Hello everyone,

I will be doing a Half Ultra challenge in August. I am doing this off of my own back. I thought to myself maybe it's time i did something good for a change :) and thought I could help my Old Scout unit. I grew up with the group and while i was quite a problem at times :P they never gave up on me! the Marathon I am doing is the 55 KM Eastbourne to Hove in august. I just want to give something back to the group that had a pretty big role alongside my parents in bringing me up. I want to give back to the group and if nothing more to replace a certain frying pan...

The Full challenge is 100 KM or 62 Miles. As i have never attempted an undertaking of this magnitude before. i will be attempting the first 55 KM (36 Miles) of the challenge Starting at the Eastbourne sports field, travelling up Beachy Head to the first rest stop at the Birling Gap, then travelling inland to Alfriston, then travelling across country into Brighton and finishing at the Hove Park. I have 16 hours to complete this challenge, which to me is pretty mammoth, I have done the odd bit of geocaching, but never anything as far or for as long as this. I have already begun the training walks, slowly going progressively farther with each week.. that's the plan anyway. another interesting fact about this walk is that over the 55 KM there will be a change of elevation of 1310. that's the same change in height as Ben Macdhui in Scotland, Mount Bassie in Alaska, and is 30 M more than Mount Vesuvius in Italy. I need to be walking at 4.5 KMPH (2.25 MPH) to hit the end of the walk within the 16 Hours. but that would be 16 hours of solid walking. I really need to be walking at a much faster pace if i want to be able to stop and breathe every so often.. I am planning to try and achieve an average speed of around 6 Miles per hour or as close as i can. Only time will tell how fast i can do this thing in...

For more information on the Ultra marathon I will be doing goto: Ultra Challenge I will be doing the first 55 KM from Eastbourne to Hove. this will be taking place on the 31st August 2019. and I will have 16 Hours to complete the trek.

I joined Marden Scout group firstly as a Beaver. I have a terrible memory at the best of times, and unfortunately cannot remember a huge amount about my time in Beavers, but what time i did spend in beavers must have gotten me hooked on the outdoors and Scouts as a whole as i came back to scouting as soon as i could. we would meet every week on a Friday, except at Christmas, and in the summer where we would go on a Summer camp to where ever the plan was to go that year. Scouting was great. every week would do something different. sometimes we would go to the local scout campsite and practice climbing or abseiling, archery, or shooting with an air rifle on the range. sometimes we would go further afield and would take part in various other activities such as Go Karting or caving. Sometimes we would work on progress towards the various skill badges, and sometimes we would practice other skills, like fire-starting, whittling, cooking or learning to tie different knots. I always knew that if I went to Scouts, there was always something interesting and useful to do.

Summer camps were great as well! a week living under canvas gathering all the wood to keep a fire going, and eventually building up a full camp. sometimes you would be gathering wood, or cooking, or working towards any of the great number of camp challenges, all great for either improving your skills, or learning a new one.there were also the the group activities, which could be anything from White water rafting, to building large wooden structures tied together by string and rope. regardless of the weather, the week was always full of fun activities to keep your interest and build some of the best memories I have. There is one memory involving a Frying Pan, that i will share at some point, maybe not today :)

For more information on Marden Scouts goto: Marden Scouts

For more information on Scouts in general goto: The Scout Association

thank you for your support :)

Matthew