After firmly affixing their footwear, 273 competitors wearing all
manner of fancy dress lined up on the banks of the River Crouch at
low tide in anticipation of the challenge to come.
What lay ahead was a 400-metre charge across cold water and thick,
smelly mud towards Maldon town.
The race set off at a cracking pace, but it wasn't long before most
at the front of the field abandoned any hope of competing the
course on foot, dropping on to all fours and continuing at a
literal crawl.
No such problems for 39-year-old John Edgington.
Refusing to surrender to the painful build up of lactic acid in his
legs, Edgington gritted his teeth and remained upright for the
entirety, hobbling to victory in a new world record time of three
minutes and 15 seconds.
The race was far from over at that point though - with the vast
majority of competitors getting down and dirty crawling through the
sludge, it would be quite some time before the last racer crossed
the finishing line.
Those who had completed their gruelling challenge reflected on the
difficulties of competing in the Maldon Mud Race: "It just saps
your power trying to pull your legs out and before you know it
you're doing what these other guys are doing, you're crawling."
