Gallery: Hundreds take part in latest Shropshire Mud Run

The event took place at Lilleshall National Sports Centre, in Newport, with both children and seniors taking on a specially marked course that took them up hills and steps, and through bogs and marshes.

Tom Meehan, one of the race directors of the Shropshire Mud Run Series, said it had been a great event.

He said: "It was fantastic, there was great team spirit from everyone involved.

"The support from the adults for the kids from the first over the line to the last was sensational. There was just a really good community spirit with a big muddy hug or high-five for everyone at the end."

More than 40 youngsters aged between 10 and 15 tackled the juniors race over a four kilometre course, while more than 250 adults braved 10 kilometres of swamps, hills and bogs for the senior event.

Mud runs have seen a huge growth in popularity over recent years, and are now commonplace across the country, with thousands of people taking part.

Mr Meehan said more and more people have been joining the Shropshire events, which are now in their fourth year.

He said: "We have new people joining all the time and certainly the younger races are proving very popular with them wanting to emulate what the adults are doing and also take the chance to show the adults how to do it.

"At the sharp end you have a lot of people treating it as a serious natural obstacle course, and at the other end people dressing up and raising money for charity so it covers all bases and a big spectrum of participants.

"It has been growing for the last few years. We have developed a real natural feel for our series of events so it really is Shropshire's most natural and filthiest environment. People just like to get filthy. There is a real team spirit and camaraderie that develops to get people around the course. Some people are racing, some people are just trying to get around the course but there's a great spirit and real will for everyone to get to the finish line."

The event is one of a series of five races. People can enter as stand alone events but there is also a leader board which ranks runners on their results across the series.

Two events remain in the series, the first at Hawkstone Park on September 24, and the second at Eaton Mascott near Shrewsbury on November 12.

Details on the races can be found here