Raising the team was a text book operation in deception and misdirection. I became aware of the event when reading through the RBL newsletter in April. Stupidly, I thought it sounded like a great idea, obviously forgetting that yomping is, of course, an exercise in pain tolerance, sense of humour endurance, and mind over matter.
I pitched it to my better half Lucie whilst she was attending a Yoga school, thousands of miles away in Goa, suffering food poisoning, and therefore in no real position to disagree. “Don’t worry,” says I. “It’ll be fun.” Lucie and I often take our training clients out to Snowdonia and the West Pennine Moors, giving up our Sundays to get city dwellers outside and away from FaceWorld and iEverything. “It’ll be just like that. Only a bit longer…” Sold.
Andrew was a colleague of ours at our gym in Liverpool. A good all round athlete, he often asked me about taking the Queen’s shilling, and was easily enticed into signing up. “Same distance and weight as the last Commando Test.” Sold.
The last two members of the team, Ged and Gary actually asked to be part of the team, no sales pitch required. Hearing about our plans and how much fun it was undoubtedly going to be, they expressed an interest. The more we talked, the more interested they were. Ged was training with me to complete a 24 hr Three Peaks Challenge. Sold.
Gary is massively competitive and was determined that whatever Ged could do, he could do too. Sold.
Let the record show that whenever life became difficult, blisters needed popping, legs became numb, tempers frayed, that they VOLUNTEERED…oh dear, we’ve all made that mistake before. The event itself was the culmination of hours of preparation, hundreds of miles of travel (never mind the walking) and despite taking 10 hours 38 minutes, was over quickly. When asked on our return to Liverpool how it was, we told the truth: “Horrible.”
Despite this, we now have two teams of victims for next year, including two more ladies. Training begins January. Sub-10 hours was our original goal and easily in sight now we know exactly where we’re going. Time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted…