Elaine’s Virtual Rat Race Dirty Weekend fundraiser

A sprinkler, a tarpaulin, a set of stairs… Elaine swapped her cancelled Rat Race Dirty Weekend obstacle course challenge for a tough but innovative way to raise money for us during the COVID-19 lockdown.

She recently completed the first of several virtual home-based challenges by running 13 miles around her house and garden, stopping at every kilometre to do a set of exercises, overcome an obstacle or complete a bizarre challenge!

There were 21 obstacles in total, including a sprinkler for the water obstacle at 7km, running on a treadmill, a tarpaulin to crawl under, killer stair reps and plenty of biscuits for ‘scientific testing’… not sure what that meant but it sounded delicious!

Elaine said it felt like the “longest run event ever… loads of obstacles and fun! Back garden OCR was a good substitute for the real thing.”

“SpecialEffect are amazing, and I’m so sad to consider the impact the lost London 10k event in July event may have... I wouldn’t consider 13 miles in the back garden for just anyone!”

Thank you Elaine! What an outstanding effort, we couldn’t do what we do without such amazing support like yours.

Elaine’s planning more events in her garden, and she’ll also be taking part in our Virtual London 10k on 5 July, so there’s still plenty of time to donate to her JustGiving page.

If you’ve been inspired by Elaine and her back garden obstacle course, then why not find out more about our virtual challenges and sign up for one yourself!

Below: When back gardens attack