| The Challenges |
13th October 2008, Competitor
Written by: Thomas Inchley |
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| Friday Night.We arrived at about 8:30pm in a dark and deserted Symonds Yat and went to introduce ourselves to the event team before setting up camp in the dark and heading to the pub for a nice relaxing dinner. Pub had stopped serving so it was off to Monmouth to find Pizza Express eventually returning to our sleeping bags around 11:30, not the best prep for an endurance challenge.Saturday MorningSleep was restricted by the uncomfortable ground and the cold so I was not a happy bunny come morning. After registering at HQ and packing up bag full’s of clothing changes it was time for the main event briefing and some posing for official pictures, destined for Men’s Fitness Magazine. The pictures were possibly the most embarrassing part of the weekend as everyone was just arriving and hanging around while I was striking some macho man poses, you be the judge buy Men’s Fitness.Challenge OneFundraising, The results for the fundraising challenge were announced right at the start and in the individual competition I was in a close 2nd place so thank you all very much for donating what you did you have exceeded my expectations.Challenge TwoCanoe " Bike " Run, as simple as that. 12:00 start I raced down to the river and jumped into a canoe to paddle up stream with another competitor named Liz, paddled around a marker and straight back down again for our first token. Next it was onto a bike for a relatively flat pedal along the riverside for token number two before racing back home for the final stage. The run took me almost straight up the hill and my quads were already burning from the bike. I was just behind a team heading up the hill who kept disappearing around corners and when I emerged at a road a kind passer by directed me, without prompting, straight across and down the hill the other side, assuming he’d seen the other group head that way I was off like a shot. When I got to the bottom of the hill I realised there really was NO ONE around at all and it dawned on me I was heading the wrong way but I wanted to be sure so I carried on. This was badly wrong and 20 minutes later I was back at the road after plenty of cursing at my additional hill climb and the “helpfulness” of passers by. I continued on up the hill and got my third and final token, stopping only for a brief moan I was straight back to the Marquee for Challenge two.Challenge ThreeA Jigsaw, Brilliant, an opportunity to get my breath back and sad as it sounds I quite like jigsaws, and I’m pretty good at them. Every team and individual had the same 520piece puzzle and owing to my detour some where well on there way. We had until 12pm Sunday to complete them but only had until 3pm before the next challenge began to do as much as we could.Challenge FourA walk in the woods, we were given a map with 11 marker points on with a 3 letter word at each point, a pen to record them with and 4 hours to get as many as possible with each marker matching a piece of a new type of puzzle we’d get on return. We had to be back with puzzles completed by 7pm. I was straight on the ferry heading for my first 2 makers which as it turned out were hidden in caves so it was on with the hard hat and mind the bats. It took me 2.5 hours to jog/walk up and down the valley and collect 8 out of the 11 markers allowing 9 minutes to solve the puzzle. I did the new puzzle in 5 mins so went to work on the jigsaw again. At twenty past 7 I had finished and finally won my first challenge (sad as it may be). Dinner then challenge 4 next.Challenge FiveAnother opportunity to get my breath back from all the activities of the day, a simple tower building contest only we had jus t 3 minutes and a pile of 2p coins, not my strongest activity and a dent to my title hopes. However that was it for the day’s challenges and I was able to retire to bed knowing my jigsaw was fully finished to get a good rest before the next test at 7am.Challenge SixGetting up after sleeping in the car (warmer) and getting back on the mountain bike for some really hilly biking. As we were hanging around for the start I discovered that some teams were still up at 1:30 am trying to finish off their jigsaws and I thanked my mum for passing on to me her jigsaw skills. A chaotic start for the mornings biking with everyone all heading for the same small footpath at the start of the 7mile loop up the hills. On our journey were 8 stations with information on what ClicSergent does on a board. We could take as long as we liked to try and memorise the info before moving on. Points were scored for the first few home and then the most answers correct on a quiz sheet at the end. I was hanging on to the main pack taking the lead on the down hills but struggling with the up.Challenge SevenThe final challenge, a 2.5 mile walk up and down the hill and through the woods points were scored for the first few back again but also who had the most left in their pint glass. We were given a pint of blackcurrant squash had had to carry it with us negotiating slippy slopes and wet rocks a routes with more points being scored for the least spilt, I thought I did pretty well coming home 3rd and spilling only about half an inch of my pint.The points of all the activities from the past 24 hours were totalled up and I just managed to scrape a win so I was dead chuffed. All that was left was to eat, say goodbye, pack up the tent and then let the wonderful wife drive me home. |
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