UPDATE Tue 20th October - A BIG THANK YOU FOR ALL THOSE WHO'VE ALREADY DONATED AND SUPPORTED ME DURING MY CHALLENGES.

 

ALL DONE AND DUSTED!!!

 

Welcome to my midlife crisis. Come on in, the water's lovely.

 

The first question I get asked is "why are you doing this you fat old fool?",

The second "can I have your boots if you don't make it?"

 

I will deal with the second question first. No, sod off because they're earmarked for hanging baskets!!!

 

The answer to the first question can sort of be found below:

 

You get to a certain point in life when it becomes important to give something back. I'd been thinking about doing something constructive for a while but felt galvanized into action at the Army Navy Rugby in 2008. I had the honour of briefly meeting LBdr Ben Parkinson and Capt Peter Norton GC RLC. Even though I was very socially confused at the time (I saw 4 wheelchairs between the two of them) I decided to get off my fat backside and do something. I ummed and arred for a while about which causes to choose and eventually settled upon the following:

 

Help for Heroes www.helpforheroes.org.uk

Holidays 4 Heroes www.holidays4heroes.org

Brigg & District Breast Cancer Support Group http://www.breastcancersupport-brigg.org.uk

 

I would like to think that my choices would have met with the approval of the following very special people. Anyone who had the privilege of knowing either of these amazing individuals would understand my choice of causes:

 

Cpl Kevin Collum RLC Commando Logistics Regiment and Mrs Debra Bentley-Brown.

 

It's Kev and Debs I will be thinking of when the going gets tough. 

 

As two of my causes support our Armed Forces, I have decided to attempt two challenges with a military slant.

The first and third challenges will be completed in combat boots carrying a 35 lb bergan (backpack). Those of you know me, will know that I'm built for comfort and not speed. I am NOT a racing snake!

 

The PARA 10:   A 10 mile cross country endurance race in 1 hour 50 mins. To be honest though just finishing in one piece would be an achievement. Further details @ www.paras10.com

Ow, ow, ow. Harder than a big bag of hard things with knuckle dusters. Lots of bald blokes in their forties thinking they were still 21! Beast of a course. Big Nod and Pussy Hill nearly did for my calves. I don't know how but I finished in 1 hour 40 mins 43 secs. The results are in and I managed to finish 221st out of 1146!!! Anyone thinking of doing this more than once must be nuts!!! I've entered for next year already!

 

The Spires & Steeples:   A 26.2 mile cross country endurance race from Lincoln to Sleaford. I would hope to complete this challenge in under 7 hours. Further details @ www.spiresandsteeples.com

 

As I said to everyone before hand, this would be the easiest one of the lot. I certainly had a lot of occasions to reconsider my words on the way round. To be fair, it wasn't that physically demanding but it did take more mental reserves than the previous 2 challenges.

 

When I turned up on the day I found out the route was intended to be 26.75 miles. No probs I thought, what's an extra half a mile between friends? This 26.75 miles didn't allow for missing way markers and ambiguous course notes. I actually covered just over 28.5 miles in 6 hours. My pack weighed in at 38lbs but I made it look a lot heavier for effect! My real problems came from the crap zinc oxide tape I used. It virtually all came off within an hour. My feet started to suffer at the six mile point and went numb at about 22 miles (thank god!). The second half of the course is mostly across ploughed fields and uneven river banks. Perfect for blistered and bruised feet??? Maybe not.

 

I had a couple of weak moments on the way round but a couple of self administered slaps and a loud "man up you poof" sorted me out. Thinking of the BBC documentary "Wounded" also swiftly brought my attitude back online.

The last couple of miles dragged by and I was really grateful to see Dan Marsland's ugly mug at the 500 metre point to encourage me home. Apparently the finish was just round the next bend and there was a cafe at the top of the hill with a bus load of nurses! It was a bloody loooooooooooooong 500 metres!

So, blood blisters, blisters, friction burns, bruised legs, bruised shoulders, bergan rash on my back and shagged tendons in my left knee. All of these will be gone within the week, the reasons for my three chosen charities will not.

 

Thanks again to Dan for his support.

 

 The 3 Peaks:   Sandwiched in between these two little bimbles, I will be taking it nice and easy in trail shoes. The idea is to get up and down Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in under 24 hours. To give you an insight into the difficulties faced during this challenge, please visit http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/richieev/tp/24.htm

Piece of cake! 19 hrs 7 mins!! All of it down to the brilliant support team of Mr W Edge and Dr Opshort. Seriously though, Andy Moses and Steve Campbell freely volunteered to give up nearly the whole weekend and the whole thing wouldn't have been possible without them.

We got a flyer from Brigg on Saturday afternoon so started earlier than planned. I started up Ben Nevis at 2125 hrs in fairly good weather conditions (damp and cold) but by the time I got to the top, it was howling and a snow blizzard! I honestly thought about turning back. I reckon with the wind chill it must have been about -10. Viz was down to less than 20 metres and the snow had settled to about 3 inches! I kept looking at all the sheer drops marked on the map and wished I hadn't. My face, hands and legs had gone numb by the time I located the trig point (highest part). So there I am, the highest person out of 60 odd million people in Great Britain and all I can think about is 'I'm the only person up this mountain at midnight on Saturday, are vampire haggis and wererabbits nocturnal?' It's fair to say I flew down. Total time taken was about 3hrs 50 mins.

Scaffel Pike is a ****! This is where my problems started. The shortest route and the lowest mountain out of the 3 peaks should have been easy but wasn't! My calves and thighs began to realise that they weren't in the flat lands of Lincolnshire anymore and, as such, were outside of their agreed working conditions. Half way down Scafell, they decided to begin limited industrial action. Total time just under 3 hrs.

By the time I started Snowdon we were aware that we had already knocked 4 hours off the 24 hour target. If I manged to get up and down in less than 4 hours, we would break 20 hours. 20 hours? Way beyond any time I could have wished to do all 3 peaks in. So, no pressure then! I hit the summit of Snowdon in about 1 hr 45 mins and was seriously looking at a sub 3 hour time which would bring me in under 19 hours!!!! By this time my lower limbs had another meeting and declared a wildcat strike. I ended up have to walk the steepest parts of the descent backwards. Didn't I look a complete ****. A tired, spent and relieved me finished in just over 3 hours. Giving me a total time of 19 hrs and 7 mins. Please feel free to beat it anytime you want!!  

 

Thanks once again to Andy and Steve.

 

A quick recap:

 

Sun 13th September:   PARA 10   DONE

Sun 4th October:   3 Peaks   DONE

Sun 18th October:  DONE

 

I know there is a credit crunch on but, as the midget's wife said on their wedding night, every little helps!

 

For those people who would rather not donate online there will be sponsorship forms available. Please contact me at jablogistics@yahoo.com

 

I would like to thank the following people for their support and assistance during my challenges:

 

Andy Moses @ Brigg Outdoors, Jenny @ Brigg Office Supplies and Steve Campbell @ Brigg Vending Services

Dan Marsland, Wendy and Joe Bennett.

 

Any costs associated with my challenges have been covered by myself. Thanks for taking the time to visit my page.