A bit more about the challenge

It occurred to me I ought to say a bit more about the event I am signed up for on the off chance someone stumbled across this blog and had sufficient time on their hands!

Periodically, I take part in quasi-sporting events involving covering long distances, usually on a bicycle and sometimes on foot. I use the term ‘quasi-sporting’ because they generally require little or no skill, just an elevated capacity to take a beating over a prolonged period. More often than not, the attraction of the challenge is sufficient to sustain me through the training and the event itself, but on this occasion, I am looking for some sponsorship.

I have joined forces with a team of like-minded individuals (they are all middle-aged and nuts too), though apparently much fitter than me and we are going to complete the UK version of the now famous ‘Trailwalker’ event. Invented by the Gurkhas and started in Hong Kong – the UK version of this involves travelling on foot from one end of the South Downs Way to the other (Petersfield to Brighton) in under 30 hours. Now, I have never gone this far on foot before, so
I have no idea how long it will take, but I am pretty sure I’ll make it. It’s roughly equivalent to two and a half marathons with Ben Nevis and Snowdon thrown in, so I am keeping the week after the event reasonably free.

I would be very grateful if you could support us by donating via the site at our Virgin Money Giving account. If nothing else, you know it will make me feel just that little bit more committed to taking another beating. On the plus side, someone will benefit from your generosity. Oxfam, who seem to be everywhere in the world where there is some sort of humanitarian crisis, are the co-organisers with the Gurkhas. The Gurkhas, despite the rather cavalier way we seem to have treated them until Joanna Lumley got stuck in, have served alongside our armed services for 200 years – and I, for one, feel a lot safer knowing they are on our side. I will take some inspiration from their motto: 'Kaphar hunnu bhandamarnu ramro' or, in English - 'It is better to die than to live like a coward.'

I used to do a bit of hill walking and even the odd mountain climb in my increasingly distant youth but I re-discovered some of the joys of hiking whilst in Hong Kong, a place most people think of as a teeming metropolis crowded with millions of fortune seeking money men. Of course, they are right, but I also discovered some of the amazing and deserted scenery of the New Territories. The attached picture is one of many completely deserted beaches on the first stages of the Maclehose trail, which makes up most of the original Trailwalker event in Hong Kong. Somewhat dauntingly, I was only able to complete the first 2 stages before bowing to heat exhaustion and fatigue - so I am looking forward to doing 5 times the distance I did that day. At least it wont be 32 degrees with 98 percent humidity. Will it?