The Join Me 24 Peaks Challenge

It's the day £2,000!!!

2007-03-01T12:47:00.000Z

So, what's happened recently...well the gig was a resounding success, raising an impressive £450 for the cause, and sice thaen we have moved onto a total of £2,000! That's 40% of our total!

Plans are finalised fora trip up to the lakes in April to take part in a mountain awareness course. This will improve our navigation skills and teach us about bad weather, escape routes and all the things we'll need to know for the main event.

Personally, I've been hitting the gym at least four mornings a week, and have been out walking every lunchtime - so this means I'm doing about 20 miles a week, although admittedly this isn't over very strenuous terrain!

D

It's Update Time

2007-02-12T11:47:00.000Z

Over the past couple of months I've been walking 10 miles regularly and have been going to the gym and dieting in order to get fit for the walk. But as a team we've been doing quite a bit too. So, 5 months away from the event, how is the preparation going??:

Fundraising

We have arranged a fundraising gig to be held on 17th February in the Fox and Firkin, Lewisham. The main act will be Hey Gravity! We still need 100% confirmation that there will be support bands but as long as this is confirmed (today) the gig will go ahead.

We have 2 fundraising days at shopping centres planned to raise money for the event, one at the Whitgift Centre in Croydon on 3rd March and one on the 5th May at Bromley Glades.

We are in the early stages of preparation for a Pub Quiz, which was originally to be held in March but may need to be postponed.

Walking

We currently have a practice walk planned for the 24th February (Seven Sisters, South Downs) and for the 25th February (Box Hill, North Downs). This will give us our first chance to get used to walking twice in the space of 48 hours.

We have Lake District practice walks planned for 20th - 22nd April where we will be spending some of the time getting some tips from 24 Peaks organisers and the rest of the time getting in as much practice walking as possible.

Not Quite Cliff Richard...

2007-01-23T16:50:00.000Z

...but I think we *may* have found our busdriver/groundcrew.

We're still waiting for a definite yea or nay, but it seems that the very lovely Shiny Shins may be doing the honours. If he does, he'll be accompanied by the pocket-sized whirlwind that is Nat. I'm not sure we're ready for a long weekend full of Nat's er, *unique* rendition of Feeder's 'Feeling a moment' though. Perhaps we should add 'indistrial ear defenders' to our kit lists? (Sorry Nat!).

We had a quick chat about it on Saturday (before we got properly started on the beers), and they both seem quite keen, so we'll see.

The Cliif Richard/Summer Holiday reference was the only bus-themed thing I could think of on spec. If it all goes horribly wrong though, it may turn into the closing scene from The Italian Job instead.

2007-01-17T12:42:00.000Z

It works!

Hurrah!

Justgiving Widget?

2007-01-17T12:39:00.000Z

Now, if I paste this code in, stuff should happen...

Lets see...

D

2006-12-30T19:06:00.000Z

Ahh, just a quick update before the year turns over. Our next sort-of-practice walk is scheduled for the 6th January, we're going to walk the route round the Seven Sisters country park in Eastbourne with another 24 Peaks team who will be taking part the week before us.

Should be good.

Fundraising is going fairly well, we have a number of ideas with much potential, the difficulty is getting them offf the ground! Keep an eye out for a charity gig sometime in the new year!

Dan..

Illness, money and the sweet sound of silence

2006-12-08T15:29:00.000Z

All seems to have gone rather quiet on the 24 Peaks front, doesn't it?

It's about time for an update then, I guess.

Training: I'm afraid this has taken a back seat of late. We did have a second training walk planned for 25 November, but most of the team being ill put paid to that (I seem to have had a cold etc for about three years now. Or at least that's what it feels like). It also hasn't hepled that Scotty's arm is in plaster until 18 December, so he can't carry anything (apart from a pint! You can take the boy out of Scotland...), and he's evolved into a big girly wuss who's scared of rain. I'm probably going to get hurt for that last sentence, if he ever actually logs on here.

The run up to christmas hasn't helped either - we're *such* social butterflies!

We're not doing *quite* so bad on the fundraising front though. Ok, so we haven't been able to do all the stuff we'd wanted to yet, but the total is slowly creeping up. In fact, we hit the £500 mark only yesterday! that's 10% of our target!

'Big up's and 'you da man's to Martin for his month of rien de booze. Martin, if I was wearing a hat, I'd take it off to you. Oh, and if you're considering another booze-free month I may join you - though February might be better (get the birthday celebrations out of the way!).

Also a massive thanks to Toby 'The Gob' Freshmaker, for his sponsored silence. I *knew* people would pay to have him shut up, and I was right! Seriously though Toby - we *really* appreciate all you're doing. And I understand that Thursday was a peaceful day for all concerned.

What else? for those who don't know, those of us in Join Me have been raising money for a different cause until recently. We were asked to help raise £5,000 to build a school in Africa. Within three weeks, the fund had reached it's target, so Danny has agreed that all extra money raised should come our way. There should be a new batch of items being auctioned on eBay any day now. Will keep you posted on that one.

Watch this space, but moves are afoot to get some *exclusive* gig tickets for auction too. that may not come off, but keep everything crossed.

The marvellous Gold Joinee Mum White is planning on roping in the help of a pack of girl guides early in the new year. She *is* a guide leader - she's not just planning on randomly enslaving some hapless teenage girls in aid of a good cause. Just read that back - it sounded *wrong* didn't it?

So, it seems things *are* actually moving forward more than might be immediately obvious.

We've also just been sent the link to the area of the NDCS website just for teams signed up. there are only about 5 teams signed up there so far, but I bet that number shoots up in the new year.

If you happen to *be* from one of those other teams and have stumbled upon this via the NDCS website - Hello there! Leave us a message, and the very best of luck to you!

That is all.

Drinking Ban!!

2006-11-23T16:21:00.000Z

Because i've been meaning to post this for ages!!

Success!! :-) I managed to go the whole month without alcohol. I'm pretty chuffed with myself as i had many temptations thrown at me during the month, thanks to lots of nights out in various drinking establishments.

I managed to get quite a bit of money for the cause too, though maybe not as much as i was hoping for......sorry team......thanks very much though to all those who donated! Have a pint on me (tap water of course ;-))

I considered extending the month to 6 weeks after the very tempting offer of an alcohol filled cake baked by the Join Me Queen of cooking Mrs J. Sadly i'd already planned and had my heart set on a lovely glass of white wine to celebrate. I do however plan to repeat the alcohol ban after christmas in an attempt to lose weight for the walk itself in July.

In the mean time, bottoms up.......Cheers everyone. Down the hatch....etc etc. I'm off down the pub

You! Achieve! Why?

2006-10-18T23:19:00.000+01:00

In my opinion, what makes an achievement is not just the goal achieved but also the motive of the participant. Our team is not the most athletic, nor is our aim to battle against the elements until there is only one victor! Also, to say we are on some quest for a life changing experience that’ll make sense of this world would be reaching a little far.

Obviously it’ll be good to get fitter. Meeting new friends is always wonderful. Getting into the country is a treat. It’s not what appeals to me most though.

What I find fantastic is the way we were brought together. We all decided to 'join' independently, before this event was even mentioned and with the sole intention of doing a little bit of good. THAT’S OUR MOTIVE! Is there any doubt over our reason? NO!

This motive is what will get us through this challenge. It’s pure and selfless and I can’t get enough of it.

May the Training and Fundraising Begin!!

2006-10-11T13:16:00.000+01:00

Hold on!! Is there any way I can edit other peoples’ blogs on this website? Remove a few lines from Holly’s blog for instance? ;-)

The first walk was indeed a painful but enjoyable one. It was very useful in giving us a bit of an idea of what is in store for us (pain) and how much training will be needed (loads). Most of the events happened as Holly remembers them too, so I won’t bore you with repeating what she has already said but will give you a bit of a run-down as to how things are going for me on the fundraising front:

I’ve decided for starters to give up drink for a month as part of the fundraising effort. I have so far managed 2 weeks with only mild cravings for drink (and 1 dream where I helped myself to a crafty glass of wine). I’ve already received £10 for my efforts, with a promise of more money to come when the month is up.

This is just the start and I hope there are many more donations to come. Please give generously……though, of course, “every little helps!!”

So here begins the months of training and sensible eating/drinking. I just hope that the lure of Tunnocks Caramel Wafers doesn’t halt me in my tracks

These boots were made for walking. Allegedly. I remain unconvinced.

2006-10-10T19:47:00.000+01:00

I'm a bit achey, and I'm lacking a considerable amount of skin from my right heel. Nice. It's all because we had our first training walk at the weekend.

The day started for me at the ungodly hour of 6am, as I hauled my sorry ass out of my lovely cosy bed and into the harsh reality of Stupid O’ Clock in the morning. I needed the time because I hadn’t prepared my kit the night before, and I was determined that I was going to get a good healthy, energy-packed brekkie in me before heading off (even though eating at that ridiculous hour was the last thing I wanted). So, there I was – eagerly (?) waiting for Wilf at the bottom of my road at the agreed time of 7.15. At 7.20 there was still no sign of him, so I gave him a call. No answer. Hmmmmmmm. Then he called me back. I’d woken him up, apparently. He’s sure he set his alarm for 6, but it’s unclear whether that was AM or PM.

We finally left the mean streets of Lewisham about 8. After a much convoluted and disjointed journey, we made it to Brighton and found Elliot, Martin and Nigel. Elliot was on amazingly good form, considering he’d had 2 hours sleep and a series of misadventures the night before.

A taxi took us up to Devil’s Dyke, where we changed into our walking boots, broke out the snacks, and Elliot donned his ‘turbo-trousers’. I offered to marry Martin for bringing dark cholocolate Tunnocks wafers and jaffa cakes, but he was having none of it (something to do with me ‘not being a normal girl’, apparently!).

Martin’s Tunnocks count so far = 2

And so it began – we set off in glorious blustery but sunny weather, past the hang-gliders and onto the South Downs Way.

It wasn’t long before my boots started alerting me to their brand-spanking-new status. I knew they would, but it was only a couple of miles in and I had to apply the marvel that is Compeed to my already raw heel. Foot sorted, we did a gentle-down-and-steep-back-up section before gently meandering our way back up onto the tops.

The route took us on more gentle paths for a few miles until we reached the limit of Wilf’s local knowledge. It hadn’t taken us very long, so we wondered what to do. We sat on a big marble/granite thingy for a while, I adjusted my increasingly painful boots, Martin ate more biscuits, and we all wondered why we hadn’t brought a map. We decided to head on for a bit further anyway.

Martin’s Tunnocks count so far = about 6, I think.

Have to say, it was beautiful up there. I just wish that my mind hadn’t been solely (Ha! See what I did there?) on my bruised and blistering feet. Still, there were many pleasant chats and ridiculous conversations en route. Eventually we managed to persuade Wilf that attempting to walk to Arundel was not a good idea, Martin ate more biscuits, and then we turned round and headed back the way we came.

A last-minute change of plan saw us taking a diversion and heading to Shoreham, instead of right back to Devil’s Dyke.

Martin’s Tunnocks count so far = 8

Three and a half miles and one more caramel wafer later, the meandering river path landed us in the sprawling metropolis that is Shoreham, and deposited us at a pub. And about time too, because I was getting to the limping stage, and some of the others were suffering from chaffing (well, if they *will* insist on wearing jeans!).

Some cheesy chips revived me a little and then we headed off to the station to get the train home (which took FOREVER!).

A long but worthwhile day, all told.

Distance walked = approx. 13 miles
Total number of caramel wafers consumed by Martin = 9.

I am quite worried about my boots situation though. They need more breaking in, obviously, but I may have to rethink and find something a little more kind to my feet.