Hi All
You will have had the updates from Emma Wilson on our little tour of Britain via its cloud topped peaks.
Whilst it was certainly a challenge, it proved to me what can actually be done in little more than a 24 hour period on very little sleep and in adverse weather conditions in various parts of Britain. The key was our commitment as a team to complete the challenge and truly Emma did so with very modest training and experience of such weather and lots of pure guts and determination to keep going.
We tried hard to think of what Ian might have forgotten and were hard pushed to. Equally, we could not think of anything he did not have two of which saved the day for at least one person in another group! He really helped with all the aspects of making sure we were as warm and as dry as possible, nourished with nuts and always, always looking on the positive side – no matter which way the wind and the rain was driving into us.
I think we could have all followed Ali’s training programme from some weeks out – John from BNI Capital and his friend were one of only two BNI teams that completed the challenge in the walking time “allowed” of 14 hours out of the 24 hours for the Challenge*. Our times were:
Ben Nevis – 6 hrs 10 (4.10pm-10.20pm)
Scar Fell – 4 hrs 30 (7.20am-11.50am)
Snowdon – 4 hrs 20 (6.10pm – 10.30pm)
Total – c.15 hours
*The driving time allowed of 10 hours was ignored due to quite a lot of Bank Holiday traffic which extended most groups’ travel time.
Overall we set a modest pace, and if we had been a bit quicker overall (particularly coming down Ben Nevis), we would have been close to the target time. The challenge was characterised by people racing past us – gutting – (up and down), but many failed to complete as a team due to injury etc. There is a lesson in that…
For my part, I helped to make sure we were on the right route, including putting the GPS on at 5.30am in the fog and dark to help Richard from the Made Simple Group establish where we were to get to the start point for Scar Fell. The lesson that time was trusting “SatNav” and after coming to a sign which says “No coaches or no Mini-buses Beyond This Point – Ignore Your SatNav”. Where do you go from there!
You will have heard us asking for a driver for the challenge.
Without Howard and Richard D’Silva there would have been no Challenge for us. Firstly, Howard’s generosity in providing the bus with fuel etc meant that we could fully take part and so as ever there is a huge thanks to Howard for that. A huge thanks however must also go to Richard who not only drove us to the Peaks, in the middle of the night, in rain and fog with little sleep but also took care of whatever needed to be done from ensuring that we had hot food and water to driving us well out of his way (30+ miles) to get us to our B&B after Snowdon after midnight before getting to bed himself. Nothing was a problem – he was a real ambassador for Westbury and the MSG. Having been cold, wet and tired knowing that this was all in hand was really appreciated.
So all in all, I think it is fair to say that we all got something for ourselves out of this challenge. You will have to ask us what that was… and the best and worst bits…. For me one of the best was coming out of the rain and cloud on Snowdon and seeing the beautiful view of the sheer north face, the mountain railway curling down the hillside along with our route to Llanberis and the glacial valley over the ridge… along with my knee aching with every step…
So, to our Event! Yes, it is after the “Event” but it will be a celebration! We hope the MSG guys will be there too and the ones from Wimbledon who were great (time +20). It is also a great opportunity to celebrate and thank everyone in the Chapter for your contribution to Bliss this year. Yes we have been banging on about sponsorship – but we also know how much in time as well as gifts as well as money that you have already put into the mix.
To make it all worthwhile we do need people there – ideally over 200 – so please do invite everyone you know and if they can’t come, still ask them to buy a ticket for a worthy cause.
We should have the tickets on Thursday and Ian will tell you more then.
Thanks for reading – and for being behind us (as well as the wind as Ian would say).
