Sean McElduff - Tough Guy Challenge
East Leeds Magazine, Issue 5, March 2010

Sean is a well known face round East Leeds, originally from East End Park, he moved up York Road a few years ago and now lives in Whitkirk. He's got four children, ranging from 7 to 22 years old, the eldest of which has just qualified for a degree in law and is now training to be a barrister. Sean's calmed down a bit these days but by his own admission, if his daughter had been a few years older, she could have established a law practise on the back of her dad's misdemeanour's alone. When he explained his love of claret, it took me a second to realise Sean genuinely has a love of red wine. But then Sean is Sean, honest to a fault, regrets he’s probably had a fair few. But we'd met up to talk about the Leeds Fans Remembrance, The Tough Guy Challenge & Candlelighters Charity:

"Obviously, living in the same area, I'd known the Loftus family since I was a kid, I wasn't in Istanbul that night but was devasted by the death of a friend and also with Kevin Speight a fellow Leeds fan. I didn't need much persuading to get involved with the charity stuff, I did the 3 Peaks last year as well as the Tough Guy Challenge. The Candlelighters is a very worthy cause, I'm a father, fortunately all my kids have been healthy but not everyone is so lucky."

January 31st this year saw the Perton Farm 'Tough Guy Challenge.' Sean lined up alongside 5000 other nutters to have a go at the 8 mile assault course which throws mud, fire, smoke & ice at them as they braved frozen lakes, electric fences, under water tunnels and walks through fire.

"Fifty of us did it from the Leeds Remembrance. It was hard, the toughest physical challenge I've ever done. We didn't stick together because we were all at different levels of fitness. I just wanted to keep moving, hoping it would keep me warm.It was freezing, snowing, sleeting, horrible really. I'd quit the fags & booze for a month, gone out running, really tried to train up for it, other lads had been jumping in Roundhay Park Lake to try to get used to the cold, but really nothing could prepare us for the course itself.

The course is designed by ex military 'break 'em & make 'em' types . The participants are divided into 800's and they start the race at short intervals.

"There was a bit of pushing & shoving at the start but then you go into the field of fire and that broke us up a bit. The smoke from the fires & smoke bombs really got on my chest, then there were about five ditches full of mud, we had to contend with lakes where we had to physically break the ice, the shards were constantly cutting into everyones legs. We were in and out of freezing cold water all the time, running up eighty foot hills in zig zags, crawling through tunnels full of mud, near the end having to scramble over pipes which were about a foot high but there was nowhere to grip and they seemed to grow to about ten foot.

Sean completed the course in two hours eight minutes, a very good time for someone closer to forty than eighteen, he was well happy with his time.

"When I'd finished I was offered a cup of tea, a combination of cold and adrenalin meant I was shaking so much, it took four cups before I had a mouthful. The showers were just a copper pipe with holes in, it's not good to expose your self to too much warmth straight away, but we all came back to Leeds still caked in mud and sweat. The course was soul destroying, it's meant to be, all I was thinking was what the hell am I doing here, I could be at home nice and warm. But I couldn't stop, I was doing it for the lads, for the kids, for the charity. I was thinking all the time never again, never again.”

Which led nicely to the last question, would he do it again?: "Yeah probably next year."

photos by www.leedsfansremembrance.com

Share