The Prologue...
10 get started...
As you may have gathered this was not a spur of the moment fitness frenzy. After all there is no way that this amount of effort, anarchy, aching and disorganisation would have worked without a good deal of forward planning and preparation.
So it was that four months before the event a '...so you're serious about this then?' meeting was held to make sure we all knew the score. Arch charity-fiend, Jamie C (runs a lot of fetes, fayres and marathons...doesn't like to talk about it...much) suggested that we all adopted a training programme which involved plenty of bending, stretching and general exercise (but regrettably, very little in the way alcohol, rest and relaxation...) in order to get ourselves in shape. A few hesitant nods of the head later and we all received a copy of some 12-week training regime which promised fitness results for the fuller figure and introduced us to the wide world of quads, glutes, medials et al so at least we now knew what we were swearing at....
4 weeks, two bad backs, one strained hamstring and various blisters, bruises and sprains later, the fitness regime was duly binned and it was generally agreed that anyone with similar bright ideas would get a good shoeing on general principle. In fact the change in approach paid dividends for most of us. Instead of swimming or pounding along riverbanks at 6am with only sleepy ducks for company we decided that the best approach was to treat the training as we would the event - as a group. With that in mind we started to arrange regular walks around the Mendips after work or over the weekends to get some miles under our belts. We now know Burrington Comb, Cheddar and the surrounding area like the back of our hands having covered some serious mileage in the eight weeks leading up to our challenge. Some of us even branched out into the Black Hills and Wessex Downs to gain height experience as well as distance. This method also allowed us to check out and destruct-test various items well in advance of the real thing and generally get comfortable with packs and equipment. (Editors note: It is not without irony that you should know that the only exercise that our fastest and fittest member on the actual day did in advance, involved a set of golf clubs...!)
Bearing in mind that this was also a charity walk, personal and corporate sponsorship was a must. Family and friends were duly badgered and many small business in the Bristol area received the attentions of shifty looking men in suits with slim mobile phones and briefcases....but enough about our sales force! We also made sure we had suitable transport booked well in advance and a place to stay once we had finished the event.
So, it was with a sense of excitement (and also with some desperation as the time for excuses was running out!) that the fateful day finally dawned. Some of us agreed to meet in advance at Pete's pad in darkest Westbury-on-Trym so we could avoid having to go back into central Bristol when we returned and so save our driver having to spend an extra 90 minutes on a delivery run straight after a 10 hour journey. Ironically, that part of the journey proved to be the most time-consuming in proportion to the whole event due, in no small part, to the infestation of traffic lights in the centre of Bristol....well, it was for some of us anyway! Soooooo...twenty minutes later than planned we headed back into town to pick up the rest of the crew at the office. Another 20 minutes to get fueled, fed and equipped with (un)suitable reading material and we were off.
Going |
....going.... |
....gone! |
(...and if anyone out there can work out how we got through that gap please send in the theory, equations and diagrams asap.)
The Introduction... | To Snowdon.... |
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