Jojo Mills joined Team Do for the Devil Mud Run earlier this month, earning the title of Doer of the Month along with her fellow runners Heather and Wystan – between them raising an impressive 117 pledges in support. Here Jojo shares her experience of the whole mucky affair.
It’s not often that I rise on a Saturday morning without hitting the snooze button; with butterflies in my belly; and a fine excuse for eating peanut butter and banana French toast sandwiches for breakfast.
Well, I can thank the Devil Mud Run for the anticipation and Do Nation for the motivation.
Do What?
I stumbled across Do Nation following a friend’s cycle to Paris. I really love the ethos of promoting positive actions. To show my support for the cause I joined a team of like-minded do-gooders to tackle the Devil Mud Run, an 8 km mud obstacle course in Cheltenham.
Pledges vs cash
I, perhaps naively, thought that it would be easier to persuade potential sponsors when they wouldn’t have to part with their hard earned dosh. It actually took a little longer for people to get on board with the idea, you do have to be shameless in your plugging on social media, choose relevant videos and facts that really add some meat to your message and gently remind people a lot.
I cut one long, lone car journey and peddled my way to a friend’s hen do to help grab people’s attention.
Once the ball started to get rolling I did find that it generated a lot of positive conversations. Do Nation’s website breaks things up into catchy titled and manageable chunks so I’d challenge anyone to find something that they could try.
Slip, Slop, Squelch
I didn’t know all of the team but we pitched in for shared lifts and arrived a little nervous to a field full of very energetic leaders starting the warm ups. We were perhaps not as dedicated to the training as we were to the cause! Did someone say tired?!
That said, I pleasantly surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it. We had an absolute ball squelching, squeezing and sliding our way round the course…That level of enthusiasm and camaraderie is infectious. Besides, it’s hard to be blue running beside a man in duck leggings!
It’d definitely have worked well as a team building exercise as we helped each other here there and everywhere.
We celebrated with a picnic, warm jumpers and Pukka Tea were kind enough to throw in some goodies. Hopefully my new Do Nation thermal will catch attention when I’m running and biking too.
Happy Tales
I have already had messages from people, plotting their course towards successful pledges. My sister to whom my mother referred as ‘able to burn a pan of water’ has already been trying her hand at new recipes in a bid to eat vegan meals three days a week. Whilst a self-proclaimed quick-grab shopper has aimed to steer herself off the high street and into second hand shops for her glad rags.
It’s absolutely all these new habits starting to come to fruition that are the point and pleasure of collecting pledges. As a team we started 244 new good habits. Hopefully the ‘get doing good’ attitude will stick.
‘til the next one folks!
It’s not too late to support Jojo – just head here to make your pledge.
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