FITNESS fanatics will embrace the mud at this year’s annual Sandman race.

The team race takes place in Gosfield’s Cut Edge Park, on Halstead Road on Saturday, with all the proceeds raised going to St Helena Hospice.

Teams could be made up of work colleagues, sports clubs or families.

The 5km route has been designed by Mucky Races and includes a huge range of unique obstacles such a high walls, tyre hops, crawl nets, wobbly bridges, natural hurdles from fallen trees and a mud lake.

This year there is also the addition of a new obstacle, ominously called the finisher.

Competitors will have to run, skip, hop and jump their way to the finish line, all in as fast a time as possible.

Racers have been asked to raise a minimum of £50 in sponsorship before entering, an amount which could pay for vital equipment to help out at the hospice.

People will print off a back sign before the race and explain the reasons why they wanted to get involved in their own words.

Unfortunately registration has now closed, however crowds are encouraged to come along and cheer on the racers.

Once reaching the finish line, competitors will receive a medal and the satisfaction in knowing that their crew of team members will forever have the shared experience of the day.

All of the funds raised during the event go toward patient and family care at St Helena Hospice.

Alan Saddington, 59, has recently been diagnosed with a metastatic secondary tumour in the brain and secondary tumours in both lungs and in the left axillary lymph glad.

He said: “Without the opportunity to be part of the hospice community and to receive the treatment and support that I have, it would have been far more difficult for me to take the steps I have and for my family to cope with me making them - I can’t speak highly enough of the hospice."

The race begins at 10am and is expected to be finished by 3pm.

For more information visit: http://bit.ly/2ecEGUR.