As some of you know, this time last year the Mouchel BSF (Bloody Sore Feet!) team (Kevin Powley, Louise Allanach, Lara Owen and Nici Meekings) completed the Oxfam Trailwalker 2008 in 30 hours 1 min and 40 seconds – just outside the qualifying 30 hours – and all swore that absolutely nothing would persuade us to do it again.

Well it’s amazing what a year can do, because at the weekend half the original team – Kevin and Nici – did it all over again with Jamie McFarland and Ruth Kinniburgh and this time smashed our team PB by crossing the finish line in a pretty incredible 25 hours, 53 minutes and 49 seconds!!!

For those who are not aware of the Trailwalker, the event is an ultra-marathon run by Oxfam and the Queen's Gurkha Signals regiment, with all funds raised going to Oxfam UK and the Gurkha Welfare Trust. The 100km route starts at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park in Hampshire and finishes at Brighton racecourse and must completed by a team of four in less than 30 hours – and it is not a relay – the whole team really do walk 2.5 marathons with only pit-stops for refuelling and foot repairs.

As our team have all worked or currently work in education and children's services, we are particularly interested in how the money we raise can benefit children:

£8 could buy 133 school dinners, providing hungry children with nourishing meals to help them concentrate...

£50 can pay a trainee teacher's salary for 5 weeks...

£10 can buy 36 textbooks, giving children a brighter future...

Please, please spare whatever you can to sponsor us, and when we say "whatever you can spare" we literally mean that!! For example, one day at work you can have two coffees instead of three and give Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust the £2 you saved!! ;O)