Hell & Back is one of Ireland’s toughest physical and mental endurance tests. With nerves of steel two Novartis employees, Elena and Siobhan stood bravely at the foot of the ‘Hill of Hell’ mountain on the beautiful Kilruddery Estate, Wexford. Their descent into ‘Hell’, was in aid of Cystic Fibrosis Ireland.
It began with both employees climbing up a hill where they encountered the first obstacle, the ice bath, a chilly minus 53 degrees, and on to the ‘Hurdles of hell’. Onwards and upwards they ran via Sugar Loaf’s Rocky Road, swiftly arriving at the top of the hill, in spectacular time!
Not deterred, they followed the signs to the ‘descent to doom’. On they ran down a hill. Then back up the hill. Then back down the hill, only to be shot with paint ball bullets. Finally after slugging through mud, lugging round sandbags, climbing walls, and crawling under miles and miles of netting, they said a final farewell to the ‘Hill of Hell’, and entered the ‘Tudor Woods’ via Satan’s pit.
In the ‘Tudor Woods’, they lowered themselves into drain pipes to access the creek. Out of the river they rose, up yet another hill, and into ‘Sniper Alley’. Even though prepared this time, and super-quick, they were shot, again and again and again, with paint ball bullets.
Bidding a farewell to the woods, they swiftly rounded the 11km marker, and commenced the final netting crawl, on hands and knees. After climbing over the final challenge, ‘The Wall’, a ten foot obstacle, they sped to the finish line.
A big congratulations to both Siobhan and Elena on completing Hell and Back and raising a significant amount of money in aid of Cystic Fibrosis Ireland.
