| Mission accomplished |
13th October 2008, Competitor
Written by: Team Bellissymo |
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| What a brilliant event. It tested us both mentally and physically and was great fun - Team Bellissymo would recommend anyone to sign up for next year....Challenge 1: We got off to a great start - thanks to all our sponsors, we were the top fundraisers with 4,000 pounds! Did we have any chance to cling to top spot? We didn't think so.....Challenge 2: 4 miles by bike, 2.5 miles by foot and 1.5 miles by canoe. This was a great "warm up" challenge which got us accustomed to the area of the Forest in which we were based, as well as giving us a chance to size up the competition. We could tell there were some serious competitors (I looked like I had my school trousers on, while they were wearing lycra), but plenty of opportunity to take on some others (they looked like they had turned up to the wrong event too).Challenge 3: At 1.30pm we were given a 520 piece jigsaw and told we had almost 24 hours to complete it. There were bonus points for the quickest 5 finishers, but we decided to leave this one until later....Challenge 4: Four hours to get to (up to) 10 locations by foot to earn (up to) 10 pieces of a puzzle. Strategy was key for this one - as were the "bonus" location and the ferry ticket that we earnt as a top fundraiser, which knocked off considerable distance for us! Some of the locations were difficult to find and even resulted in a little caving and exhausting climbing. However, in the end we managed to get to 7 locations and back, via a little detour (heading in completely the wrong direction for 20 minutes). This left us with 20 minutes to complete the puzzle. A great team effort saw us complete this in just 3 minutes! The points earned on this task had kept us very much in touch...Challenge 5: I think the organisers wanted to ensure a good atmosphere for this one - so we all met in the hotel bar! The "Tower of Strength" consisted of each team having 3 minutes to build the tallest pile of 2p's they could while all the other teams watched, howling in derision. Despite Dan's strategy of trying to use more than one 2p on each layer, we managed to yet again finish towards the top of the points scorers. Challenge 3 continued: at 10.15pm we headed back to the marquee and got stuck into the jigsaw properly.............at 12.45am we headed back out of the marquee after finally finishing the jigsaw! I never want to see that picture again. We did however go to bed in the knowledge that we were clinging to 2nd place......we couldn't believe how well we were doing!!Challenge 6: After 5 hours sleep we met up for an early start and the 6 mile bike ride. If speed had been the only way to earn points then we may have struggled here too, but on the route were 8 points were an A4 sheet of CLIC Sargent info had to be digested and remembered. After hurtling down the hills like lunatics (Dan), falling off into the mud (Ryan) and realising that one of the bikes we had was absolutely terrible (Phils), we managed to do a respectable time and answer 13 out of 16 recall questions correct. The event was starting to take its toll though - at this point, Phil was hobbling around like Herr Flick from 'Allo 'Allo.Challenge 7: The final test. In what must have been an amusing sight for members of the public, we now had to each carry a pint of blackcurrant squash to the top of Symonds Yat and around a 3 mile course. There would be bonus points for finishing quickly BUT This challenge had yet another "leveller" - there were also bonus points for finishing with the most liquid still in your pint glass (plastic!). Despite the fact that we were now all walking like John Wayne, we managed to get around in a decent time and work as a team to get down the slippery slopes. As we awaited the results we discovered that the 3rd placed team (Fatboyslim) had done a very fast final challenge. We also saw the 1st placed team (Air Tight) use the opposite strategy, strolling in very slowly towards the back, but with very full glasses. What would this mean to the final placings....As the announcements were made, we were in shock to hear that we had clung to 2nd place.....only just. We were in joint 2nd! What a result. After consoling ourselves on the Saturday morning that a humiliating weekend would be worthwhile because of the fundraising, we had actually done quite well! Many thanks to all those who sponsored us and helped organise and marshall the event. We had a fantastic, rewarding weekend and would recommend it to anyone else to try. At some point, we hope to help CLIC again........ |
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