We’re a brave little lot here at Jellybean. What’s more, we love an opportunity (as seen by our frequent charity drives) to give to a good cause and help others less fortunate than ourselves. So, when social secretaries Ellie and Hannah first mentioned Jellybean participating in Tough Mudder, and CEO Fiona suggested doing it for Debra we pretty much jumped at the chance. It was January after all, and the event was in September. Plenty of time to train.

We grinned. We chatted. We enlisted ourselves happily and vowed to run/lift/download every fitness app under sun. Photos of weight-lifting champs with beans’ face plastered over the top (Neil’s was particularly priceless) did the rounds and pretty soon, it was here.

Arriving at the event, our beans lined up: Steve, Nick, Laura, Jess, Ellie, Hannah and me (Rosie). We prepped ourselves (including warpaint), warmed up on-mass to some banging DnB and then – suddenly – we were loose.

The runs were spread out and the obstacles pretty diverse. The first had us all army-crawling (up to our shoulders and chins in muddy water) under low rows of barbed wire. Following a short (and wet) run into the woods, the next obstacle had us hauling ourselves up a wall using a knotted rope, our feet and whatever upper body strength we could muster. Teammates and other ‘Mudders’ helped us over the top and we moved on, and this quickly became the way of things: run, obstacle, teamwork, repeat. It was far from boring as we never knew what to expect and most of the obstacles were just brilliant: cargo nets, mudpits and people-chains included. The mud was thick, the tactics hilarious. One by one we pushed through each run and obstacle, loving every minute and leaving no bean behind.

Was it as gruelling as we thought it would be?

Tough Mudder is a heart-pumping, wet, dirty assault course. It’s also a LOT of fun. So much fun, in fact, that the tough bit gets a little forgotten about. Everything from the very first obstacle, when you just have to get in, get wet and go for it, quickly becomes a challenge you can’t wait to meet around the corner. Flying solo it’s probably pretty epic for self-achievement, but going in as a group, united by your soaked and filthy t-shirts, raising money for a good cause, helping your teammates and being helped too, is just brilliant. And you still get the I-didn’t-realise-I-could-do-that-oh-my-god-I’m-amazing-type highs as well, because even in a group, you still need to do a big part of it yourself. No one can run for you, or jump, or conquer any fears you have – and should you happen to witness someone take on, fight and break through a big fear, it is the most inspiring thing in the world. Even with a few bruises to show for it, the experience is well worth it.

We stuck together through all the muddy madness. Tough Mudder is about teamwork and commodore above everything else – and Jellybean smashed it!

Jellybean raised £180 in aid of Debra, The EB charity.