Meet our brave DCA Tough Mudder Team so far…

Help us support the industry and this amazing cause! 

Kelly Edmond, Data Centre Alliance

22 years old. Kelly is DCA’s Membership Executive and the Tough Mudder’s Team Captain. Kelly has supported charities like Macmillan Cancer Research and Kidney Research UK through shows in singing and dancing to raise money for these charities, but has chosen Alzheimer’s Research UK as the charity as it is very close to her heart with her grandfather suffering severely with Dementia. Kelly used to take part in cross country running, swimming and ballet in her school years. But she has never faced a challenge like Tough Mudder, so she is training hard so much so she is training with her local rugby club to be in tip-top-shape, amongst other gruelling exercises. This is a start of hopefully many years to come of the DCA Tough Mudder, and she is confident in her team they will make a great go at it! 

Jason Holloway, Angel Business Communications 

Director of IT Publishing at Angel Business Communications (Publishers of Datacentre Solutions, Storage Networking Solutions…to name a few). Jason is responsible for all commercial operations relating to the suite of IT publications and events Angel has to offer. He is Married with 2 beautiful boys (9,12) and at the ripe old age of 44 years old, Jason still visits the gym 4 times a week and is a keen Skier and mountain bike cyclist. Jason’s last charity event was the “BHF Dark Peak Mountain Bike Challenge”, 40 miles of the roughest terrain! Jason is looking forward to this new challenge as it will be a team effort and at the same time test his fitness! The chosen charity Alzheimers research UK is a charity close to Jason’s heart, having also chosen to support it during a local charity running event in 2014. This will indeed be a great incentive behind him completing the challenge

Harry Pyant, Keysource

32 years old. He is an experienced Salesman with 9 years of datacentre and technology led experience, focused upon the media, retail and telco sectors. Harry has always maintained a keen interest in team sports participation, playing county-standard football, county-standard tennis, regional-level table-tennis and local league hockey, as well as being an avid rock-climber in his formative years. More recently, Harry has committed his spare time to what he likes to call ‘competitive exercise’, and competes in triathlons and mid-distance running events across the country. Harry lives in the Sussex country side with his world-record holding swimmer fiancé and their dog.

Nick Phillips, NG Bailey

Nick is the Service Director for NG Bailey’s Critical Environment team. He has over 20 years’ experience in operations and maintenance and over the last 5 years this has been put to use in the data centre sector. Nick is 45 years old, lives with his fantastic wife, two great children aged 13 and 16 and a mischievous border collie. Having retired from playing rugby in his early thirties it was not until his early forties that he started competing in triathlons. Currently he averages 3 sprint triathlons a year and one half marathon. Having recently completed the Fleet half marathon with a much improved PB he is now looking forward to the team work required for a tough mudder. He feels the challenge for the coming months will be finding time to build the stamina required to complete what looks like an extremely challenging course.

James Davies, Telehouse

James joined the data centre world, taking the leap from a small town in Wales to the big city lights at the tender age of 21. He was astonished to find a lack of egg-shaped balls in the city – that is when he was initiated into the Tough Mudder scene. Instantly hooked James completed both Birmingham and London races in the same year. James then turned his attention to another favourite past time of the big smoke –cycling. He completed a 3 day bike ride from Cardiff to Paris the following year. A blizzard nearly put a stop to the expedition when one team mate came down with hypothermia on a remote French hill-top. The survivors pushed on, raising a combined £4,000 for Myeloma. James is lining up his next set of challenges, a potential Triathlon and a return to Tough Mudder.

Paul McDonald, DataCenterDynamics

32 years old. Paul is currently the Head of Digital for DataCenterDynamics where he oversees product development and data activities. Although his background has been in the virtual world he loves nothing more than getting outside! He cycles everyday,as well as regularly attending gym and yoga. Cycling and photography takes up most of his time if he’s not trying to travel when he can. Paul has also taken part in the London to Brighton ride a few times, so when asked to join the Tough Mudder team he gratefully accepted the challenge. When told the distance he’d have to cover in a Tough Mudder he started to regret that…however after watching the promotional video he now believes that he has a fighting chance of making it.

Liam Moore, DCProfessional 

*More info to come soon* 

Paul Russell, Emerson

Paul is currently head of marketing (UK & Ire) at Emerson Network Power where he oversees a range of marketing initiatives. 42 years young, with one beautiful daughter (9) and one small terrier (10). Paul’s fitness regime involves attending British Military Fitness sessions three times a week.  As an outdoor activity, no matter what the weather is like he has found it to be an excellent way of getting pushed to his limits! A keen tennis, golf and ex (local club) footballer, the challenge of the Tough Mudder appears to be a daunting prospect.  Having only completed his first 5km official run a couple of weeks ago, the thought of 10 – 12 miles is currently placed at the back of his mind…

 Bruce McKinnon, Telehouse

*More info to come soon*