Apologies, I may be prone to a little exaggeration

There have been some comments of late that have questioned both the accuracy and validity of some of the posts on this blog. The basis for such criticism being built on the flimsy, albeit accurate, notion that the individuals making them have more experience of the issues than I.

Seemingly, it appears that if you have done something "once", you are considered more knowing, more knowledgeable and more of any expert than someone like me who has, "only" done something that I would say was "broadly equivalent".

So for example, by this logic somebody who has actually climbed up to the base camp on Everest (Yes, they really have!), would be considered by some, to be more of an expert on the subject of 'Everest', than I, even though I can demonstrate that I have climbed an equivalent height! (albeit not in one go, not at altitude, not moving in a constantly upward direction, and not...well, to be honest NOT in too many ways to mention).

However, if doing something "once" allows one the right to comment as an expert, then this opens up a whole range of topics for me to write, as an expert, about.

Thinking about it, cooking, cleaning, ironing would all be valid subjects....OK, OK cooking would be a valid subject, as I'm sure I've done that at least once in my life - as long as the use of a microwave doesn't nullify the use of the word "cooking", and I don't see how it could.

So, being a humble sort of a guy (hah!) I suppose that I stand corrected. However, this is only because I consider that if I 'stand' corrected, then it must be quite difficult to be 'prone' to exaggeration, for which I presume that I would have to be lying down?

And finally...on this subject, I always remember that my father used to say "I've told you a million times not to exaggerate", although strangely he didn't say that to me when we played golf the other weekend. (I'm sure he was thinking "I should have told him a million times not to under-estimate", but whatever the expression he still beat me...at golf that is).

Having for so long told me "a million times" not to exaggerate, imagine my surprise to have received an email from him yesterday, defining the number "one billion"!

How's that for inflation?

But to finish this rambling with hard facts consider his email...

"...A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. - A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. - A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. - A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. - A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

BUT

E. - A billion Pounds ago was only 13 hours and 12 minutes, at the rate our government is raising money through taxes!

As they say in Westminster - "KERCHING!!!"

Making a mountain out of a molehill?

For those who have completed the Trailwalker Challenge previously there will be no doubt as to both the degree of difficulty as well as the fact (as I have previously stated) that the South Downs is NOT FLAT!

In our training to date along the South Downs we have climbed over 12,000 feet, over the course of 117km. However, this is still seen by many as simply going for a bit of a walk across some hills.

Now, if we had said that we had walked over 70 miles and had then scaled Everest, then people would sit up and take notice. Preposterous? Well maybe, but consider this.

Whilst the summit of Everest is over 29,000 feet high, it actually sits on a plateau that is over 18,000 feet above sea level. Therefore, if you are climbing from base camp to the summit, then you have a little over 11,500 to ascend.

Therefore, having "climbed" 12,574 feet so far on the South Downs, the two feats (as opposed to feet) seem very comparable to me, especially as we didn't have any Sherpas!!

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Fifth Team Training Walk - Trailwalker UK route completed!

And so, at 2.15pm today we finally completed all of the 11 stages of the Trailwalker UK route!

Now when I say "...completed all", I don't mean that we completed them all "today". In fact we completed stages 7 - 10 inclusive. 30.5km in 6hrs 15mins.

We started off just before 8am at the Devil's Dyke pub...

...before traversing the Devil's Dyke itself, a huge valley cut into the downs...

...Before climbing the hill past Pyecombe Golf Club...

...on up passed the Jack & Jill Windmills...

...and over the hills and (relatively) far away.

Once again, in the manner of the sun shining on the righteous, we had great weather! Not too hot, not too cold and most importantly no rain!

Having completed the walk, and with the overall distance still only being a little shy of a third of the length of the overall challenge, I can report that these four stages were too bad. Not too bad that is if you didn't have to walk 40 miles to get to the start of them, and not too bad if you didn't have to walk them in total darkness. Which we didn't! But...which we will have to on 16th July.

The prize for the worst hill on this section of the walk goes to...Castle Hill, just after Checkpoint 9, at Kingston near Lewes. Very steep!

And then just before 2pm Brighton Racecourse came into view and 15 minutes later we saw the sight that we will all want to see on 17th July...

...the FINISH LINE!!!

Training Walk 5 - Map & details

It has taken us 5 team training walks to complete all over the stages of the course, although we did repeat Stages 3 & 4 on our fourth walk.

So far we have completed 117.6km in 22hrs and 15mins - so far maintaining an 18 hour completion pace - but on current form, our ability to keep that going as we increase our distances above 20 miles, remains in doubt!

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The end is in sight!

As the weekend fast approaches and my personal work-life 'balance-ometer' struggles as to where it should be pointing, the end of Trailwalker UK challenge is most definitely in sight.

[The 'balance-ometer' issue results from attending work-related, charity fund-raising events, that even if they hadn't have been (work-related) I would still have wanted to attend. e.g. International Women's day fundraiser at the magnificent London Guildhall in aid of the charity Refuge & the Comedy Store event in aid of initiatives to reduce youth gun crime - so should I classify them as 'work', 'life' or both?]

We have raised nearly £2,300, with at least another £500 pledged, before we start to consider 'events' to boost the total further toasted our (current) £3,500 target. 

In addition we will complete the course this weekend, and hope to cross the finish line some time around 2pm on Sunday afternoon.

Admittedly, this weekend's "completion", will only be at the end of a 31km walk, but...it will mean that we will have completed every stage or the challenge in our training so far.

As they say, the 5 P's are 'fundamental as anything'* when looking to achieve success - Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. Although, not so good if you've got a lisp or speech impediment!

This final point [albeit not unusual for me in that it is somewhat contrived!] reminds me of the man who went to see his doctor and advised him that he couldn't pronounce his "Th's" or his "F's", to which the doctor replied, "Well, you can't say fairer than that!"

[* NB the reference to the excellent fundraising achievements of our fellow Trailwalker participants 'Funda-Mental As Anything']

Less average, more typical...

It has been a few days since my last blog, but what a few days! The world and its inhabitants are certainly being tested, whether from responses to democratic uprisings against oppression in the Middle East, or the horrific impact of earthquakes, tsunamis and (potential) nuclear disaster in Japan!

Whilst life must go, it doesn't always feel right to make humorous or flippant remarks in blogs when many thousands are suffering so terribly. 

So I shall continue, not without feeling, not without compassion, but with hope that normality (whatever that means for people) can return at the earliest possible opportunity!

(Continuing, in the style of Top Gear...) ...Anyway, my last blog highlighted the ideal Trailwalker participant, and it seems rather fitting to follow this up with reference to piece of research from National Geographic that possibly was as detailed and comprehensive as mine was.

The research aimed not to identify the "ideal", but rather the "typical" world citizen. 

I have previously referred to the fact that with 1 in 5 of the world's population being Chinese I was not sure which of my American cousin's family (of five) was actually the "one", but have a strong suspicion that it is actually 史蒂夫...well National Geographic's research goes a step further and even shows us what 史蒂夫 looks like!

Watch their short video below...

http://bit.ly/h98Nhv

A profile of the "ideal" Trailwalker participant

One issue that is somewhat disconcerting for us, having completed four "long" team training walks - three of approximately 13 miles, and last week's 20 mile walk - is that the total miles covered doesn't yet total the number of miles we'll have to cover on the challenge, in one walk, on one day!

However, despite that minor little detail we are beginning to build up a profile of the ideal Trailwalker participant.

As already described in an earlier post - http://bit.ly/gAgPiH - poles are particularly useful, particularly when climbing hills.

The ability to multi-task, is also important. For some of us lessor mortals that means little more than walking and breathing at the same time! 

However, I personally have struggled on some of the steeper sections to climb, breath & eat (or drink) at the same time, especially if also having to simultaneously lean on my two friends Jan & Elek.

Now it should be noted that one of our team, who shall remain nameless to protect his identity - but who I'll call Pete for the sake of this story - is not only able to climb hills whilst eating, drinking, breathing and using a pole for additional support, but is also able to text, take phone calls and blow his nose all at the same time! How many arms does he actually have?

The third quality that we've found to be important is the ability to be able to carry and consume sufficient quantities of food for a 30 hour walk. Another of our team, who shall also remain nameless - but who I'll call Rob for the sake of this story - has been practicing this. He has been carrying and eating enough food for a 30 hour walk, even though our longest walk has only lasted five and a half hours!

So in summary, we have scientifically proved that the ideal participant is a fit, multitasking, Polish Octopus, with an incredible appetite and opposable thumbs!

So there you are, if you are missing a team member, you now know what to look out for.

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Do we value donkeys more than women in the UK?

Today I had the pleasure of starting the day with a champagne breakfast with Fiona Bruce at London's Guildhall...along with an audience of about 500 others, mainly women, as part of an event celebrating the contribution of women in the Square Mile, in connection with International Women's Day 2011.

Fiona, who is a patron of the charity Refuge hosted the event and gave a number of anecdotes from her career in broadcasting, but also some unbelievable statistics with regards to the work of Refuge, the charity which provides support, advice & guidance to victims of domestic violence. 

The charity relies on charitable donations to fund the work that it does, and in these difficult times is finding it particularly hard to keep revenue levels up.

However, consider this...

Every week in the UK TWO women are murdered and TEN women commit suicide as a direct result of domestic violence. Despite this...

...the Top 3 women's charities in the UK, of which Refuge is one, have a combined annual income through charitable donations of £17m...

...which is less that the £21m raised by... the Donkey Sanctuary charity!

There are clearly many good causes & many people raising money for good causes, but surely (and I, like Fiona Bruce have nothing against Donkeys!) we have not got our priorities right on this one!

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An objective selection process for Trailwalker support team

One thing that the Trailwalker team do make abundantly clear, is the importance of the support team!

It appears that unless the support team have the right level of skills and expertise, then walkers can be left floundering in the dark. Sometimes quite literally.

(It is rumoured that at least one team from 2010 is still out walking on the South Downs, after their support team swapped allegiances on the day - well during the night actually - and lent their "support" to a team of City Bankers (or I think that's what they called them).)

There are many qualities that need to be evidenced for those looking to be chosen to undertake this arduous & voluntary role, including the following skills: -

• Motivational,
• Organisational,
• Map reading, &
• Time Management

As well as a clean driving license (or at least one that has been recently dusted!) and an ability to remain alert when deprived of sleep for long periods.

Consequently, we had designed a selection process which was sufficiently robust to be able to provide unambiguous evidence of each skill, which could be rated against similar evidence from other applicants.

This series of aptitude tests, face-to-face interviews, multiple choice questionnaires and a mock exercise in the middle of the night, took some planning and whilst we had calculated that the process from start to end would would last 3 days, we were determined not to take shortcuts.

Nothing, but nothing, would divert us from our plan however much opposition we faced from the applicants. If this was the only way to ensure that we had the best support team available, it would be worth the time and effort for all concerned.

And then something odd happened.

As we came to the end of our walk on Saturday our plans were thrown into disarray!

At PRECISELY the same time as we finished our 20 mile walk, two cars appeared over the hill, and two of the support team applicants got out of their cars and muttered the immortal words...

"...Fancy a cold beer chaps?"

"You're hired!" we replied in unison.

And so it was that in 5 little words, so much planning was undone.

But how good that cold beer was!



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WARNING! The secret dangers of Trailwalker & weight loss!

As we trekked across the South Downs on Saturday the following question was asked:

"How many steps do you think we'll take in completing the Trailwalker Challenge?"

Using an investigative journalist's standard procedure for obtaining information, i.e. Gather, Observe, Organise, Generate, Listen & Extract, I quickly discovered that one mile equates to about 2,000 steps. Therefore each person completing the Trailwalker Challenge will take about 124,000 steps.

Now, here's the scary part. When you combine the above fact with generally accepted knowledge about weight loss, you uncover a dark secret that is not explained in any of the Trailwalker literature!

Whilst it is known that quite a number of the teams never finish the Challenge, what is not explained is exactly where do they go?

I believe I have the answer, and I have had my analysis independently verified so I can confirm that the figures add up.

If we assume that the average weight of those taking part in the "Challenge" is 175lb, then it is generally accepted that such a person walking at a pace of 3.5 miles per hour will burn off 302 calories per hour, which equates to approximately 9,000 calories in 30 hours.

It has also been scientifically proven that for every 1,000 calories burned, 2lbs of weight is lost.

Now there will be approximately 550 teams, and therefore 2,200 people taking part in the "Challenge". 2,200 people will burn off a total of 19.8 million calories, which is the equivalent of nearly 40,000lbs in weight, or...

...228 people!!!

So it appears somewhat coincidental for Oxfam to claim that up to 60 teams can "...fail to finish" on the day. 

Fail to finish? They don't just fail to finish, they more or less evaporate. 

So there is only one answer. Forget about pre-event diets and fitness regimes. Feed yourselves up, unless you want to be one of the "Disappeared", never to be seen by friends or family again.

I am pleased to say that Rob in our team has already started this new strategy, as the rest of us witnessed on our walk on Saturday when we stopped for lunch. If he had been the Son of God, (which as far as I'm aware he isn't) he'd have been able to feed far more than the 5,000!!!

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Fourth Training Walk completed

Today we set off on our longest Training Walk so far - Stages 3 - 5 of the Trailwalker UK. 30.5km (or 19 miles in old money) which we completed in 5 hours 30 minutes, including a short break for some lunch.

Whilst the weather was a little changeable, yet again we avoided the rain, and whilst extremely wet and slippy underfoot for the 10km, and having to cross a (very) recently ploughed field - with the permission of the farmer I should add - and whilst also having to climb the steepest hill so far at the beginning of Stage 5, we still managed to average just over 16 minute mile pace for the full 19 miles!

One of the joys of walking along the Downs, especially on a clear day, is that when you look back you can very clearly see how far you have gone, and when you look forward it is a little more difficult (thankfully to see how far you have still to walk.

Whilst, I only took a couple of photos on the walk, I was conscious of the fact that one of our kind sponsors jokingly said that from the photos previously posted the walk look "...completely flat!", and whilst he knows that it isn't, when I looked at the photos I could see what he meant.

Whilst the following photos show two of the hills, they don't really give any real feel for how steep they are. The first shows the descent down to the end of Stage 3, looking back from Littleton Farm...

Whilst this second picture is taken two thirds of the way up Rackham Hill. 

At this point we had  already walked about 20km (on on the 16th July will have already walked 40km) before we get to the base of the hill, which is at sea level. So imagine this...

 

You have just walked 12 miles and somebody asks you to climb a hill as high as the Gherkin in London, and then having done so, you have to walk another 50 miles - including climbing an even higher hill (as high as the HSBC building in Canary Wharf, London) at the start of Stage 7.

So, one thing that you can say about this Challenge - and you can say many things - is that is NOT flat!!

However, having got over the climb, we soon got back into our rhythm and built up speed again to ensure that our target time was achieved.

At the end of our walk, with minimal blisters, aches or pains we decided to conduct the first stage of selection procedure for our support crew...but more about that another time.

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Have the Norwegians got it in for us Brits?

For anybody who regularly reads my blog...sorry, (more realistically) for the two people who regularly read my blog, you will know that last week I had my first jump on the Holmenkollen Ski Jump near Oslo. I explained how only a "...thin metal barrier" stood between me and the steep, snow covered slope" and without a Norwegian Health & Safety official in sight, nobody could legitimately claim that anybody had any concern for my health, safety or in fact, my life itself.

Had I wanted to, I could honestly have slid down the slope any which way I wanted. In fact, given that the entry to the lift (to the top of the jump) was through the ski jump "museum", it would also have been possible to "borrow" a pair of skis to take up to the top.

So given this total lack of concern for health & safety, imagine my surprise when reading today's copy of the London Metro, shown in the following link: -

http://bit.ly/hMv1ma 

The UK's top ski jumper, James Lambert was told by the International Ski Federation (FIS) that he could not take part in the Nordic combined large hill event - including the ski jump - "...because it was TOO DANGEROUS!".

Therefore, either my visit to Holmenkollen resulted in the authorities realising the seriousness of the situation, and deciding to (bubble) wrap all semi vulnerable competitors in cotton wool or...

Having witnessed my efforts on the jump, they didn't want to risk another middle-aged Englishman (Lambert is 46 years old) showing up the more fancied Norwegian jumpers.*

Well, what do you think?

* P.S. As for Norwegian jumpers - we bought a pair once when cruising the Norwegian Fjords. What looked warm and stylish in the Arctic Circle, looked like something one's Gran would knit for you as a Christmas pressie, and despite costing about £200 for the pair, they soon found themselves on the local tip!

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Clearing the first hurdle!

It is with a great deal of pleasure that I can announce that we have managed to clear the first major hurdle in this year's Trailwalker UK Challenge!

However, the use of the word "we" is somewhat controversial, in that I am not talking about total number of training miles that we've walked or pace achieved, I am talking about monies "raised".

Even the word "raised" is open to question, as we haven't really raised the money at all. The money - i.e. the £1,500 minimum fundraising target - has been kindly given, by our dear friends, colleagues & associates. 'Given' in times when money itself is scarce. 'Given' generously; 'Given' kindly; 'Given' without preconditions.

That being said, the donations do come with an expectation that we will complete the Challenge, and not decamp to the pub when the going gets tough.

[On this latter point I should point out to any fellow Trailwalker UK competitors that there is a very inviting pub at Devil's Dyke at the end of Stage 8 of the walk. Depending upon a team's start time, it is feasible that it may be still open as some of the faster teams reach it. After having already walked 40 miles in the July heat, with Brighton seemingly only a stone's throw away, what would be nicer than a quick pint or two, before completing the Challenge? Well, do not & I repeat DO NOT do it! There will still be another 23 miles to walk, and once THAT is done you can have all the beer in the world...or possibly even better, a large mug of tea!]

Anyway, as I was saying, with the generosity of our friends, comes an expectation, which in turn brings us motivation. When we are tired; when we want to pull out; when our blisters have blisters, and our legs feel dead; when we get slower & slower & more and more teams start to overtake us, each and every pound that has already been given will motivate us to continue. We will not want to let people down, we will want to carry on!

However bad we may feel during that one day, pales into significance when compared with the hardship endured by those who will be helped by the money raised.

So, to date, we haven't achieved anything, but our friends have achieved a great deal. They should receive any accolades going. Now we need to match them both in training and on the day.

We are proud of our friends! On the 16th of July we hope that they'll be proud of us!

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