As highlighted in the September SMIB, in June of last year 6
people from the firm took part in the Caledonian Challenge. Along
with 7 friends David Tait took part in this year's Race the Sun
2007. This event took place on 1 September in the Lake District. It
involves teams of 4 cycling, climbing and canoeing their way around
the Lake District. In total there were 50 miles to cycle, a climb
to the summit of England's second highest mountain, Helvellyn, and
then a 5 km canoe around Lake Thirlmere.
The aim of the event is to start at sunrise (approximately 6:30
a.m.) and to complete the course by sunset, roughly 13 hours later.
Simply reading the literature provided by the organisers made the
whole thing sound quite straightforward and relatively easy.
Training for the cycling was of course quite easy. Everyone knows
that Scotland has all the highest mountains in the UK. England's
second highest therefore would not represent much of a challenge.
The canoeing was going to be difficult to train for on the basis
that David did not have a canoe. It looked quite easy though. First
mistake.
Given the 6:30 a.m. start David and his colleagues travelled
down to Penrith on the Friday afternoon in order to acclimatise.
One of the group had the idea that it would make sense to drive
round at least part of the course to get a feel for the
surroundings. Second mistake.
The Lake District unfortunately is not quite as flat as the
training runs that had been undertaken in East Lothian. After 5
miles of driving the 50 mile course the group had had enough and
decided to retire for the evening to a local hostelry to plan the
next day's challenge. It is fair to say that everyone took on board
plenty of liquid in preparation for the following day. Third
mistake.
Check-in on the morning of 1 September took place at 5:30 a.m. A
total of 52 teams were taking part. Some looked very fit and
professional. Reassuringly however others looked as unfit and
disorganised as David and his team.
The health and safety briefing took place at 6 a.m. If every
company had a health and safety regime half as thorough as the
briefing David underwent, then the number of accidents at work
would be slashed. Not only did the briefing cover every potential
scenario, it also terrified everyone in attendance. Apparently it
was only by good organisation and good management that in the
previous 5 Race the Sun challenges there had been no fatalities.
Everyone was warned of relatively low cloud cover on Helvellyn.
Visibility was significantly reduced. The wind chill factor towards
the top of the mountain was freezing. Unless we had on the
appropriate clothing, had a good compass and good map reading
skills, there was a risk that there would be a number of serious
injuries on the mountain. Fourth mistake. David's compass from a
cracker at last year's firm's Christmas party was not fit for
purpose.
There was some good news however. No-one had ever drowned on the
canoeing section. The briefing was over and the challenge set to
begin. The first section was a 25 mile cycle to the foot of
Helvellyn. Driving around the previous evening, there did appear to
be a number of relatively flat stretches of road for short
distances between the steep climbs. The unfortunate thing about a
bicycle however is that it does not have an engine and even the
flat stretches of road seemed to have an incline. The downhill
stretches were also much shorter. Despite that David got to the
foot of Helvellyn with his team of 4 feeling not too bad.
From the bottom looking up you could see that there was a level
of cloud. It was presumed however that the summit was not too far
above that cloud level. Fifth mistake. England's second highest
mountain is actually quite high. It is also quite steep in parts.
The health and safety briefing was also accurate to the extent that
without a good compass, a good map, and good map reading skills you
could easily get lost. Luckily David managed to join a team of 4
from the Army who were taking part in a weekend off. It is fair to
say that they were properly prepared. They even had their own
global positioning system with them. A valuable lesson was learned.
Be prepared, or make sure you can join someone who is.
After the mountain there was a short cycle round to Lake
Thirlmere. The 5 kilometre course around the Lake did not look very
long from the side of the road. As soon as the canoeing started
however it was obvious that this was going to be the hardest part
of the whole event. Ultimately it only took approximately 30
minutes but the pain in his back and legs has resulted in David not
being too worried if he never has to set foot in a canoe again.
The final 20 odd mile cycle was hard work, but eventually David
and his team managed to complete the course in around 7 3?4 hours.
Eventually finishing 5th out of the 52 teams. In all approximately
£4,000 was raised for Action Medical Research. As with those who
did the Caledonian Challenge David is looking for another event for
next year, preferably one that does not involve canoeing.
Contributed by David Tait