On Saturday the 27th of November, Sheffield University Orienteering and Fell Running Club (ShUOC) are going to run the equivalent of ascending Mount Everest in a relay format. This will involve running up and down "Hero's Hill" in Sheffield (a hill that is 1.21km long involving 132m height gain) sixty eight times! We are raising money for two charities, the local Mountain Rescue teams and the Teenage and Young Adults Cancer Trust at the Weston Park and Royal Hallamshire Hospitals.
Any donations, big or small, will be greatly appreciated! A full report and probably some photos will appear afterwards! Cheerleaders are also very welcome! We will probably be running between 9am and 6pm.
Many thanks
ShUOC
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As promised, here is a full report on the event:
"It began as a great idea that no-one got round to doing. However, almost a year after it’s conception, ShUOC finally got organised and climbed Mount Everest – without the hassle of travelling to the Himalayas.
Sheffield has no shortage of hills; of these, “Hero’s Hill” is probably one of the most notorious for runners looking for hill training. It runs 1.21km from the bottom of the Rivelin Valley to the top to the Crookes high street, gaining 132metres height in this time. However, if you run up it 68 times, the height gain is equivalent to climbing Mount Everest – from sea level. To runners, this may sound like a daft statistic, or a challenge – we took it as the latter. The idea of this challenge was also motivated by a desire to raise funds for two local charities – the Peak District Mountain Rescue teams, without whom our sports would be all the more dangerous, and the local Teenage Cancer Trust, after Ingrid and Dan's (our club captain and treasurer) housemate Ed was recently diagnosed with a form of cancer.
In the early hours of Saturday the 27th of November, Sheffield got its first bout of snow of the winter, providing us with even more of a challenge as the roads iced over and temperatures hovered around freezing. The first runners were Dave Schorah and John Rocke, who made loping up the hill look easy as Ingrid and Rach staggered down it armed with Haribo, multiple layers and flasks of tea to spend the following four hours “marshalling” (i.e. telling people when to run) and losing feeling in their extremities. Johannes, Naomi and Johanna then took over with a few reps each, whilst Rach walked up the hill to do some snow writing. Jenny Johnson turned up with support and jelly babies in time to see GG and Jonny Malley (wearing short shorts) do their laps. Vanessa, Loz, Jane and Emily appeared with tales of Callum cutting his foot open whilst drunk the previous night (but still being able to run, luckily!), and Vanessa hung round for quite a while to provide entertainment and company at the bottom of the hill. Chris and Ramsey (wearing board shorts, of course) were next, unfazed by the snow, by which time had been cleared enough to make the roads more runnable. Ramsey then took over “marshalling” duties for an hour and a half whilst a very grateful Rach and Ingrid crawled up the hill to Crookes in search of food and functioning hands. By the time they got back, the halfway point had been passed thanks to the efforts of Little Rob, Abrams, Nic and Hobbs, with Callum and Treb fulfilling their reps before heading off down Rivelin for a run. Emma (Ingrid’s housemate and Ed’s girlfriend) also turned up to provide moral support and laughter, as well as doing a rep of the hill herself (despite having to borrow Rach’s shoes to provide some form of grip!). James and LucyH were next on the list, and Lucy appeared carrying a thermos of soup which was very gratefully received! As darkness was beginning to fall LucyS and Os turned up, despite Os getting lost on the way to the bottom of the hill. LucyS also voiced a controversial opinion that Hero’s Hill isn’t as difficult to run up as Hagg Lane – maybe we should run up that next time?! As we neared the final hour or two Ingrid finally stripped down to 3 layers and did a rep, just as Ash and Beasant appeared looking all smooth and professional – until Beasant very nearly decked it on the ice. Twice. In the same spot. Finally we were down to the last two people – Rach was desperate to run and get the feeling back in her feet, whilst Laura completed the final few reps needed to reach the summit looking as if it was no effort at all. We finished ahead of schedule in around eight hours, although it is unknown exactly what time because by then we wanted to get home and get warm again!
And so concludes the story of how ShUOC climbed Everest (it’s a bit long-winded but I felt everyone deserved a mention!) We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who participated, donated, told us we were silly, gave us funny looks and cleared the roads – we couldn’t have done it without you! (Actually we probably could, but it wouldn’t have been half as enjoyable). We have so far raised over £1300 on our justgiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/shuoc, which is remaining open in case this epic tale inspires anyone else to contribute".
