Tough Tom the publisher …
Idle Tom the publisher calls to ask me about Tough Guy - the Mud run, that is, that I did on Sunday.
"Jeez," he said. "I just read the story in the Guardian! It looked really tough!" (Fancy a look at the Guardian story? Click here)
"It was sort of middling-tough, I guess. Though there were a few hairy bits."
"Like what?"
"Well at one stage I was clambering up over this four-metre-high log wall. But there was a scrum of people behind pushing me up and over -"
"So what was the problem?"
"The problem was that there was such a crush I didn’t have enough room to get my leg over! And meanwhile I’m being pushed over the top!
"What happened?"
"I was going head first over a four-metre high wall! I just managed to clutch at a piece of rope as I went over. Ended up in a heap at the bottom."
"Nasty! Anything else?"
"They had these planks over a pond. It was all pretty simple. Just walk on the planks and don’t fall in."
"Whereupon?"
"Even though the planks were only a few inches above the water, this one guy was absolutely terrified. He was practically on all fours. The result was that within two minutes, there were about 30 people queuing up behind him."
"Did he make it?"
"No! The guy behind him pushed him in! Just gave him a nudge, and there he was splashing around in the water."
"That’s not very nice."
"It wasn’t. But then it was all of apiece with the Tough Guy motto - "Hurdle the weak - and trample the dead"."
Like to see more Tough Guy pictures taken by my great mate Giles Pilbrow? Click here