Laurence, from Norwich

Best part: “The final obstacle, right before the finish. It’s hard, but you know you’re almost at the end. There’s a great atmosphere, with lots of people cheering you through your final struggle.”

Worst part: “The water section! You have to swim across a couple of lakes, and they were so cold. Plus, you have to pull yourself up onto these inflatable rafts, which is doubly difficult because you’re wearing a bulky life-jacket.”

Matthias, from Belgium

Best part: “The monkey bars. I didn’t make it the whole way, but I got to 10 metres before the triangles stop. Wherever you fail on the monkey bars, you have to move to the side and pull yourself over these metal fences made into small triangles, which can really slow you down, but I only had to do a few as I made it quite far on the monkey bars.”

Worst part: “There’s an obstacle where you have to go on your back, through some really muddy water, with a fence right above you. There were three trenches, and there were people in the one on the left and right, but no one in the middle. So I took the middle, and then realised that no one had taken the middle trench because there was only a centimetre of space between the water and the fence.

“I really couldn’t breathe at all; I thought ‘I’m drowning!’ I got a lot of dirty water inside of me and was burping for about 10 minutes afterwards.”

Gareth, from Nottingham

Best part: “The best part was finishing! Other than that, I quite enjoyed the water section. There’s lots of jumping off platforms into water, which is good fun.”

Worst part: “My legs… I’m getting too old for this! I tend to do one every month, but I’ve just moved into a new house so I haven’t really put the training in. I usually only do 10ks and half-marathons, so this is a bit of a step up in class. I got found out today!”

James and Jake, from Northamptonshire

James’ best part: “After I’d jumped off that really high jump into the water, I was pretty pleased I landed and didn’t drown.”

James’ worst part: “When you had to go on your back through that muddy water – that was nasty.”

Jake’s best part: “Finishing!”

Jake’s worst part: “I had 15 pints of beer last night and didn’t go to bed ‘til 2am, so starting the race at 8am wasn’t great. I’m getting a bit too old for this…”

Michael, from Derbyshire

Best part: “Jumping off the high board into the water.”

Worst part: “The swim in the lake!”

Stefan and Anna-Lee, from Sweden

Stefan’s best part: “Finishing!”

Stefan’s worst part: “All of it, hahaa! I’m never going to run again. Although I do say that every time…”

Anna-Lee’s best part: “The wide variety of obstacles; there really are so many different ones.”

Anna-Lee’s worst part: “When you get out of the water, it’s so cold! Because it was so windy, it was like a scene from Titanic. It’s good fun, but your muscles are just so stiff. I got frostbite in my feet at another race a couple of weeks ago, so when you’re running every step feels so heavy.”

Louise, from Stowmarket

Best part: “The whole environment, really. Everyone was really keen to help each other over the obstacles, which was really nice. And I’m chuffed with my time of 4 hours 16 minutes!”

Worst part: “The walls. The rest of the obstacles were fantastic, but the walls were so gruelling.”

Ives, from St Albans

Best part: “The whole thing! This is my third time; I absolutely love it.”

Worst part: “I can’t swim! I lost at least 10 minutes there.”

Laura, from Birmingham, and Greg, from Gloucester

Laura’s best part: “Finishing.”

Laura’s worst part: “Entering!”

Greg’s best part: “I enjoyed all the obstacles.”

Greg’s worst part: “I tore my hands open on the monkey bars. I got further along them than I expected, though, so it was worth it.”

Jamie, from Kent, and Kim, from Hastings

Jamie’s best part: “The best bit was the water; I loved that section.”

Jamie’s worst part: “The worst bit for me was the running, because I’ve hurt my leg.”

Kim’s best part: “I like the high stuff. Anything that gets you up in the air!”

Kim’s worst part: “The steel structures were the worst. I really hated those.”

Laura, from Bourne

Best part: “Completing the small section of monkey bars, because I’ve been practising for a year and I got a big cheer at the end! The short one is only 10 metres, but the long one is 138, so I’ve got some more training to do before I can do that.”

Worst part: “The 12-metre water jump. I opted out and went for the 5-metre, but it’s still really scary!”