The aftermath!!!

So didn't quite tell the WHOLE story from the Energy Challenge.  It turned out that despite what I thought was a difficult yet successful event I had been injured and didn't even know it.  All the running and cycling and anything else that I may have done could never prepare me for this!!!

I blame it on the mud and muck, but there are other stories involving the post event party that certain members  of the team think are more likely to be to blame.  I guess we will never know!!

I woke up Sunday morning barely able to open my right eye.  I say barely because by Monday, I couldn't open it at all.  Turned out that I had scratched my cornea and was am now more suited to be a pirate rather than anything else.

You don't realise just how important both eyes are to depth perception, until you can't use both of them.  I was running into things all day long.  Because I couldn't see out of my right eye I couldn't put my left contact in, and had to resort to glasses.  Pretty much the most ridiculous thing ever wearing glasses over an eye-patch.

Don't worry everything is fine now.

Seriously though if you ever thought about contributing to our fundraising team, now is the time.  My right eye proves I earned it.   My fundraising page

Our team page

Energy Challenge Day 3

Saturday morning started out very ominous, with the sound of rain on the windows and  wind howling through the trees.  I had hoped that it would soon pass, but the wind and rain was going to be with us for the next 12 brutal hours whether we liked it or not.  Our first stage was based in the Ashclyst Forest, and was the first glimpse 'Leaders' had into the challenge.  For many teams their 'Leaders' arrived the night before and they joined their teams on the soaking wet start line early in the morning.  Unfortunately we didn't have the pleasure of an additional team member to share in the fun.....er pain.  The stage was based on developing new gas fields, with funds that were earned by running through the forest and answering puzzles, and then optimising value through timely sales.  While our plan seemed foolproof, we ended up sending half of our team to what turned out to be the most difficult point on the map.  Unfortunately it was very time consuming to scale a muddy 20% grade, and we were behind the eight ball very early on.  Things didn't fair much better for the next 2 hours and despite the team leaving it all out on the course, and bringing back more than their fair share of mud, we finished toward the bottom on the stage.

We were trying to stay positive going into the final stage, but the rain was really dragging us down at this point.  To give you a better idea of the amount of rain we are talking about, we were forced to find a new route to the start point for the final stage, as the original route was washed out and under water. The organisers put our fears to rest by assuring us that the rain didn't affect the stage route.  Not quite sure what they meant by not 'affecting' us, because it was nothing but mud, water, and more mud.  The stage was split between running and mountain biking with puzzle solving challenges mixed in.  We were based at Fingle Bridge, at the base of valley in the Devonshire countryside.  Would have never expected to see the sights in the English countryside, it looked like the mountains of Colombia.  As if the rain and mud weren't bad enough on both the run and bike portions of the stage we had to scale and descend the slopes of the valley which was more than difficult.  If I thought the views were incredible from the bottom of they valley they were even more so from the top.  It almost made the assent worthwhile, but knowing that what goes up had to come down we couldn't bask in the glory for too long.  We finished toward the middle of the pack, and considering that we were nursing a knee injury for the final couple of miles it was pretty respectable.  With the Champagne spraying at the finish line, the pain of the last 3 days subsided, and we finished with a dip the river to clean up and cool off.

You can get a feel for how nasty the weather was, its this
dark at 2 in the afternoon, as we got ready for the final stage.

The views and terrain was amazing when you actually took
the time to look.

In the end we finished 21st our of 33 teams but all things considered we were pretty pleased.  More importantly the even raised more than £200k for the two charities, and we shared some incredible memories.


Please consider giving to our team or myself personally. My fundraising page

Our team page

Energy Challenge Day 2

Friday kicked off with a canoe competition on a nearby lake.  It was picture perfect (except for a few drops of rain early on) but dead calm on the water, that is until 33 very unsteady canoes launched.  We were navigating the lake looking to develop and produce oil, but seemed to produce more blisters and sore knees than anything else.  We planned somewhat conservatively again with to ensure that we were able to finish on time, and maybe more importantly not drown.  While we executed to perfection, gaining valuable bonus minutes, there were still a few teams which were able to amass more bonus points, to more than offset their slower times, and again came in with negative times.  We were however gradually moving up the leader board, and while the upcoming mountain bike event made some of nervous, I was supremely confident in our team and bike skills.

Stage 2 video

As we made our way to the second event of the day we were welcomed to the town of Chagford with narrow one lane roads, instead of hoopla and fanfare.  I am sure the locals hadn't seen a convey of 50 SUVs and mini-vans come through their town ever before.  Chaos ensued and on more than one occasion we ended up backing down the narrow roads to find a place for the oncoming traffic to pass.  Finally though we made it into the Dartmoor National Park and got to see what we would be faced with.  The gentle rolling hills and wandering sheep at the entrance to the park were quickly replaced by the tall trees and steep pitches we were about to be come more than intimately  familiar with.  The aforementioned traffic problems meant we were rushed to the starting line and before we knew it on the road for a 2 hour endurance stage.  The stage was based on the upcoming Olympic games, and we were to register as many teams as possible, by acquiring the athletes, coaching and equipping them, and finally registering.  Bonus points were given for 'booking' travel and accommodation arrangements.  For certain portions of the stage we were required to stay as a team of 4 and for others a single pair could progress the process.  We were quickly greeted by the aforementioned steep slopes, and with the rain in the previous days and weeks, the soft ground made for some serious white knuckle descending.  The highlight of the stage was a portion of trail which had been marked as 'poor grade of track'.  Looking back not sure why it had gotten the negative classification because it was perfectly ridable, and looked like something straight out of a movie or fairy tale.  It as truly unlike anything I had ever seen.  The entire forest was covered in a layer of emerald green moss, which made it look like the surface of some far away planet.  There wasn't any vegetation other than the trees and moss.  Perfect green pillows with great pines as far as the eye could see, topped with equally brilliant green needles.  I could imagine that nobody has set a foot in that part of the forest in years, other than the trail we were on.    Some brilliant strategy let us to register 3 teams for the Olympics, and secure significant bonus points along the way.  While some teams we far more fit than we were our planning saw us into 13th on the stage and edge into the top half of the classification after the stage.

Stage 3 video

With no rest and relaxation we jumped straight into the cars and back into the traffic jams of Chagford, with a pure strategy stage on the horizon.  Back at Exeter University the teams were mixed and matched to see just how good we were at leadership and team building as we tasked with building a self-propelled vehicle able to carry a landscaping timber 2 meters, from the most basic ingredients.  Teams were given a length of bungee cord, 4 discs of a tree, planks of wood and misc. nuts bolts and screws, and let loose to build their machines.  There were some pretty 'interesting' things built by various teams, and only about 50% of the teams were able to achieve success within the allotted two hour time limit.  It was the great equaliser for the teams, with some of the leading teams in the event failing miserably, and adding more than two hours to what were minuscule cumulative times up to that point.  We unfortunately didn't fair all that better with only myself on a team that was successful in their attempt.  We slipped back into the bottom half of the leader board, going into the last day.  In what was a fitting end to our epic day, a fire alarm in our building forced us to watch the sun fade into the distance, while standing outside in the pouring rain.  Luckily there was no late night event sprung on us late in the evening and we were able to get some much needed rest.  With two endurance events on stage for Saturday we were going to need our rest.

Stage 4 video

Please consider giving to our team or myself personally. My fundraising page

Our team page

Energy Challenge Day 1

Ok so a bit of background here....I wrote all of this as it happened over the last weekend, but then didn't have any internet access, and had some other interesting challenges once the event was over.  So just pretend that this is as it happens and go with it.......

Hmmm, things are about to get interesting!  The forecast is um....wet to say the least and we are a bit worried about what lies ahead.  Half the team had a last minute shopping trip yesterday to buy some   waterproof clothes.  To say that it has been hard to prepare while not knowing exactly what we were going to be doing is a bit of an understatement, but it paled in comparison to the way I packed this morning.  Rain on the forecast and the British summer, we really have no idea what we are going to get.

8 pairs of socks
3 pairs of shoes
2 waterproof jackets and pants
and 4 helmets

Got more than my fair share of strange looks getting on the train with all of that!

After a four hour drive from Reading we arrived at The University of Exeter and our home for the next four days. 

With Wimbledon in town this was the biggest
car we could get.  It was a bit tight!!

60% of our team.  Ready and raring to go.

Saw the Goodyear blimp on the drive down.  I guess
they heard we were going to be there and wanted
to catch the action....or not

You could almost smell the anticipation. Or maybe that
was the tuna pasta bake. At least the desserts were
good!

Views from Exeter University.  Those hills didn't instil
alot of confidence. 

Our first event was a Exeter Race Course, a horse racing venue.  It was a running and puzzle event based on time, where each correct answer took minutes off of your time.  We left the race course very early on and spent the next hour or so running up and down hills and trails in and around the race course.  There was even a bit of extra difficulty on our route, as we decided to leave the main trail and take to one of the more rugged paths which let us to cross a stream, or in come cases fall in a stream.  We had stumbled on a clue that Morse Code would be particularly useful in the event, and had spent the 4 hour car ride earlier in the day learning it.  In the end it paid off, and once our Morse Code bonus was applied, our aggregate time for the stage was only 16 minutes.  We were shocked to see teams come in with negative times.  Clearly there were some Olympians in our midst.  We stumbled back to the dorms after 11 only to set the alarm for a bright and early rise on Friday, with at least 3 more stages in store for us.  

Click here for video of the stage Video  

Please consider giving to our team or myself personally. My fundraising page

Our team page

Energy Challenge Update

Wow, in less than a week we will be face to face with...well we don't really know.  Its a bit strange trying to prepare for something, and not really know what it is going to consist of.  I can't imagine that it will be overly physically taxing, but at the same time I am not a kayaker so the unknown scary.

Our one team meeting so far was at a pub, so unless there is a keg race we probably are going to be unprepared.  I have been doing two a days now, running in the morning and riding my bike at night, hopefully I won't be the least fit on the team.

The good news is that we will have a great excuse for getting last place...nobody will be able to say that we have been training too much and not working enough.

Please consider giving to our team or myself personally. My fundraising page

Our team page

BG Energy Challenge

In what can only be described as a massive overestimation of my physical and mental abilities, I have joined forces with some guys and gals from work and have entered the BG Energy Challenge.

The Challenge is described as a team building event where we may have to ride mountain bikes, canoe, run, solve puzzles, crack codes, climb mountains or orientate our way through dense forests.  I guess its a toned down adventure race with more thinking involved. Hopefully for us it will require a ton of thinking and not so much actual physical prowess.  I gotta guess we as a profession are not the most physically fit.  Long days and take out can't be the preparation.  We won't know exactly what the events are until they actually begin, so it makes training a bit difficult.  There is no way we will be able to practice everything so will have to hope the canoeing and orienteering are not the biggest parts.

There is a blog that provides helpful tips and hints for getting ready for the event.  Here are some of my favorites, which make me think that a very long weekend is in store for us:


'we suggest that you should be able to run about 5 miles without stopping and without having any detrimental impact on your health.'


'This year promises something different so get plenty of sleep and know your speed/distance/time calculations by foot, bike and canoe.'


This year's course will contain a mixture of disciplines (running, biking and canoeing) over different terrain (forestry, parkland, lakes and moors).  As you can imagine, a working knowledge of a compass and map will be a distinct advantage.' 


'One tip is that knowing your way around the Morse Code will greatly assist you early on in the event.'

I haven't run 5 miles in probably 15 years, and I don't even know what a moor is.  Can't be a good omen.

While we will look to have fun the real reason for the event is to support a couple of worthy charities.  We all will be raising money in addition to searching for some sort of fitness buried under years of overtime meals and endless cappuccinos.  If you are a frequent reader please take a moment and consider supporting me and 2 great charities at my fundraising page.

I will keep you all up to date on our training and the event itself, over the next 6 weeks.  I am sure that there will be some great stories and some epic failures as we embark on this adventure.