The journey between Scotland and England’s capital cities, takes you on an adventure through some of the British Isles finest landscape. The route covers over 450 miles of challenging country, through the rugged fells of Cumbria to one of Britain’s best loved national park, the Yorkshire Dales, and onto the flat land of Lincolnshire and quaint villages of Cambridgeshire. Each day brings new sights and experiences as well as exciting cycling ranging from testing climbs to fast descents. Our final day will lead you away from the peace of Britain’s countryside through London, finishing up where we celebrate this huge achievement.

ONLY £149 REGISTRATION FEE!

Don’t be fooled this is a tough challenge:

So if this is something you’re up for sign up now- click here! 

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Just Walk is a wonderful one day walking event in West Sussex, over the stunning South Downs.  Walkers can choose to walk either the 10km, 20km, 40km and 60km distances raising funds for the charity of their choice.

Full details are on the website.

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Run Dem Crew was formed in east London in 2007 by a runner and writer called Charlie Dark — less than five years on the running club he started has more than 100 members, with some now forming spin-off groups in other parts of the capital.

A good friend of mine – the writer runner — has been running with Run Dem Crew for ages, and she has in turn inspired me to join up with them.

I turned up on Tuesday night at the 1948 Nike store in east London, where the Crew run out from.  Of all nights I could have picked, it turned out this was their First Annual Zombie Run: taking to the streets of London painted up like the living dead.

100 runners took to the streets of the capital under the cover of darkness, and as a pack we set off through Shoreditch and towards Liverpool Street station.  The different speeds and abilities of the groups within Run Dem Crew quickly spaced us all out, but the route was the same: through the middle of Liverpool Street Station, out the other side, across London Bridge, down along the river to the Millennium Bridge, across to St Paul’s (passing by Occupy London) and back towards 1948.

Next March, the Great Arctic Fundraising Adventure will have me running in the snow alongside a pack of huskies  — possibly having fallen off my sled, or pushing the sled uphill.   This night had me running past ionic London sights instead, places that I see every day but don’t pay attention to in my 9-6 working drudge.

My fitness isn’t nearly as bad as I might have thought — which is reassuring, but my flat feet and bow legs don’t make me a natural runner, so I was left with a painful back and painful knees, but the reassurance that I can do this.  Next year, when I’m sat beneath the Northern Lights, I’ll know that running with Run Dem Crew paid off.

There are still places left on next March’s trip to the Arctic with Across the Divide, you can find out more and sign up here

Please do your part to support James and the  Great Arctic Fundraising Adventure and make a donation here. 

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So what to take? We are in the happy position that we only need our trekking kit from Jiri to Namchee Bazaar, where we will meet the rest of the Everest Marathon team. They will bring our bags of running kit to Namchee. Always a bonus to be met half way with extra snacks, toiletries and a layer or two. We’ll also have porters from there….pure luxury!  See below for full trekking list.

As always there a few formailities to complete and we have Indian visas in place (as transiting through there) and we’ll have to get Nepalese visas on arrival, Khumbu region trekking permits will also need to be sorted in Kathmandu. We’ll transfer money over onto our Thomas Cook cash passports and sort the local currency on arrival in Nepal. There is no guarantee of cash machines once we leave Kathmandu, so we need to ensure we’ve enough cash to last the duration of the trek – if staying in tea houses £20-25 a day is recommended.

Rumour has it that each tea house settlement from Namchee to Gorak Shep now has a cyber café, which disappointingly opens up the option of telecommunications – ridiculous the lengths you have to go to in order to achieve non-contactability. We’ll be avoiding those I hope!

So this is bye from us for now and we’ll be in touch upon return with a few holiday snaps and to let you know how we got on. If you want to follow the progress of the group whilst we are away, there is a blog that will be updated when and where facilities permit – www.everestmarathon.org.uk (then click on 2011 RACE on the left hand menu).

Trekking kit list

Travel jabs

Passport and additional passport photos

Travel insurance

Money /Credit cards

Guide books / reading books

Ruck sack

Water proof stuff sacks

Platypus and water bottle

Sleeping bag

Thermarest

Waterproof top and bottoms

Down jacket

Fleece layer

Hat

Gloves x 2 pairs

Buff

Trekking trousers x 2

Underwear

Socks

Long sleeve tops

Short sleeve tops

Shorts

Trekking boots

Tevas

Trekking poles

Head torch

Batteries

Money purse

Sunglasses

Sun tan lotion

Lip balm

Toiletries – small bottles of minimum items

Wet wipes

Travel towel

Travel washing line

Travel clothes wash

Combination padlock

Bivvy bag

First Aid kit

Compass & whistle

Maps

Snacks

Zip lock bags

Water sterilisation tabs

Lighter

Sewing kit

Camera

Tissues

Mobile phone

Travel adaptor

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We are delighted to be working on such a fantastic new event, ATD will of course be making sure Matt Baker from The One Show has all the support he needs as he cycles the rickshaw. 

Matt will embark on his arduous journey on the morning of Friday 11th November from Edinburgh Castle Esplanade and will attempt to complete the marathon 484 mile journey to the BBC in London, finishing live on The One Show’s Children in Need special on Friday 18th November on BBC One.

Throughout the challenge, Matt will be picking up passengers along the way, these will be a variety of surprise guests and Children in Need’s very own Pudsey Bear. He will brave the harsh winter elements and battle steep hills, to cycle his rickshaw for up to ten hours each day and burn up to 9000 calories daily 

Route Summary

Day 1 Edinburgh to Hawick 53.5 Miles

Day 2 Hawick to Hexham 59.2 Miles

Day 3 Hexham to Barnard Castle 49.0 Miles

Day 4 Barnard Castle to York 70.6 Miles

Day 5 York to Lincoln 78.0 Miles

Day 6 Lincoln to Peterborough 73.2 Miles

Day 7 Peterborough to Cambridge 41.0 MilesDay 8 Cambridge to London 59.3 Miles

Follow the event as it happens on our Facebook page.   Good luck to Matt and all the team.

To donate £5, text “MATT” to 70705. Texts cost £5 plus one standard rate message, £5 will go to BBC Children in Need. Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey for full terms and conditions You must be over 16 and ask the bill payer’s permission.

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ATD will of course making sure Matt Baker from The One Show has all the support he needs as he cycles the rickshaw from Edinburgh to London.

Matt will embark on his arduous journey on the morning of Friday 11th November from Edinburgh Castle Esplanade and will attempt to complete the marathon 484 mile journey to the BBC in London, finishing live on The One Show’s Children in Need special on Friday 18th November on BBC One.

The One Show will go live to Hawick on Friday 11th November, the first stop in Matt’s Rickshaw Challenge. The programme will greet him live on air every weeknight as Matt crosses the finishing line at each location. Every day viewers will be able to follow Matt’s progress online at the BBC Children in Need website www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey and on Twitter at @BBCCiN, @bakermattbaker and #CiNrickshaw, as he travels onwards from Hawick to Hexham, Barnard Castle, York, Lincoln, Peterborough, Cambridge and finally London.

Throughout the challenge, Matt will be picking up passengers along the way, these will be a variety of surprise guests and Children in Need’s very own Pudsey. He will brave the harsh winter elements and battle steep hills, to cycle his rickshaw for up to ten hours each day and burn up to 9000 calories daily.

Route Summary

Day 1 Edinburgh to Hawick 53.5 Miles

Day 2 Hawick to Hexham 59.2 Miles

Day 3 Hexham to Barnard Castle 49.0 Miles

Day 4 Barnard Castle to York 70.6 Miles

Day 5 York to Lincoln 78.0 Miles

Day 6 Lincoln to Peterborough 73.2 Miles

Day 7 Peterborough to Cambridge 41.0 Miles

Day 8 Cambridge to London 59.3 Miles

We are delighted to be involved in this event we’ll be updating our social media outlets and blog on a regular basis to follow their progress.  Good Luck Matt and all the ATD team.

To Donate £5, text “MATT” to 70705, texts cost £5 plus one standard rate message, £5 will go to BBC Children in Need.  Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey for full terms and conditions You must be over 16 and ask the bill payer’s permission.

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Taking part in our London to Paris bike ride is one of the very best ways of experiencing the beauty of both the English and French countrysides, and what an amazing sense of achievement on completion!

“I knew why we wanted to do it, raise money for our chosen charity, Cancer Research. We had all been affected by recent deaths so it seemed the right thing to do. What fun I thought, and yes it was but also hard work. Thank goodness for the training we had put in!!

The whole event was amazing. The route [apart from getting out of London] was great and well planned out and signaled. The Across the Divide team were truly sensational and nothing was too much trouble. We all had an amazing event and will definitely look to do another one in 2012!!”   Clive Moxham, 2011 London to Paris cyclist

Join us in 2012

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Our last week has been spent in Ireland and between family commitments and catching up with friends, we’ve managed a couple of runs in the Mourne mountains, Co.Down  and Connemara, Co.Galway. Nice to change things up a bit and with distances progressing nicely it is looking more likely that the distance is achievable. Another factor, largely out of our control that will undoubtedly affect our performance on the day but hopefully not forbid our participation is altitude.

The main difference between running the Everest Marathon and a marathon in the hills of the UK is the effect of altitude. The higher you go, the air is less concentrated and so there is less oxygen. With less oxygen available, your lungs and heart have to work harder, and without proper acclimatisation serious illness, or worse, can result.  The effect of altitude starts to become noticeable for most people from around 2500 metres (approximately 7000 feet plus). With the Everest Marathon starting at 5000 metres (over 16000 feet) it is going to be very hard work even though we should be well acclimatised!

I won’t go into the various altitude illnesses in any detail but these include conditions with formidable names like Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE)and High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE), to name a few. Of these, even with a good acclimatisation schedule, we can expect to suffer AMS to some extent, which is more likely to present with headaches and feeling like we’ve a hangover lasting several days! Response to altitude is partly dictated by an individual’s own physiological make-up. I have not suffered from any serious altitude-related illness on previous trips to Nepal and other high-altitude regions and hopefully with careful preparation I will be OK this time around.

To try to prevent altitude related illness the basic rule to follow is to not gain height too quickly, and to sleep lower than the highest point ascended each day. Our plan is to arrive in Nepal on the 8^th November and then we will have three weeks before the marathon to acclimatise. Initially Patrick and I will trek by ourselves for over a week on the Jiri Trail up to Namche Bazaar, which should be a good starter for getting used to the gradually thinning air, and then we join the rest of the marathon group where we will continue a programme of acclimatisation prior to the race. Before we go to Nepal, Patrick is heading off to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, which at nearly 6000 metres (over 19000 feet) should give him a head start on acclimatisation! I’ll be expecting him to run ahead each evening to organise accommodation and sort dinner of course!

For further information on the effects of altitude see Altitude Sickness

In my next blog I’ll let you know how Patrick fared with the altitude on Kilimanjaro and how our final month of training in the UK is going, before we catch the flight to Kathmandu in early November.

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Back for a quick update. Training continues to go well – battered out 16miles in the Chilterns today, so hopefully on track. Starting to consider giving up booze (poor will power on that one so far), giving up coffee (even worse will power), sorting out nutrition (eating as much as possible) and getting plenty of sleep (that’ll be the day working in the events world!), all in the name of training.

Just a bit of info on our fundraising! This wasn’t really our main priority in setting ourselves the goal of running the Everest marathon – more the lust to travel and have an achievable goal ahead to train for. Neither Patrick nor I really enjoy sticking our necks out and asking for cash, but Bufo ventures (the Everest Marathon organisers) recommended setting up a Virgin money giving page and we thought we would give it a go! The result has been astonishing and we have been both overwhelmed by people’s generosity and support of our endeavours and three very worthwhile causes.

Bufo ventures request that half of sponsorship monies go to the Everest Marathon fund – helping to improve the lives of some of the poorest people in the world. Having visited Nepal previously on a couple of occasions and therefore having witnessed some of the poverty first hand, I was more than happy to get involved with this. As a paediatric physio, another cause very close to my heart is physical disability in children. Therefore, the other half of my monies will be donated to the “In je eendje” project (www.in-je-eendje.com). Helping to support children with cerebral palsy and their families.

To visit my fundraising page please CLICK HERE

For Patrick, his Mum passed away due to the cruel cancer, Myeloma, just over 1 year ago and therefore his second charity is Myeloma UK.

To visit Patrick’s fundraising page please  CLICK HERE 

In just a couple of weeks we’ll be promoting our charities by taking part in the Welsh 3000’s mountain challenge. We’ll also be carrying out regular fundraising events such as mountain navigation workshops and guided hill walks in return for charity donations. If you want to get involved don’t hesitate to contact us.

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2012 also looks set to be one of the best times to view the legendary Northern Lights. NASA has forecast that the Northern Lights will shine at their brightest levels for 50 years due to increased solar particle activity, and the far north of Norway is one of the best places in the world to see this amazing phenomenon.

Trip of a lifetime. Loved every moment. Tim, dog sledder Feb 2008.

Thanks for the most amazing week here in Norway. The trip surpassed all expectations. Excellent company, great food and surprisingly comfortable accommodation. John, Open dog sledder 2010

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