Commando Challenge
WELL – I MADE IT - OR RATHER MY TEAM MADE IT.
The team, by the way, was a vastly different team to the one originally envisaged, or even entered. However Stewart had to withdraw owing to back problems and Darrel contracted a bad cold which rendered him unfit for duty.
However with the family I have we made a team up, thank you Hanna and Daley, I promise I won't make you do anything quite so – well – stupid, no, challenging, no, different again. They were both fit and able, I can't say the same for me, and I was the one who planned this, I must get my brain cell sva'd. I think I must be asthmatic, because after just 300 yards or so I found breathing really difficult, so I could not even jog. Despite the marines coaxing, or is that goading, I could not go faster than a brisk walk. However, I finished the course, maybe the slowest person to do so, but I still did it.
I found the obstacles were almost fun, it was the three miles of common land, gullies, tree roots, gorse etc which were the worst. I should have trained much harder, but I won't say for next time. For me there will be no next time.
AND WE RAISED £454. This was between just the three of us, some teams of 6 or more raised far less. I am not decrying them, just saying how well we did, and comparing us to the opposition! To all those who sponsored me, or Hanna or Daley, thank you to all of you, it is you who gave the money, or at least pledged it, so now is the time to cough up, if you have not already done so.
Tips for other people who may like this kind of challenge next time:
• Train to do 6 miles, then three over rough terrain won't faze you.
• Have a good team around you, although I would have liked Stewart and Darrel to be there, my family are the best people to have around when in adversity.
• Get there early, the queue for registration seemed endless.
• Get used to being cold. I did not wear a sweatshirt, or have heat in the house before doing the challenge, and I did not feel the cold until queueing for the tepid showers afterwards, but that took over 10 minutes to get to the front.
• A Must – wear shoes with tread. I wore old trainers but slipped needlessly and endlessly down the gullies, these have also been junked now!
• Wear knee pads and I took wetsuit style gloves. I took them but left them behind, doh, and they seriously would have made the tunnels etc easier.
• Wear only very old, doesn't matter clothes. You will not want to bring them home, and you have the opportunity to junk them into a skip at the end, very liberating. I had my sweatshirt cut off me it had stuck fast onto me, the mud was so gloopy. And take almost doesn't matter towels, the mud does not wash off your body after the first shower (I have since had another two showers and a bath, and am still finding mud on me)
• Lastly, don't wear white afterwards, as the mud does not wash off the ‘clean' clothes worn after get very dirty, as soon as they are put on!
Photos copyright of Event Digipix
