Kate, Jon and Rory all continued their into the more extreme end of cross country races with both the Grim Challenge (8 miles) and the Hell Runner (10 miles) during  December and January.

Both races presented different challenges for each competitor – Kate preferring Grim it was the one race of the 2 where despite the mud, water, tyres, cargo nets and undulating terrain, you could at least run without thinking for a couple of miles, whereas the much less forgiving Hell Runner course was unrelenting in its hills, sand,mud and water. After December’s rain, some water obstacles even had to be swum as opposed to waded! Hell Runner was also a real challenge even for competitors like Rory, as the narrow course had 3 waves – Rory at the front of wave 3 had to dodge not only the natural obstacles, but competitors from the previous 2 waves.

Rory did his Viceroys kit and self proud, coming 10th out of a field of 1065 at Grim and 22nd (but first in his wave) out of 1774 at Hell Runner: Kate and Jon wach had a personal victory, as she was ahead by the end of Grim, but he was victor at Hell Runner.