge, something that would give me a bit of a kick into the unknown and then as if by magic an opportunity jumped in my path.

ITV's Good Morning Britain were advertising for Mum's to take on their Tough Mudder challenge and it really looked like just my cup of tea. Applicants would need to be a mum (tick), have a disability or chronic illness (tick) or would be raising money for a cause that would prove them a 'tough mum' (tick) but out of the thousands of entries, only 100 would be selected to take part.....
The day I received the phone call "Hi Gemma, my name is Scott and I am calling from Good Morning Britain" I very almost wet my pants with excitement, it was one of the best days ever!!!! I could not believe my luck, I was going to take on an incredible challenge (giving me a fantastic excuse to be able to train my bum off), hopefully raise a good amount of cash for charity and I was going to be on telly!!!! I can still feel the excitement rush through me as I talk about it.

Now if I was going to do this I was going to do it properly. There was no way I was going to make a fool of myself, I was going to train hard and do my research, look into every obstacle in detail and that's exactly what I did. Every morning I did 30 mins of intense training at home, be it cardio, upper body strength of lower strength and then every afternoon I went running, be it 5k or 10k, off road or road running, I just ran. It was only when I told people about what I was doing and how it came about that I remembered that I do actually have a chronic illness. For me the fitter I got and the harder I worked at it the less I felt that I even had MS. My mind was focused and very positive and I truly believe that that is half the battle, the same as with most things I guess. If I spoke to someone about the challenge who didn't know me there response would always be 'you can't be ill, you are fit'. You've got to love that......

So at my most super fittest the day arrived, it was cold and raining but it didn't matter as the adrenaline took care of that (for the time being anyway). A facebook group had been started so 50 ish of us mums where already in contact and it was truly inspiring meeting up with these wonderfully strong (both in and out) ladies. We all worked as a team to get each other through the course and much laughter was had along the way but for me, the laughter soon stopped after completing  Arctic Enema (dropping into swimming through ice cold water). All in all I found the course pretty easy on the physical side, I had been training so hard that I didn't doubt it to be honest but I was not expecting my MS to come and smack me in the face with a  very cold wet fish when it did. Oh man, I really struggled after my swim with the ice, my body temperature was unbearable but me being the stubborn cow that I am still completed the course before my body went into some sort of seizure on the other side of the finish line.

But what a day and what a fantastic event to be involved in, I was so incredibly proud of myself and am very much looking forward to my next challenge.... Tough Mum indeed.