Respectful

Without getting political about access rights to land, erosion of popular routes or charities using the three peaks far too much.
As I have stated before we are highly sensitive to the environmental impact our challenge could make, we are doing everything possible to reduce our event logistics and resources.

There are many responsible walkers and hikers that visit all the peaks we hope to climb every year.

Both Bryn and I agree that the 3-Peaks Challenge is not quite a route we wanted our event to follow. Yes we have to travel to the mountains and peaks [as do we all], but we’ll be camping, enjoying the surroundings, pacing ourselves so we can take as many pictures, videos and enjoy the locations we’ll be in. We intend to make sure local park authorities advice and guidance is sought before our event takes place to be sure we adhere to any changes in mountain access restrictions.

We'll have all the equipment and training to make sure we are responsible, worthy and respectful of all our actions.
The rules are pretty random if you wonder around the internet with regards to individual 3-Peaks events, the routes are usually either 24 hours or three days and participation numbers vary greatly from well organised events to individual un-sponsored groups.
Any rubbish that came with us...comes back with us! We also have our own toilet facility in the vehicle [ok, sounds glamorous it's just a camping porta-loo] if we need it ;-)

In the coming months we'll be training all over the UK, taking part in cross country events, half marathons and marathons - because we truly love the outdoors. We are also considering cancelling the Guinness Record challenge just incase it gives out mixed signals, we'll up date that point soon.

Some people have asked us "what are we doing for the local economy, why should we support you?". Two main reason, we have and will continue visiting, shopping, eating in local resturants and enjoying all the national parks, hopefully for many years to come. Secondly the charities we have picked work tirelessly with people all over the UK, to improve their lives or aid their suffering.

Further reading:
http://www.ukeverestchallenge.com/low_impact.html

Stumble It!

Merry in-excesses

Christmas, ahh a time of peace, family, gifts, friends and HUGE excesses!
I scrapped through...just.

Undertaking the UKEC'09 event was a rather large commitment in its own right. To move over rough ground at pace and running up hills, hiking in the dark are all made possible only with our growing fitness. All of that can be pushed back with far too much drink and food at Xmas.

We are stepping up our training once again in January, I had to REALLY resist many normal seasonal joys. I dropped a meal on Christmas day to only eat two main meals, I drank less this year as my body was effected faster, which thankfully meant I started drinking more water earlier on both Christmas and Boxing day.

I'm also finding people are understanding the commitments we are under. Instead of labeling us 'boring old farts', they are starting to understand that we can't just stop what we are doing. The toughest test is yet to come with new year.

I intend to have some fun, but quietly set myself a limit and stick to it. - Darren

Merry Christmas and keep on moving!

What a great end of year, supporters, sponsors and our charities all helping us push our event, train harder and that makes us smile.
No training today, Bryn and I will with family commitments will connect up in about 8 days time. We'll be looking after own fitness over the Xmas period. I hit the trail yesterday with a rather cheeky 7:30am run around Haytor and the valley's behind the quarries. The route normally takes at best in the mud and sharp climbs 58mins. It felt great to dig in the hills and come in nicely at 55mins, shaving a small slice of time off.

Well look at me, I got presents to open, so you all have a great festive season and we'll be back with more fundraising, hiking and running news shortly.

Thank you all for supporting us, Merry Christmas. - Darren

Southampton Solent University VO2 Testing

Some amongst us think you know I'll go running because I'm fat/ unfit/ need a challenge... We take up this sport and we run our first mile then 10 kilometres, then a half marathon. Some of us achieve the ultimate and run a marathon, what a day and what a feeling when you get to that one. Our friends and colleagues make comments like oh yeah your fit because you run, with slight embarrassment we agree. The big Question is are we fit?
Whilst we are planing our little event, we thought it best to set ourselves challenges along the way so that we could measure our fitness against others.

A chance conversation between Darren & Dr Stewart Brucelow a Sport Scientist and the Laboratory Director and a Senior Lecturer at Southampton Solent University, brought up the subject VO2 testing. Dr Stewart Brucelow offered us the chance to be asessed, tested, prodded and poked all in the name of science. The aim was to get an honest scientific opinion of how we fit we where. We thought this would be an added wake up call and some thing to train against.

The day commenced with a drive to Southampton from our beloved Devon, we arrived around midday, we met Stewart who took us to his Laboratory and introduced us to four of his Year two Students and Senior Laboratory Technician. Over the next four to five hours we signed disclosures in case we died!!! blew in things pushed things, ran on things, whilst Stewart and his colleagues measured us observed us and took notes after notes, rubbing their chins...

We completed a test that measured the capacity of our lungs, the strength of our lungs. They then tested our back strength for carrying twenty five kilogram rucksacks whilst running. Stewart measured all our fat bits all over with sighs and concerned grunts, slightly disconcerting to say the least. The students got us running whilst stabbing our fingers to measure our lactic acid, whilst breathing through a huge hose to take readings of the carbon dioxide we where blowing out I think, added to the fact we had to point at a chart describing how hard we thought it was, had to be the oddest of experiences.
All in all a very good day, strangely tiring yet very, very interesting. We are still waiting to hear the results I'm hoping that they are not quite as bad as we think they are going to be...please let the miles and hours of suffering have been for something...
Bryn
Stumble It!

UK Everest Challenge 2009 Event Launched.

Action packed duo undertake large UK endurance event, they plan to run, hike and crawl their way over TEN of, N.Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England's most rugged, highest and dangerous peaks. In a mad dash of blisters in August 2009.

December 22nd, 2008 - UKEC'09 is a compact, dedicated and non-profit event team aiming to complete their goal within a short four or five days. You can visit our fundraising site at www.ukeverestchallenge.com, read why they are doing the event in detail and get some background on us.

Proudly fundraising and fully backed by the following beneficiary charities;


• Help for Heroes [2 out of the 3 guys in the team are ex-marines]

• Children with Leukaemia [ Team member Bryn Posey father died of Leukaemia]

• National Association of Crohn's & Colitis Disease [ Team member Darren Edwards has been diagnosed with Colitis/Crohn's]

• Skill Force Development Charity [Bryn works for this charity]



UKEC founder Darren Edwards states "I think I've been an incredibly selfish individual all of my life thus far, and now I think it's time to give something back! It sounds so exceptionally cliché, but I do think Karma goes around and comes around [maybe I've watched too many My Name is Earl episodes?].

We lead our lives at almost break neck speed, deep in daily grind we rarely stop to see the pain of others, unless of course it happens to us first. A child with cancer, a person in pain and soldier crippled. It means so very little to us, apart from a fleeting emotion, it's just the news after all".



Team member Bryn Posey's reasons for signing up are quite clear "I lost my father to leukaemia back in 1999 and for many years didn't dwell on it and pushed it to the back of my mind, locking it away. In 2006 I realised I had spent a lot of time focusing on my life and on my personal achievements. I was not really sure where or what I was doing with my life.

On new years eve 2007 I made a resolution to do something for someone else, that in no way benefited myself (directly). Since then I have run the London Marathon for Children with Leukaemia [dressed I might add as Mr. Tickle!].

At the end of that race I was so elated and realised I had made a difference; yet I realised I could do so much more, this is my motivation".



Onboard this month we have several new sponsors; Montane, Southampton Solent University, South Devon College, Hilly Clothing, Bush Gear and Hydrate for Health. Now we are looking for national and regional media and news wires like yourself to pick up on the story, so we can gain extra sponsorship and ultimately and more importantly a huge reward for our charities.



About UKEC:
Newly formed non-profit endurance race team fundraising for UK charities. Four charities every year for the next four years will benefit, as the events get longer and more challenging. UKEC is based in the South West of England, with three team members, two runners and one support/logistics member. Training and take part in events all over the UK.


###

Router, High Willhays & Yes Tor....

A nice jaunt up a hill and round the corner was as Darren described it. Straight out the back of Okehampton, just past the Royal Marines Battle Camp.

We're trying to up the training now road running and gym sessions during the week, and at weekends it's hiking session on the Saturday, then a trail runing session on the Sunday. It has been going well. So we decided to turn it up a notch. The highest hills on Dartmoor are Yes Tor and High Willhays nice at around 620 metres with a nice saddle between the two.

It took us about an hour and a half as we decided to take the slightly longer circumnavigation route on the way home.

As always we keep seeing steeper hills and strangely we hear ourselves saying I want to go up there, shall we do that next week??

Loving the training days

Bryn

Web update

The main event website has had some tweaks. If you pop along to www.ukeverestchallenge.com - you'll see sponsors logo's added, both Bryn & my sections now have pictures that expand, links updates and donations page is slowly getting updated. Plus the first edition of the newsletter has been added to the front page.

Fast'n'ard

BIG week for Bryn and myself as we are off to Southampton Solent University, where laboratory Director & Senior lecturer Dr Stewart Bruce-Low, a BASES accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist and his students are quite possibly going to make one off us pass out and the other one throw up!

His words not mine: "We will look to undertake body composition (pinching your fat bits), VO2 max and lactate threshold tests. These final two tests will be undertaken simultaneously. I should warn you that these tests (not the body comp) are maximal in nature and suggest you do not train the day prior to this. This means we run you to the point where you either give up (test of mental strength too) or ideally to the point where your legs just give out. Hoorah... I love my job!!"

I think we can safely assume the good doctor loves his job.

We are looking forward to having a benchmark now and further testing closer to the event. At the moment it's a mix of excitement, apprehension and butterflies being chased by bears in my gut right now.
Darren

Stumble It!

THE GREAT £1 CHALLENGE

SMALL DONATION = BIG HEART!

£1, sounds quite a small doesn't it? Loose change or something you would noramally find behind the sofa cushions? WE WANT YOUR £1 COINS NOW!! If every person that visits this blog and our main site donated a just single £1 coin, we could have reached our target and much more already. We hit nearly 600 hits a day last week, and excellent result BUT imagine if we could converted all that traffic in to money for our charities? Even just a third of the people that visited our main site, donated we would have smashed our £8,848.

I hope people visiting this blog and our site remember this is fundraising event, not just a endurance challenge, so please we need support for all our charities.

THREE WAYS TO DONATE

1 - Go to our individual Bryn or Darren pages and donate with our EVERYCLICK link.

2 - Donate with our PAYPAL button that's on EVERY page on our site

3 - Send £1 in an envelope, taped to a bit of card or with a letter to:

UK EVEREST CHALLENGE

PO BOX 665

EXETER

EX1 9LF

A Change of Track

Our training has been going well, to ensure that we don't get stale we like to mix it up a little, this has meant reversing routes praying for different weather conditions and planning for days away to our target peaks and mountains. Realising that our next eight months or so are going to get harder and harder we are now break ourselves in with a nice hike and then a short snappy run the following day. We decided on Saturday 6th, to take a hike up Cosdon Hill all one thousand eight hundred feet or five hundred and fifty metres Cosdon beacon domintaes the North East Corner of Dartmoor with fantastic views;

http://www.phototropic.co.uk/landscapeleaps/dartmoor_panoramic_photography/pano-Cosdon_Hill_-_Dartmoor

We managed a rather nice circular walk of about six miles in about two and a half hours. Not bad going as it was new ground [slightly soggy] and navigating on the move as we jogged up the tor. We are trying to ensure that we stick to main tracks and public bridal ways to do our best to limit our damage to the moor. I manage to navigate us to a ford in the river Taw just below Belstone Tor

http://www.phototropic.co.uk/landscapeleaps/dartmoor_panoramic_photography/pano-Cosdon_Hill_-_Dartmoor#show-Belstone_Tor_-_Dartmoor

Lightly jogging we stopped for a pause and negotiate a difficult river crossing at a spot called Sheeps fold. Once across we took the track back towards Cosdon hill and home.

Not a bad day and as added bonus we found Highwillhays Tor, now I thought I had been up and down nearly every hill on Dartmoor including Yes Tor which is six hundred and nineteen metres. I've either forgotten or my mind has chosen to block out the experience. So we've found our planned hike for next weekend...

Bryn
Stumble It!

A rock and a hard place

When people find out we are doing the UK Everest Challenge, they quite quickly make a split decision whether they approve or disapprove of our cause. The running groups state we’re hikers, walking groups bark we’re runners, friends of the environment [which we are] say they can’t support us because of the green issue of our event? I might add the same guy that stated we’re not green enough also went to Everest base camp and taken part in the Three Peaks challenge, let alone trips to the USA for hiking and drove from coast to coast - a bit of calling the kettle black I feel. The funniest email was from a camper, or rather a guy with a caravan, lives in Dorset and travels to Scotland regularly towing his beast. We'll be in tents on our challenge taking it all in.

Both Bryn and myself have approached this event carefully, car share at every opportunity, train locally to reduce travel. Use more expensive 100% recycled paper and envelopes for letters, 80% of our mailings are via email - less effective but less waste, refill our laser toner cartridges, all the tech is low power consumption, the list goes on and on.

Yes we'll be traveling around the UK and we're looking at ways to use public links where practical. Also trying to off-set some of our carbon footprint by signing up to tree planting.

We certainly appreciate all of the national parks with their unique rights of ways and follow the country code. When we are out training either walking, hiking or running, it's like being kids in a candy shop. Stopping to take pictures and taking in the views, there's something to see even in the pouring rain. We love it!

So to all the haters and people who are on the fence finding excuses, please donate a £1 for our charities and wish us well, we'll remember to shut gates, clean up after ourselves and will be on a hill near you every week no matter what the weather, enjoying - like you the great outdoors. - Darren
Stumble It!

Oh My Word it's frickin cold out here...

A long day Saturday we got back around eight at night from london. Tired but happy, we had a few jobs to do email to send etc. Half Past two in the morning I managed to crawl in to bed. Oh did I forget to mention that we had agreed to be on the moor for a training session at eight fifteen. which meant getting up at half seven... JOY.

Well half eight the next morning there we are parked up near Haytor on Dartmoor to for a nice Circular walk of about four or so miles nice an easy... Ah that when the wind gently blew past us, it was like scene from a movie me and Darren made eye contact and through gritted teeth uttered the ***** me that's cold. Darrens fingers where already blue and I could name a few parts of my anatomy which where inverting themselves.

A nice leisurely stroll across the moors and we where wishing that all the good preperation and safety equipment... don't forget your gloves you will regret it!!

By Bryn
Stumble It!

Beautiful weird and wonderful training days

What a weekend.

Me and Darren have finally got our training truly under way. We're looking to up our training to three or four days a week, and quite happily it's by choice. Now normal training running road or trail and then a bit in the gym a few press ups and maybe a swim (not darren he'd rather drown. Then there are things you can do that still class as training although you dont realise until afterwards, when your body aches in lots of weird and wonderful places. Our weird and wonderful weird training session started out as a gift from my missus. It was one of those extreme adventure vouchers.. it read along the lines pick one of these and enjoy!!!! I chose an ice climbing session at an indoor centre place called Ellis Brigham. I thought I'd take Darren along for the trip.

We ended up in London It wasn't the worst of drives we where booked in for two o'clock and just hit the outskirts of that great city by twelve thirty, and then we hit traffic, we started to get a bit twitchy after it took nearly thirty minutes to get about three miles. We decided to ditch the car strangely we ended up parking in mayfair just off the corner of hyde park. Our lovelly little Megan aprked next to the Ferrari's and top of the range Audi's was a very strange sight. Darren a hater of all confined spaces was most pleased to be shuffled on to the tube across london. Thirty short minutes later we arrived at Covent Garden. We arrived with about twenty minutes to spare. The instructors Sam and Martin where on hand to show us what ice axe went where and how your crampon stuck in here and there, one whole hour later me and Darren where strangely slightly knackered. But a few kind words from our Instructors made us feel somewhat better. Thanks to the guys we'll be going back again next summer. It'll be a good bar for us to see how our fitness has improved....

So a big up to Martin & Sam at Ellis Brigham a fantastic afternoon

- Bryn
Stumble It!

MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDER - runs a short story on us...

Great to see, more bloggers and action media taking an interest in our event. Look at http://www.mbr.co.uk/news/event_news/. Great support, thanks MBR. Keep spreading the word, people. - darren

News article, someone's see us!

Check out:: http://blog.cheaptents.com/ the great people at their blog have run a FULL blog page write up on our launch and why were doing this event. Take a look, they have also offered us the chance to forward them updates as we train. Great chance for charities, sponsors and supporters to see us growing online. So pop along and leave a comment or two. - darren

A little bit crazy

Receiving roughly 60 to 130 emails a day is pretty amazing. I know this will cool off when the sponsors email run drops down and the next new charity event kicks in. We'd like to thank all those companies that at least took the time to reply, big respect to you.

I just wish everyone that said "NO!" could at least have donated £1, our charities would presently be £1,138 pounds better off. - Darren

Blisters, Miles, Minutes

There are days and days, weeks and weeks. Now i'm not saying good and bad just different.

I've realised that training really does pay off you have days when at the beginning your don't want to be there and days where you wouldnt want to be any where else. As me and Darren lolop (describes our running style) our way around the hills we generally chitchat, about the event, fundraising, who what where when... kinda really boring for the cows, flies and rocks who have to listen to us. However on occasions we have ephinays like the title above this is why we train for every ten blister we get now it will save us one on the day, for every mile we run now it will make every metre we climb easier, for every minute we shave off our time as we get fitter it will save us well maybe a few minutes and seconds.

We took some awesome pictures which I managed to delete hence there being nothing on this update.

I've been lagging of late, by that I mean just goign through the motions turns out I have an infection in my sinuses which is causing me to have alsorts of side effect coughs colds wheezing basically feling rotten. I've also managed to tear some cartilage in my knee again. The wheels are in motion to get it sorted, possibly could mean a minor operation we will have to wait and see.

I've carried on the fund raising hit the £1000 mark for the GNR 2009. So all monies raised now are being split 50/50 between my entrance in the London Marathon 2009 and and UKEC 09 (that's ukeverestchallenege 2009 for short). over £300 raised so far only a few more noughts required and we will be there.

Have to say Darren has been working his socks off, he's managed o genereate a lot of interest and is getting some real results of support. But a lot of knock backs in the process. So if your reading this and you have a friend a mate who could offer us some support whether it's free socks or donation please please please contact us ukeverestchallenge@ukeverestchallenge.com

Onwards and Upwards

Sponsor my broken spirit!

What a really tough week this one has been. Have we been running up Ben Nevis or grinding out 10 milers every night? No!, this week I've been on the marketing and PR trail trying to pin down sponsors, it's felt like I've been poking a lion with a stick. Having never asked for anything from anyone before it's a very odd feeling approaching people out the blue and firmly getting the email door shut in your face.

Complex, frustrating and impersonal. If people don't think we're scammers or spammers the answer is frighteningly similar from big business "unfortunately [that's corporate for BUT and you know what's coming after a but], although your event is great, we only give money to our own charity annually, sorry, good luck". My inbox can proudly announce that it holds 83 of this type of reply.

There have been one or two rude emails, faceless responses that more or less states please just sod off and play in a field. I sent a few draft's below was the final one I settled on. Some say I'm being too pushy others not so, either way here's my mailing, you decide.
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----------

Hello
I know you must get lots of these emails and it might be a really 'BIG ASK' or not normally an area you could give us any support or exposure in, but please have a read and see what you think. We are a genuine UK event, all my/our contact details are included in this email.

We are a genuine and compact non-profit endurance event team, our beneficiary charities are;

• Help for Heroes
• Children with Leukaemia
• National Association of Crohn's & Colitis Disease
• Skill Force Development Charity

If you would like to speak to our contacts at the above charities we can happily forward you their details to confirm our event. We will be in their newsletters and on their sites shortly. I know sponsoring the whole event is possibly very unrealistic but there are many areas you could support us on a much simpler level.

[I'll not start pulling on the old heart strings, but each of the charities is personal to us and were not picked at random]. All funds
donated will be listed on our site, all equipment and gifts donated will be sold off in an auction format one week after the event, even our boots if they hold together!

Our event is called UKEVERESTCHALLENGE.COM and we plan to cover TEN of N.Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England's most rugged, highest and maybe one or two more dangerous peaks. In a mad dash of blisters and energetic fundraising over a very short four or five day period in August'09. If we meet the criteria we could also bag a possible Guinness Record for this type of event.

Simply we are two normal guys with big hearts trying to push ourselves hard and change our lives to deliver a unique and difficult challenge. We hope you will consider your business to support our national event.

I know a lot of companies make honorable and sizable charity donations every year, sadly smaller grass roots fundraising events such as ours get sidelined quickly, as we are more 'out the box' or thought of as novelty. I hope you can see some way passed this.

It would be a great boost if your company would open talks with us, regards the many marketing, advertising and equipment event sponsorship opportunities that exist. Our fundraising journey has only just got underway last week so it is a prime time to help us in the start up stages. If you think you would like to be associated with us in any way and help us achieve a successful event for our four charities, please get in touch.

It doesn't have to be financial at all, even if you can't support us on a purely business level maybe you could on a personal, even a donation of £1 is fantastic, it all adds up. We need exposure in newsletters - in shop windows - on notice boards, equipment provisions, printing of stationary/leaflets or maybe an old item of stock to auction, advice, contacts & leads, bit of promo, utilising your company's skills for us, the list is endless.

Transforming our bodies in to running, scrambling and hiking endurance machines in only ten months time is a daily challenge all on its own [I've lost 2 stone in two months as it is!!]. Plus learning all the ups and downs of the charity fundraising sector, so if you have the skills or can offer support, please drop me an email - and lets talk.

Sorry the email was so long but you only get one chance to get over what we are doing before someone clicks delete. Thank you for your time, and reading this far. You have NOT been added to any mailing lists.

All the very best

Darren Edwards - UKEC'09 - Team Member
My personal mobile: 07XXXXXXXXX
ukeverestchallenge.com
ukeverestchallenge.blogspot.com

That's better!

Phew...it was becoming very frustrating training so hard only to hit physical walls every week. In the last month I've seen little if any improvement in overall fitness levels. Possibly this is the key moment that many people give up, but for Bryn and myself I guess that's not an option. We have our goals and we must achieve every single one of them.

I know the body goes through stages as fitness levels increase slowly, I feel momentum is now with me to push harder. Todays run gave me back some much needed reward and confidence. At last I could see a difference, we covered a technical route over a good variation of terrain, with two short energy sapping accents and lots and lots of mud!

My lungs are starting to relaxing under the work load towards the end and today I found that my recovery time is creeping up. I've turned a corner and was finally given some small reward, a few cuts and a couple of blisters but well worth the effort. Another bonus; I moaned less as I just focused on the task in hand, something I am sure Bryn is very happy with! - Darren

Glorious training days

What a day I had managed to as always book 3 things on one day and try to have a personal life.... What was I thinking.

I had a booking to fundraise at Wyevale, so me and Darren agreed an early start 0700 on the moor short and sharp 4 miler as fast as we could. It meant getting up around 0615, I woke at around 0500 to howling winds driving rain gainst the bedroom window and honestly thought why oh why are we doing this, next moment the alarm was sounding it was up dressed and out. I managed to forget my map my first aid kit... Note to me pack the night before and stop leaving things to the last minute!

The weather had changed massivly in the hour I had been asleep the winds had dropped the rain had stopped and the clouds had started to break up.... We actually got our ass on the moor 0720 and managed to get up hill and down "tor" without a single knock bump or scrape and in 60 minutes shaving about 7 minutes off our previous time.

The plan is to get a little more adventurous for our next few outings...

Bryn

The summit of our first peak

What a couple of weeks. 2 weeks ago Monday we had secured 1 charity (Children with Leukaemia)then by Wednesday we had 2 (Skill Force Development) by Monday last week we gained our 3rd (NACC), then it took a few days a few emails a few hours of fretting and we managed to get our 4th and final charity (Help for Heroes). In the final hours fo daylight on saturday the 8th Darren got the website all sorted. It feels like we have already climbed one of those mountains and the view from the top is beautiful. Got to hand it to Darren he has put in some serious hours getting the website all sorted, thanks mate now we can look forward to getting down to the real nitty gritty of ome serious fund raising!

Bryn

The Moments in-between

The days fly by when your having fun.
So far so good but the training days are being interupted my pre-aranged fundraising (dressing up as Mr Tickle at a number of West Country venues), family events (my missus graduating) and Trips out the latest being a bungee jump 160ft at a place near Windsor (Datchett). I have a few more fundraising days and a trip up to london Ice Climbing (indoor) and a bit of Fund raising for the London Marathon 2009 and then I can at last focus singularly on "UKEC 2009".

But I promise to keep the training hours up as much as possible, including a move on to the push bike to work at least twice a week and a dip in the pool at least once a week!!

Darren's after a rower to supplement his training.. I cant wait to see him suffering as much as I will be.. Good luck bud.

Bryn

SLIP TRIPS AND GROANS

Early morning restless night, open the curtain thick drizzly miserable fog.... I was thinking why am I awake.. oh yes that's it we are off for a run again?

On the way quick text from Darren dont forget. yup I had forgot, a quick u turn I was back on the road within minutes by the time we got on the hill it had brightened slightly the wind was driving the drizzle and fog away. The idea for the day was a route we had done previously that took us approx 2 hours. one of our first it was us getting to know each others stride, pace etc. But this time to ramp it up and crack it under one hour.

It started well my lungs burning feeling slightly sick and that as just the first hill. Just before the half way point there is a stream, previoulsy crossing it was a thought out process calm and under control... well that was untill Darren fell in it last week! As I pause to consider my options this 14 stone hulk belted past me splashing through the stream shouting "yahooooooo come on" then laughing like a manic. I threw caution to the wind a followed suit. A short sprint later we where at the half way point just outside our predicted time at 33 minutes. We cracked on on the return leg al going well we managed to pull back some time, enough we thought to pause to take photographs... We realised we needed to push it to get down to the finish in time, one thing we had noted the amount of surface water on the ground running off the hills had made footing tricky causing us both to slip and slide along the way. Both of us had managed not to fal on our arse that was until the last 100 metres where I side stepped a rock and my feet just left the floor I dropped like a stone my elbow hit the ground then hit my ribs as I made a thrrrrrrrppppp sound sliding along on a cushion of freezing run off water. Darren tried to stop causing him to start to slide aswell. I managed to bound back on to my feet winded and laughing that painfull I'm hurt but alive but yup still hurting.

All in all classic training session. total time 1 hour 7 minutes. Not a bad result.

Bryn Posey

Looks like I have to get my finger out.
Good effort Mate well done with the weight loss quite impressive that the double chin has vanished. I'm Personally workin on the moobs and the drastically disappearing beer barrel of a belly. I've managed to drop from just over 14 stone to 13.2!
October has been a mental month for me not enough training it has to be said.
I'm still fund raising for Children with leukaemia for the Great North Run and if you class dancin in super markets dressed as Mr Tickle as training I'm doing ok only 5 mmore events to go.
I managed to get the mountain bike out at last as I like to keep the training diverse, I almost died obviously I need to stop getting lifts every where and get on the bike alot lot more.

well onwards and upwards let the training commence

Bryn Posey

Effort = result

I am officially proud of my efforts I have now managed to drop myself from 16 stone to 14.5 stone in 8 weeks and I'm happy with the results. My general fitness is still in need of more attention, so to my cardio. But over all, I'm training harder, eating better and adjusting my lifestyle for this challenge with interesting results.

I know the real hard work starts when we get within 6 months of the event staring in late August'09.

But my commitment it already there, I know Bryn's is... anyone that can run the London Marathon and the Great North Run dressed as Mr. Tickle has two ingredients I needed for this challenge; determination and sense of humour. Remember we launch the main website on Nov 1st'08, so please tell everyone you know and support us anyway you can - Darren

Statistics

After yesterday's watery events, I've realised in the last 2 months I've: been chased by cows, dogs [twice], I've fallen off rocks at least four times, fell in a stream, got lost in fog, stuck in a bog, fell through a wooden gate that didn't take my weight, burst my hydration water bladder and scared the living daylights out of myself and a horse when ran in to it whilst it was laying down. 

If anyone knows of any good outdoor leisure insurance can you get in touch please! - Darren

Gravity Sucks

I decided on a walk to take a break from our events internet design and paperwork. I took along a good friend to chat to whilst covering a couple of swift miles, very early Saturday morning. 

Taking a regularly route, to cover sodden moorland ground quickly, most streams are a little bit wider [and deeper] at this time of year. When we reached what's normally a 6ft wide stream crossing, we were greeted by close to 10ft. Luckily [?] we noticed a rope swing, before you know it two thirty somethings are debating if it's strong enough to hold our weight and which one will land in the drink!

My friend pounced first and nearly got a good soaking. Now this is the part where common sense would dictate I pause and follow the same route, much to my friends quite obvious delight and loud laughter. I totally missed the bank, swung back and dumped myself standing upright in the 3 foot of water.

After clambering out, I dropped off my rucksack, stormed back through the water I just stirred up, grabbed the rope and swung like hell. This time just landing on the other-side of the bank.

I am happy to report that I've bought all the right kit, most of the stuff dried off quickly but for my socks!

And the moral? - walk 2 mins upstream and not embarrass yourself. - Darren

Soon, very soon

Well I've sacrificed training for diet and the web/blog development over the last two weeks. There is much going on behind the scenes of UK Everest Challenge. We are securing sponsors slowly, building up our knowledge base, route planning, building up our IT equipment, and sourcing equipment for our advertising and marketing campaigns.

I'm now going to proudly announce that I've lost half a stone in four weeks! A change of diet, fruit for lunch, no snacking, staying of beer [sniff] and generally being more active is having a great effect. I've also noticed my energy levels returning and brain seems to be functioning since I've given up on drinking coffee everyday. Obviously this has had a positive reflection on my sleeping patterns.

Taking on a challenge like this is great in many ways, with something like this to focus on it gives you a greater perspective of what is going on around you. It's like stepping off the merry-go-round.

Our site will officially launch 1st of November, 2008. Please visit the .com the .org will only be for back up server/domain. - talk soon - Darren

Training training training

Well it's been a few weeks. I've been out on Dartmoor with my students, nice relaxing walks around the woods and hills.

I cut my training right back for the first week of October as on the 5th I ran the Great North Run 2008 13.1 miles (half Marathon) for Children with Leukaemia.

I completed the race dressed as Mr Tickle in 2 hours 40 minutes and 51 seconds! My feet where fine just slight neck ache and some sore thighs from the reduced stride due to the shape of the costume.

I have to be honest it's been hard fund raising I have to call and call and write lots of letters. All of a sudden it's all come together, I've had over £160 in straight donations from generous friends and family, I've also managed to arrange 6 collections at different locations across the county. I can actually see me achieving my target of £1000.

Onwards and upwards the web site is looking amazing check it out http://www.ukeverestchallenge.com/
it doesnt fully live until nov 1st. so loads of work for me and Darren over the next few weeks.

Keep reading and we'll keep you updated.

Bryn Posey

Hey hey I've made it at last.. I'm definitely living the life is what happens to you whilst your making plans. As always trying to cram as much in to life as always. Traingin has been going really well. Darren hasnt mentioned we started at the end of August on Sunday the 31st mine and Darrens first outing on the moor together, 7 km later and a couple of hours we felt slightly happier and more sure that this was really going to happen.

Sunday the 7th another visit to Dartmoor 9km and all in less than 2 hours our confidence was definately growing.

Sunday the 14th Dartmoor calling just shy of 15 km a good session however slightly off plan and one very sore set of feet for Darren hence his change of boots.

Sunday 21st Darren had a rough week so we altered our training to ensure we still managed to gain some benefit from being out on the moor 3.4km only but third that was a set of hill sprints.

Slight bump in the training plan I'm off too a wedding this weekend (27/28th), and next weekend I'm running the Great North Run as Mr Tickle. Plans already afoot for the next training session Weekend of the 12th Oct.

feeling the need to make contact with charitys, suppliers, supporters etc... oh so much to do!!

Bryn

Another lesson

This last week has been another of those bendy and blurred learning curves. I'm now on my 3rd and 4th pairs of boots, in only 5 weeks.

 

Two weeks ago Bryn and myself did about 12k on a Sunday, with myself doing about 6k the day before, all in the wrong footwear. Obviously my feet are going to have to get me around the route planned for the main UK challenge, and I have relented and bought two decent sets of boots. 

A pair of lightweights non-water proof and one set of heavier Gortex mix hiking boots. I have also realized that a quality set of gel insoles and better socks have improved the comfort. While I understand my feet really need to toughen up, I was surprised at the mess my feet got in two sort weeks.  One of the results of my poor footwear choices can be seen in the picture above, I've several blisters that are slowly healing.

Another lesson learnt. - Darren

The going got a little tough...

It's easy to run in a straight line or casually walk around on the moor, but when you run, jog, scramble and fall off things life gets slightly more complicated. I'm 36, and up until I was 34 I was fit, active and always on the go. Now I'm just always on the go, a stint in retail management took over my life in 2005 and within 12 months of the job role I found 60, 70 and at times 80 hour weeks were becoming the norm, my time for fitness rapidly vanished. 

This challenge and the training, over the last few weeks has been a shock to my system. Dartmoor is a great training ground and really what you make of it. It's been difficult to accept that in two years or so how quickly you can lose your fitness levels. The old saying really is true "use it or lose it!" My problem now is simply finding it again. - Darren