Event 6: Ups and Downs MTB

So event 6 reared its early morning head this weekend, unfortunately for us it was early Saturday morning which resulted in both Tommy and I having to stick our fingers in our ears on Friday night and try not to hear all of the fun the rest of the nation was having on Pimms and champagne, courtesy of Wills and Kate. Begrudgingly, we did manage to stay away from parties despite numerous invitations, and arrived on time in Dorking for the 25 miles Ups and Downs Mountain Bike Challenge, run by the guys over at UK Cycling Events & Wiggle.

Our own personal fitness seemed to be in role reversal when compared with the Bath Half. I was feeling fine but Tommy had picked up a bit of a cold, not great as cycling up hills is not what Tommy’s like best.

After a very quick registration and chipping process, we jumped on our bikes, wheeled round to the start line, and after a very quick briefing, we were off. Not many of you will know Dorking but even I didn’t realise how stunning the place is, especially when blessed with some pretty fine weather. Our first hill was one of the worst as it took you up to the top which worried us both ‘surely it’s not doing to be like this for 25 miles!

Mercifully it wasn’t, the course had some long tough climbs but some fast long downhills too, technical in some places and beautiful in many. There was even a halfway point filling station, where the organisers had put on some flapjacks (of which I probably had one too many) and some energy drinks and so-on, over looked by some cows, seemingly eating their breakfast too.

Nice little break, Gooood Flapjacks!

COWS!

The second half of the ride was slightly easier than the first, although it did have the most brutal climb I have encountered on a bike, if anyone cycled up it consider my hat well and truly doffed! To put it in perspective, I had to stop 3 times up it, and I pushed my bike from the bottom!

Nice downhill section. Much fun!

Tommy was a little slower than me in this event which is understandable as he was not 100% and doesn’t have the benefit of being able to ride to work like I do, so after the first hour we’d parted. It only dawned on me while I was sat in the sun at the finish line with my free tea waiting for Tommy to finish, that I was carrying ALL of the puncture repair kit. This concern grew further as an hour ticked past and still no sign. My main concern wasn’t for T­­ommy so to speak, but the fact that had he not finished, by our rules, the event wouldn’t count!

Relaxing at the finish in my Red Socks.

Meanwhile Tommy had managed to get himself lost, missing a marker along the route and heading 2.5 miles in the wrong direction, down a rather nasty hill too.

Knowing nothing of Tommy’s added excursion, when Tommy rounded the corner just over an hour and half after me, it must have looked a little like the scene in Armageddon when the lost ship returns to the other crew-mates (only a little less epic). I was Happy that he’d made it and, and he was just happy it was over. Tommy finished in a respectable 04:43:35 and I managed it in 03:09:49 (had I not had that 4th flapjack it would have a been a gold time! Damn you flapjacks!)

Tommy rolling in!

 Tommy and I both have mixed opinions about this event. It was superbly run, I will certainly be doing more of them, as part of 30B430 or not. If you are interested in cycling, Road or MTB, then check out these guys at www.ukcyclingevents.com they don’t do much wrong. We will be doing the falling leaves event, so if you’re keen for a cycle in October sign up and we’ll see you there.

On a final note, for those of you that don't know I am attempting to win a spot on an epic adventure across Africa with Avis and Red Sock Friday. It's truly and once in a lifetime experience and although it won't count as one of our 30B430 events, it is still embracing the spirit of why we are doing this challenge, to experience things we wouldn't otherwise have done. I NEED VOTES. I am down to the last 8, and have entered a video. All 8 videos are being voted on, and the one with the most votes, wins! It's easy to vote, just sign up to www.redsockfriday.com, go to the Put Foot Rally Videos section on the right of the page and vote for my video 'SAVE ME FROM MY DESK', it's the multicoloured video with ANdrew O'Sullivan under it :). All votes will be much appreciated. THANK YOU!

Event 5: The Swimathon

Can’t really think of a witty headline for this blog so kept it simple. As some of you will have seen last week, Tommy and I took part in the Marie Curie Swimathon on Sunday. This is a great little event which involves participants attempting to swim a variety of distances, 1.5k, 2.5k or 5k. Tommy and I decided to go for the team 5k so the maths was simple, 100 lengths each, done.

As far as training went for this event, well lets just say it didn’t. Both Tommy and I used to swim a lot and were confident in being able to knock the lengths off no problems. However, having not swum a length in a fair few months this was probably a bit naïve but hey, makes it more of a challenge.

           

To be totally honest and uninteresting we both did pretty well, completing all 200 lengths in a little over 2 hours, no stopping, no resting, no drowning, very civilized. We collected our overly substantial medals and went on our merry way.

Ok so I know what you’re thinking, ‘there must have some bad bits’? If you remember back to our first event at the Santa fun run, I complained about the choice of sustenance supplied at the end of the race (who wants a mince pie after a run!??). This event was slightly better, granted, but I’d love to know the thinking behind offering us a cup of cordial that was so strong it made your eyes blur, and a fox’s glacier fruit sweet, which both made me feel rather ill. Another negative of the day was the waiting. Neither Tommy or I are particularly quick through the water, and sitting to count of each others lengths was pretty dull I have to say, just imagine counting to 100 in an hour!

Aside from those small things it was a good event. Tommy and I are both paying for our lack of training today as I can barely lift my arms my shoulders are so stiff and I understand Tommy is having similar repercussions. Another event down and we discovered another whilst we were at the swimming pool, more on that to follow.

I also must mention my late Nan, we were doing the Swimathon in her honor as she was an avid swimmer, and after a very fitting funeral for her on Friday, I’m sure this weekend she would have been very proud.

A bit of housekeeping. We have been neglecting the push of our sponsorship page. Even though this is a personal challenge for Tommy and I, we are raising money for children who are not as fortunate to spend their time on such petty adventures. The One Foundation do fantastic work in underprivileged communities in Africa, and any support you can give us will really help. We don’t expect people to sponsor us for every event, just the 30B430 as one big challenge. So whether you donate by taking part in an event, or through the justgiving site, it will all be much appreciated.

http://www.justgiving.com/30b430/

The show must go on.

So it feels like an age since posting. In fact it has been a whole month with no events. We were due to be taking part in an event 3 weeks ago but we did not compete as unfortunately, my Dad's Mum passed away the day before, so things were put on hold.

I thought I would just post a little update so everyone knows what we're up to.

Ramshackle Rally is on the verge of being booked with 5, hopefully 6 drivers taking part, very exciting. Olly is doing a grand job in sorting our mamouth 3 peaks challenge in June, we're really looking forward to that. and a few other bits and bobs have been organised. Surprisingly, the event that has taken most interest has been the crazy golf tournaments. We fear that the original plan of entering the British Masters may fall by the wayside, but there are many other tournaments, the world matchplay, for example that we can take part in so watch this space.

The next event is this coming Sunday 10th April and takes the form of the annual Marie Currie Swimathon. Tommy and I will be sharing the full 5k, swimming 2.5k each (100 lengths), at Pool in the Park in Woking. On a personal note my Nan was a very keen swimmer and up until her mid 80's she was still swimming 50 lengths in the local pool, pretty impressive. So for me,  this event will be in her memory.

This will mark us making it one sixth of the way to 30, representing event No.5. A long way to go yet and over the coming summer months the event frequency is going to really step up.

Anyway, that's where we are, will post again next week after the swim.

Event 4: A Well Run Bath‏

Challenge Number 4 saw us travel a little further afield this time, all the way down to Bath for their annual Half Marathon!

 

This one had a personal touch for me. Last year sadly a good friend of my family was taken from us due to Cancer. Nick Samuel was an avid runner and ran the Bath Half every year along with at least two full marathons and in his honour his lovely family had decided to set up 'Team Nick' and run the annual half marathon along with seeing how much they could raise for two of the charities that Nick supported. The Fashion & Textile Childrens Trust and Cancer Research UK. (including gift aid just over £9k was raised, so thank you to everyone who sponsored Team Nick)

 

Sully and I were a little late in signing up to the team, however luckily there were two drop outs and we were fortunate enough to take their place. So if you're looking for our times we were Sue Tilley and Emma Sandle. Around the 730 mark for fastest women!!!

 

The Race was set up as a couple of miles through Bath city centre then 2 laps of the outerskirts and finishing back where you started. According to the local news there were expected to be 15,000 competitors trudging the streets and what seemed like a similar number lining them to cheer on their friends and family.

 

I have to say that for me, and I think for Sully too, this was the most enjoyable event so far. The atmosphere of Team Nick and its supporters before, during and after the race was fantastic. Even the strangers in the crowd were cheering us along as if they knew us personally, although they did keep reading sully's name wrong. We had Sullys, Soooollys, a Scully and even a Someone, much to my amusement of course as no one got 'Tom' wrong!! The whole race atmosphere was great, so much so that we managed to have a couple of water fights on the way round! Im not sure anyone else found it as funny as we did, but for the record, Sully lost.

 

Needless to say we rounded the last corner and the crowd on the home straight cheered us on to up the pace and we completed the race in just under 1:53!

 

After the finish, rocking our Red socks!

 

 A massive congratulations goes out to every member of Team Nick for completing the Half Marathon, to name a few; Roy, for getting round despite having your knee strapped for most of the way. Tim, for being the fastest member of the Team, Georgia, Hannah, Mamuht, Grace and Harriot and of course to Helen. Well done everyone.

 

Roy, Georgia and Hannah from 'Team Nick'

 A Couple of Thank You's are in order as well:

 

Helen thank you for organising us all and your amazing hospitality

All the members of 'Team Nick' for putting in such a good effort

All our supporters on the side lines, who we knew and who we didnt, (including my Dad, who came all the way and only managed to see us run past him 800 metres from home)

Avril for the delicious chicken lakshna post race

and of course to Bill, for chopping 3 Onions. They made all the difference in the chicken Lakshna, and its people like that, going the extra mile, that really make these things happen.

 

Challenges are starting to come in fast now. Next up is a Orienteering Race on March 20th. keep your eyes on Facebook and Twitter for more information.

It's oh so quiet. Oh wait!

So I thought I would write another blog to keep everyone up to speed on what's going on in the world of 30b430. I am aware that we haven't blogged for a bit and didn't want people to think we had given up already!! Far from it.

As the vents build and build so does the organizing and the training, and the amount of hours in a day are fast becoming too few. The most exciting event that has been added and booked is the amazing Ramshackle Rally to Munich. We have been making a fair bit of noise about this over the twitter and Facebook but for those of you who have managed to miss these, let me explain.

This is a road trip of epic proportions. Teams of 3-5 will purchase a ca that was made in 1995 or before (N reg) for no more than £200. These teams will then decorate their cars and meet at the start line in Calais. From Calais the teams will then set off on a 5 day rally (not a race) which will take us across France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Slovenia and finally coming to a spluttering halt in Munich, Germany just in time for Oktoberfest. Along the way challenges will be set which need to be completed including finding and driving the famous Stelvio Pass.

The Stelvio Pass

 There is a lot of excitement in the camp about this one and expect the trip to be heavily documented. We will probably end up doing a daily diary blog for this one.

In other news Tommy and I have been training for the Bath Half Marathon which is taking place on the 6th or March, marking our next event.

Don't want to waffle too much here but do want to say some congratulations to John McInroy and his team for astonishingly qualifying for the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. For those of you who don't know what it is, look it up, it's insane. ShoOops!

Event 3: The HELLy Hansen Challenge

Tommy stepped up to the plate on this one and has written this report of the event. It's long but so was the event! hope you enjoy. Take it away Tommy!

And so to event number 3. The Helly Hansen Challenge and really the event that was the catalyst for the whole 30b430 adventure. Set down in Pirbright the challenge that laid before us was a 10k cross country run, 25k mountain bike and a 1k Kayak. This event unlike the previous was a team challenge, Team 30b430 was comprised of myself and Sully naturally and our good friend “Kersh” who came along for the ride. To make things interesting another good friend of ours Olly, entered a rival team. Team Macho Macho Macho!!!! Was to be made up of Olly, Ben and Wideboy and with that the challenge was set, losers buy dinner!

Upon arrival and not too dissimilar to the Brutal 10k it was freezing and staying in the car seemed like a much better option, however we had to register and make a few last minute alterations (more on these later) so we braved the cold.

Registration was right next to the finish line where trailplus had their signature finish of cargo-net followed by the infamous slippery wall! We also noticed several liters’ of vegetable hiding underneath the wall just to make it extra slippery!

Team 30B430, Before the Races

 After placing our bikes in the “transition zone” and a few last minute stretches it was time for the Elite group of runners which coincidentally Team Macho Macho Macho had confidently signed themselves up for, to gather at the start line. They had a brief explanation of the course and then they were off. This meant that it was our turn to linger around the start line! Now I should mention at this point that Team 30b430 were carrying injuries. Sully unfortunately had rolled his ankle in a hockey match the day before and I was carrying my long term torn hip cartilage injury, so to say that we were in tip top shape was off the mark. Nevertheless we put those minor setbacks aside and lined up!

Gathering at the start

 The brief description of the course from what we could hear (why these events don’t invest in megaphones is beyond us) was as such. Run, Bike, Run, Kayak, Run finishing with the mini assault course which included the slippery wall!

We set off into the woods amongst the crowds and finding space was difficult but soon the field thinned slightly and we could open up and attack the course at our pace. Almost as soon as that happened Sully rolled his ankle again! Amazingly like the Black knight from the Monty Python film, he carried on. ‘Tis but a scratch! We rounded the run quickly and began are assault on the rest of the field and of course, chasing Team Macho Macho Macho.

Tommy and Kersh in first transition

 Onto the bikes we transitioned quickly and headed out again! Sully and Kersh who cycle to work on a regular basis and me, who hasn’t really ridden a bike in about 4 or 5 years! After about 2k we realized that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up with them, potentially due to my lack of practice or more likely to do with those last minute alterations I had made! Having borrowed the bike from another friend (thank you Redders) I needed to lower the seat to accommodate my shorter legs and in doing this lowered it way to far, meaning that I had to cycle twice as hard to get the power needed! This strangely however may have strangely worked in our favour as although we lost time, all it meant was that I had to walk up the hills and that Sully and Kersh got a rest at the top of them!

We soldiered on and at the end of the first lap we had started to build our momentum, I had caught up with the rest of the team and we were flying through the steep downhill section. In fact it was so steep that at one point someone decided that they would stop immediately in front of Sully causing him to slam on the brakes and fly over the handle bars. However with expertise and grace he managed to go feet first and land on his feet! Which could only have been bettered if he had somersaulted too, either way Kersh and I gave it an 8 of aesthetic effect!

The second lap flew by and on our way back to transition we passed Team Macho Macho Macho coming the other way on their run to the kayak, not too far ahead of us but with a gained lead even from their head start! Spurring us on we quickly changed, grabbed a “gel bar” courtesy of Kersh which is supposed to blast energy into your fatigued muscles and that I can only describe as a melted calippo, we headed for the run to the kayak! Around half way to the run, marvelously my hip froze and I was reduced to walking while the other two ran on to set the kayak up!

Pushing on I caught up with the others at the water station by the kayaks and noticed that we had also caught the third team, not involved in the wager, but competing against us for glory and pride! This team “The Three Amigos” consisted of Sully’s brother and two of Olly’s friends from Hockey. Into the Kayaks we set off, synchronizing ourselves so that we had maximum power we started to tear up the field in front of us! Catching The Three Amigos as they struggled to co-ordinate themselves and constantly spinning we blazed past them!

Kersh using his nautical prowess and leading from the front.

 After the Kayak was the final run back to transition and the finish line! With The Three Amigos chasing us and us chasing Team Macho Macho Macho the race was on! With cramps setting in and muscles seizing we went passed one marshal asking how far to go, his response……errrr maybe 1k!!! Helpful! Either way we upped the pace to get away from the chasing pack and as we came to the final assault course we were told by our support (Zoe and Mattress) that team Macho Macho Macho had only just crossed the line! We hit the “ski’s” which were planks of wood with rope loops that you had to walk on as a team. Co-ordination and synchronization again fella’s outstanding as we charged the field in front of us while the onlookers tried to figure it out! Through the cargo net (which is harder than it looks on tv) and onto the slippery wall. We all attacked it and despite slipping somewhat managed to bundle ourselves over and a sprint across the line!

Blazing through the ski section.

emerging from the cargo net, before the slippery wall

Elated that we had finished such a challenge we grabbed our complimentary milkshakes patted each other on the back at the effort but convinced that although close Team Macho Macho Macho had walked away with the spoils! A quick check of the times located by the finish line we had completed the course in 2:46:28. Not a bad effort! Then out of the corner of his eye Sully saw Team Macho Macho Macho 2:46:50! We’d WON over nearly 3 hours of racing it came down to 22 seconds! Amazing!!

Muddy faced and tired after the finish.

 A thoroughly enjoyable challenge that I would recommend to anyone, its tough but rewarding and competed on a great day. Now on to challenge number 4: the Sidcup 10 Miler in February.

A big thank you to Zoe and El Mattador for coming a lot to support, and especially Matt for all the photography, it's really appreciated.

Oh and Team Macho Macho Macho, you owe us dinner!!

A Week in Progress

 So even though we have not taken part in an event in the last 2 weeks there has been a lot of work going into really getting the challenge motoring.

Firstly the blog site, although useful, we thought isn’t really going to cut it and so with some help from my brother and El Mattador we will soon be launching a dedicated website. On this we plan to not just have blogs but an interactive calendar, galleries, forums, and lots more. We’re also trying to make a system where people can sign up to join in with us which we are excited about.

As well as the site Tommy and I have been busy sourcing events and spending a fair bit of cash signing up to some. It is clear this whole challenge is going to be rather expensive but hey, it all goes towards charities so not all bad.

Some events of note that we have, or are going to enter, are the Bath Half marathon (which is in like 5 weeks!!!!), The Crazy Golf British Masters, Hellrider, South Downs Trail Ride, The Great South Run, The Great North Run, 3 Peaks Challenge, London to Brighton cycle, and a monster event called The Drambuie Challenge. The magnitude of what we are doing is slowly sinking in and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous but that why they call it a ‘Challenge’. If it was going to be easy we would have called it the ‘30B430 Walk In The Park’! 

The stage for the Crazy Golf British Masters. Amazing!

 Anywho. One thing we have been focusing more on as we go through is ‘team’ events. We feel that these will make it easier for more people to get involved, which will make every event individual and special. We are recruiting heavily for lots of events, whether it be a ‘more the merrier’ approach, or if there are specific numbers needed. Go to our facebook page to register for now, or email me a sully@30B430Challenge.co.uk if you are interested in any events.

Training for the upcoming Helly Hansen Challenge on Sunday 30^th January is meandering along, if anyone wants to come and laugh at us then come along, it’s in Pirbright in Surrey, more details here http://www.trailplus.com/adventure-challenge-series.php.

There are so many other things going on with 30B430 but I don’t want to write an epic post, all I shall say is that there is so much more to come and so much to look forward to. The most exciting part for me is the involvement of other people, some have already shown a keen interest and I know we will get many more. If you want to get involved but don’t think you’re up to it, get in touch and I’m sure we can find an event for all standards.