There was mud, there was sweat, but there were no tears for Merritt’s toughest mudders.

Covered head-to-toe in the gooey stuff, all 17 members of Merritt’s Mudd Chuckin’ Mammas crossed the finish line at the Mudd, Sweat and Tears 12-kilometre obstacle challenge in Kelowna on the May 10 weekend.

“We actually went through the finish line holding hands,” said team captain Trish Rodie with a laugh.

But it wasn’t always a laughing matter for the team of tenacious women.

“It started out with an eight-foot wall, and then we had to crawl through deep mud and under barbed wire,” Rodie said. “There were rope ladders, over-and-under obstacles in the mud, and running through this freezing, deep creek that took your breath away.”

Another obstacle was dragging a tire up a hill — through the mud, of course.

“It was brutal,” said Rodie. “We were laughing so hard because when we were trying to change afterwards, our fingers didn’t work. They were so frozen.”

In addition to the obstacles, which Mudd, Sweat and Tears organizers purposely put on tough terrain such as ski hills, the team also faced less-than-ideal weather conditions.

“It was dumping hail when we were waiting for our start time. It was not a warm day at all,” said Rodie.

However, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“We were standing there getting pelted by hail thinking this could not be any worse, but after we got started, we felt great because it was nice and cool,” she said.

Rodie said the team grew to 17 members shortly after a group of four friends decided to work on their fitness and chose the challenge as their goal. Each member of the team is also a mom.

“One of the moms at the event has a baby who just turned one,” she said. “It was definitely something to get her motivated to get in shape, trying to train for this.”

Rodie said the team had so much fun, they are planning on making it an annual event.

“I think it’s going to be a new addiction,” Rodie said of mud runs, noting some Mudd Chuckin’ Mammas will be participating in the five-kilometre Spartan Sprint and mud run at Sun Peaks this September.

The Mammas are looking to expand their team and encourage anyone who is interested to get in touch with a team member.

In the end, Rodie said the camaraderie of the event is one aspect that will keep her team coming back.

“Just encouraging each other and helping each other through the obstacles and everything. It was just a total blast. I would definitely do it again in a heartbeat,” she said.

“It was a tough challenge, and I think we’re all pretty proud of ourselves.”