3-2-1 Back In The Game

Well, where to start?? Since my last post so much has happened it’s going to be impossible to put it all down here in a way that anyone who wasn’t a part of it will enjoy, so I’ll keep it brief.

Firstly, my holiday. Africa is still amazing. Cape Town has changed considerably from when I was last there eight years ago with The Hog, the Waterfront is now a brilliant place to hang out and there’s so much going on it’s pretty tough to pack it all in to a week. Still, we gave it a good go!

Needless to say the first couple of days were booze fuelled events that involved numerous amusing stories, but I’ll save those. The Wednesday was Tristan’s stag do(I was there for a wedding for those of you who didn’t know) which as best man I had organised. I was a bit nervous about the whole thing – firstly because everyone had paid me and if it went wrong then I would have taken a serious beating.

The day began by throwing a pillow case over Tris’s head and dragging him through the Waterfront before boarding a Huey Helicopter and embarking on a combat mission along the coast. I seriously recommend this to anyone who goes over there – it is unbelievably cool. Perhaps the most amusing part was before the ride when Tristan’s Dad suggested that the two of them should not go on the same one as it would leave Tris’s Mum as the sole survivor in the family if the chopper went down – way to get morale up that!

After that we got on a boat for four hours before hitting the town – while this was my first stag do, I am pretty confident the evening adhered to the usual stag do model and judging by the absurd amount of money that was spent by some people I am pretty confident everyone enjoyed it!

The wedding itself was amazing, I think one person laughed at my speech so that was good, even if I did have to get the bouncers to remove with force the man lobbing rotten fruit and knives at me. It also lead to the creation of my new favourite game, Big Face/Little Face which I am determined to make an international phenomenon.

After that it was off to Botswana and Vic Falls where The Big Five came into action and I had the pleasure of sharing a tent with G-Man for the next 10 days. Having already spent most of the past seven nights sharing a bed with the guy we were in danger of becoming a little too close…things were only to get worse on that front.

I shall repeat now to all those going to Everest, the words that the Tenzing Vice Captain said to me at the end of the trip. His exact words were: “Mate, I really thought I’d drawn the short straw sharing a tent with you because of your snoring reputation…but it seems it was actually you who got it, so I’m sorry about that.”

Out of 10 nights I think there was just one where G did not disturb me in the night, but I may save the stories for a later date…oh sod it…he tried to arrest people, give directions, point out where the bus was and sexually assault me all on separate evenings – and those are just the ones that spring readily to mind. Good luck if you get him up the mountain!

I should say however, that despite such antics it was great to get away with a bloke I’ve known for the best part of 15 years, and when he was actually awake he was a brilliant travelling partner. As were the other three of the big five; Shorty, Simcard and Kinsey(the latter two also being Everesters, as you should know by now) each made superb companions and brought their own unique brand of comedy to the jungle.

On the trip itself we went white water rafting and bungy jumped in Victoria Falls, not to mention drank a ton of booze, then cruised through Botswana in Mokoro’s in 40-degree heat, which was awesome. All the while we were seeing animals, consuming the odd beer and talking nonsense, while even having the odd afternoon to chill out and swim in a swamp with some hippos – pretty cool.
Coming back to the UK was a serious culture shock after three weeks in Africa. I got off the train at Earls Court and walked to work in Fulham at 8:30am, in the rain wearing shorts, t-shirt and flip flops along with my safari hat(nicely sweated through now after Botswana!) while people pointed at me and laughed. Worse was to come of course, I’d lost my keys while away so couldn’t get in the office and nobody was due for half an hour, so I took refuge in Maccy Dees and began to wish I was dead.

Solace was not far away however. Upon getting into work and reading my 400+ emails I quickly began to catch up on all things Everest Cricket related and felt a distinct tingling in my loins. How can you get the post-holiday blues when you’re going to Lords in two days and flying to Nepal two weeks later?

So wish fresh enthusiasm I jumped back into the mix like I have never been away…although it’s hard to hide that I’ve been away due to my rather impressive jungle beard. I may not have managed any fitness training while in Africa, but at least I have proved that after 18 days of not shaving I will look like a real man…

Saturday opened up with the freeze mobs in London which were such good fun I really can’t wait to do some more, the middle order consisted of a meeting at Lords, of which I spent the entirety sat outside like a naughty schoolboy who hadn’t done his homework, frantically typing up the details for Cricinfo, who were all too happy to put the story up on their front page for 24-hours.

Huge thanks to Will Luke for that one, considering the situation involving England in India at the moment it was brilliant to get that kind of exposure, and the story seems to have caught on and is popping up on random sites all over the place! We even managed to get Kirt on Talk Sport today as a result of the article while The London Paper ran a small clip on the freezes last night as well, so it looks like we have some momentum and I really hope we can capitalise on it.

With all this in mind I have to turn my attention now to Christmas and the forthcoming trip to Kathmandu. Between us Kirt and I have managed to set up meetings with the Nepali Government, Tourist Board, Cricket Association and Himalayan Rescue, so it looks like it’s going to be a busy few days, although I have no doubt whatsoever that we’ll find time to do what we do best, and enjoy a few beers with the locals! Can’t wait.

Stepping out of the Loop

This is probably my last post for a little while, as on Friday I am flying off to South Africa for a few weeks to be best man at my best mate Tristan's wedding before heading off on safari with some serious legends, can't wait.

So try to cope without my chat, I know it'll be tough. Those of you who see me on a regular basis will also have to do without seeing how my mo develops. Last year I grew a handle bar moustache that rivalled Merv himself, and this year I'm going again - although purely for my own amusement this year!

The picture on the left is the mo as it looked this morning, after hitting the Trim Trail, in the rain, for an hour and a half. Fabulous, I am sure you'll agree.

It was a good session, following on from Wednesday when Kiwi put me through my paces after I arrived a little late. I can see Tom is slowly pushing us harder as time goes on - it frightens me to think what we'll be doing come March!

I said in a post a little while back I was trying to exercise five times a week, well, I almost managed it in week one, but with the Trim Trail taking off it's harder to get to the gym - and I'd rather exercise with the guys. I'm still doing Tuesday mornings before work, and with the Trail happening Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, there's not a lot of time to get to the gym!

This week we had another Team Hillary curry at Kathmandu Valley which was once again brilliant, and there's a few things coming up in Movember that I will hope to hear about when I'm back from SA.

The expedition itself is going from strength to strength, Kirt & Wes had a good meeting with Nokia recently and it looks as though they will be helping us in some capacity as well, which is great news. We're also actively hunting for a title sponsor now, let's see how that comes along.

In other news I finally booked my flights to Kathmandu at Christmas. I'll be going out with Kirt, and rather randomly discovered that Charlie BN will be out there for a couple of days at the same time, which is a real bonus.

We've got some good meetings set up and hopefully will have everything in place for when we return in April, we'll meeting guys from the Government, Cricket Association, Tourist Board and Emergency Rescue so it should be a busy week - but I have little doubt we'll find a few hours to get lashed!

We've also had a few people pull out of the expedition recently, which is a great shame. There are various reasons behind all of them but hopefully we'll find replacements of equal stature to step in - keep your eyes on the main blog for info on that.

The biggest loss from my point of view was that of Charlie Brewer, purely because he's a good mate and a top bloke. If you read this Boozer, you'll be sorely missed(for those who don't know him - he's the idiot in the pirates outfit below).

So for now folks, have a good month and I'll most likely see you in December. Until then, sleep tight.

Loving Every Minute

Busy days these I must say. It seems that every time someone asks me what I'm up to or where I am going, my answer is pretty much always Everest related. For example, tonight I am writing this, tomorrow I am meeting the Hillary boys, Wednesday Trim Trail, Thursday Hillary again. I could go on to next week as well, but I think you get the picture.

It may sound like I'm moaning, but actually the truth is far from it. I'm loving every minute of it, and what makes it so enjoyable is that so many others are as well, and people are really buying into the whole thing.

For example, I generally am a pretty lucky chap who comes from a good family and has, fortunately, never come across real hardship. I read a blog this morning that really brought home how lucky I am, firstly because of what I just said, but secondly to get a chance to know someone like Zooby, who seems to be having a slightly different experience to me.

As a group we've been gradually getting to know this bloke, but when I read his blog this morning I suddenly realised that I didn't know him at all apart from the odd email and boozey conversation. Yet this guy clearly has a story to tell. You can read it by clicking here. For what it's worth fella, I'm really glad you're on board and going to be sticking around.

Meeting people is one of the things I live for. I've got a great group of friends who I wouldn't swap for anything, but knowing there are so many brilliant people out there makes it worth getting up in the morning. Already through this adventure I have discovered a whole load of cool people, guys I hope I'll stay in touch with long after April next year. And that's what it's all about.

At the same time there is a bit of self discovery that's gone on too. Learning a bit about myself and finding out who I am and what I'm capable of. I didn't think I could get round a marathon - part of me still thinks it was a dream...I mean nightmare....but I did. If I can do that I wonder what else is possible? Getting to Everest is the next goal, but what after that?

One thing I'm certain of is that if I attack every future challenge with the same drive and enthusiasm that I, and everyone else, is attacking this one, the some seriously cool things can be achieved.

I've fired this blog entry off at rapid speed - my pasta is still on the hob, so it's a tad wishy washy and for that I apologise, I'll actually update on a few things that are happening next time - and as I said at the start - there's a lot!

Right, pastas is almost ruined, until next time.

Chatting with Graham Napier

When my mobile rang last Friday afternoon I was at work feeling truly hideous after another night out with the Hillary boys and a few Trektators, so it was perhaps not the ideal time to have a chat with the man who took this years Twenty20 Cup by storm.

At the start of the summer Graham Napier was a promising allrounder at Essex and had toured with England A in 2004, alongside Kevin Pieteren and Matt Prior, but after an astonishing 152* against Sussex in June his career is taking off.

Details of the innings itself can be found all over the place, but that is not what I wanted to talk to him about, I wanted to discuss his trek to Everest Base Camp last winter, and it seems I was not the first.

"It's safe to say the Everest trip has proved a popular topic of conversation, and I enjoy telling everyone about it," he said.

"There were times on the trip when I wondered what the hell I had gotten myself into, it was seriously cold up there, but the altitude was by far the toughest aspect.

"I was OK,but one of our guys, Cameron, had to be helicoptered off the mountain on the penultimate day, which brought home just how difficult it was."

From my point of view perhaps the best line he came out with was to do with fitness: "it seemed to be the fitter guys who struggled more, because they went off too quickly. Nick Compton is one example, he took on a hill pretty fast one morning and paid for it for about two days!"

When the conversation moved on to the cricket match they played at Gorak Shep Graham gave a small chuckle.

"It was no more than beach cricket really, and a useful distraction because we were all feeling pretty terrible by that stage. For us the cricket was a small aside, it was all about reaching Base Camp."

When I told him what we're planning he was supportive in the extreme, and had plenty of advice to give.

"When I played the game I think I was wearing thermals, base layers, a jumper, fleece and a coat, and it was still pretty cold.

"Night was the worst though. One night I couldn't be arsed to get up and go to the toilet so just peed in my water bottle, which then proved to be a great source of warmth! After that I took boiled water to bed with me every night.

Another tip was to wrap up all your batteries to keep them warm: "you'll want a good camera because around every corner there's another amazing view, and the cold sucks all the life out of your electrical gear, so I wrapped my batteries in socks each night."

I coud easily tell how excited Graham was when he began talking, and the fact that we are taking up around 50 people was something he saw as a plus for us, because the camaradarie is so important in getting through the tough times.

I almost began to wonder if he was serious when he said: "if this season hadn't gone so well I would probably be trying to get on the trip with you!" Well Graham, I can tell you now, there's a spot on Team Hillary for you - we need all the help we can get!

I owe a massive thanks to Graham for taking the time out to talk to me, he was incredibly pleasant to speak with, as was his agent Greg Lansdowne - who I hassled for some time.

Despite the season being over he is still a busy man. On Wednesday he was at an awards dinner at Lords to pick up the Walter Lawrence Trophy in recognition of his innings against Sussex, and he will shortly be heading out to Hong Kong to represent England in the Sixes competition, a tournament he won in 2004, before once again playing for Wellington in New Zealand.

Despite all this he was kind enough to offer to write something for us and lend his full support to The Everest Test, hopefully next time he calls I will be slightly less hungover and able to ask some decent questions!

Gotta get going....

Right, that's it. Honeymoon over.

It has now been two weeks since the marathon and I have to stop living off it or I will be in serious danger of falling back into the old routine of sitting in front of the TV all day and doing absolutely nothing with my life!

Wednesday was the launch of the Everest Test at the Collection on Brompton Road and a wicked night was had by all.

Fortunately I managed to avoid getting too hammered, which is more than can be said for some of those involved - and damn right too I say! Everyone is working so hard for this thing and deserved to let their hair down, plus it was great to get together again, especially after missing the meeting two weeks ago.

Today I have woken up after my first visit to the new Wembley followed by a hideous smash up which took in various bars around London and my mate Kingers 30th, so I feel truly awful and have failed to get to the gym all weekend. It was great going to the home of football for a game and I was pretty pleased that mankinis were banned!

One of the things I said after doing my run was that now it was over I don't have to feel guilty about missing the odd gym session now and again, but it has become again and again over the last two weeks and the guilt has returned.

So from tomorrow morning I am setting myself a new target, go every day. I'll go in the morning before work, do a shorter session, but reckon that lots of shorter sessions is probably better than the occasional longer one which takes days to recover from!

So wish me luck with that, I feel I might need it.

One particularly cool thing that happened at the party was young Zooby put together a video slideshow that was projected on the big screen throughout the night, which finished with the below shot - which I am a big fan of! I am also having serious concentration issues today, so am going to bed...

Back in the saddle

I fell off the wagon last week, which was highly expected. After a month of not drinking there were invites aplenty and so I decided to accept every single one, and thus discovered on Sunday morning that I may have undone four months training in a single week. Oh dear.

Still, I did manage to fit in my first run since Berlin, although that was purely thanks to G Man who basically forced me out on Saturday morning, and after an hour all the old aches and pains had returned(who am I kidding, they returned after about five minutes and I did all I could not to complain about them until we were nearly done).

By lunchtime my legs and knees had stiffened up so badly that the only option was to drink until I could feel the pain no more. Sadly, this did not stop the pain returning on Sunday, along with several new aches and bruises that generally accompany a Drovers Cricket do.

So, away from the past and back to the present. The Trektator party is on Wednesday and should be a good night. Hopefully we've got enough people to make it a good night out, although I am going to be careful not to get too leathered and embarrass myself!

Tickets can still be bought for £30 at www.wegottickets.com search using the word Sagarmatha.

After that I am contemplating heading down to Battersea Park for the Trim Trail with the Everest boys on Saturday morning, although I may put that off until Wednesday and have a session in the gym to try and work out just how much long-term damage I have done to myself by running 26 miles before letting the brothers Sharland go to work on me - I hear they are slightly deranged.

Some of the things that people are talking about signing up to are quite insane. The Toughguy being one of them, have a read through the suggested training routines because they made me laugh a lot....perhaps only because there's no chance in hell of me going down that road!

Done and Dusted

So, on Sunday I ran the Real Berlin Marathon. You may have seen on the news that Haile Gebrselassie broke the world record, so while I was technically competing in the same race, I'm not sure it was the thought of me chasing that pushed young Haile over the line!

I went round in 5.43.27, I could talk you through the race, but instead I'll keep it simple. I began nervous as hell, was feeling good at the halfway point, then my right knee started giving me all sorts of trouble and the rest of the race became a real struggle.

The second half was a mix of highs and lows, the highs perhaps being the cheerleaders around mile 17, and the lows being pretty much everything else!

At this point I should really say thanks to a few people. First of all the guys who texted and called to wish me luck, there's too many to mention but thanks to each of you, it meant a lot. Same to those who have sponsored me, knowing so many people had given money to the cause kept me going at some serious low points!

Special mention to my boys Kirt, Hog and G-Man for believing I could do it, probably more than I did! A massive thanks has to also go to Jules, my running partner. What a compadre, couldn't have done it without your constant jabbering and shouts of "I am the Yeti!"

The biggest thanks must however go to my sister Helen. What a performance. Firstly I wouldn't have entered without her, then I wouldn't have got to the startline, and I almost certainly wouldn't have made it if I hadn't been able to take comfort in the fact that she was suffering just as much!

We were a sorry sight at the end, as the picture shows, but the 24 hours afterwards has amused me no end as we grunted our way back from Germany!

I also cracked open a beer for the first time in a month on Sunday night, and I can tell you now it was enjoyable! Whether or not I'll sign up for another of these I don't know, but at least now I know it's not an impossibility.

As far as Everest goes, there's been loads of news recently. I sat down on Thursday with Kirt and Charlie to debate the Team Hillary captain and eventually all decided that Glen Lowis was the man for the job. Congrats to him, I have no doubt he'll rise to the task.

The website has also gone live, check out http://www.theeveresttest.com/ for all the best bits there.

I'm pretty knackered now, and my mind and body is shutting down, so farewell. I'm now going to have to come up with something else to write about on this blog!

The time is nigh

Hi folks,

This is likely to be my last post before the marathon. How do I feel? Nervous as hell that's how.

Last weekend I went to Dubai on a work jolly, which was great but hardly ideal preparation! I didn't manage to get a run in which was disappointing, but not crucial I don't think. I ran for an hour last night and will go again tomorrow morning, then it's sit back, eat pasta and wait for Sunday.

Helen and I started up our fundraising page last week and seem to be going along quite well so far, as I write we are barely £2 away from the £600 mark, a decent start.

I also recently finished reading 'Every Second Counts' by Lance Armstrong. Now, this guy needs no introduction, he's a proper legend. I can't remember if I said, but I was lucky enough to have him as a guest speaker at a recent company do in Hawaii and he was really inspiring. More than that though, he has given me my slogan - "Pain is temporary, quitting is permanent." There shall be no quitting on my watch!

Work for Everest is coming along well, although I'm gutted to be missing the big meeting this weekend where the captains will be named. Fortunately I'm in the loop with that and will be speaking with Kirt and Charlie on Thursday about who will lead Team Hillary. There's so many decent candidates that it won't be an easy choice, but I guess the good thing about this is that no choice will be the wrong one.

One negative was that I had to send out a nasty email today chasing people for payment, that sucked but needed to be done. Did kind of make me feel like an asshole though.

Anyway, wish me luck and I'll let you know how I got on...if I survive!

Knackered

My oh my, it has certainly been quite a week. I am sitting on my sofa with my feet up watching the football knowing that the last eight days has brought a number of firsts for me.

On Saturday last I got up at 8 am, ran 9 miles then went and played cricket. Admittedly, I hardly lasted very long with the bat, but I did get through a three over spell, comfortably my longest since school!

I then sat in the pub with the boys and did not sink a single beer, then went home to a dinner party, where I also avoided booze. It has now been two weeks since my last beer, and that certainly seems a long time ago. I won't lie, I'm hanging for one, but fortunately I have the Carling I-pint to amuse myself(ask me if you've not seen it - comfortably my favourite toy!).

On the Sunday I had another early start, running the Gyro 10k, in full cricket gear. Have a look at Glens blog to the right for a write up of that.

A fairly uneventful week followed, and then today arrived, and I was up at seven and proceeded to run 16 miles, which, as it turns out, is a bloody long way. I am aching all over, and it took me a pretty long time, but the good news that I finished and my knees and feet are not completely shredded.

It does have to be said however, that the thought of adding another 10 miles onto what I just ran, scares the bejesus out of me. Sadly, that is what I am going to have to do in just two weeks. I had my first meeting with "The Wall" today and I fear it is something I will become fairly well acquainted with in two weeks time.

So, next weekend I have to go to Dubai and again avoid the booze in tricky circumstances as well as trying to get a run in. It's 40 degrees out there at the moment, so that could be fun!!

Until next time!

Addicted to....

A little while ago, I forget when exactly, somebody made the mistake of emailing the old classic Tetris to me at work. I was addicted to this thing at school, and it seems the years have not diminished my enthusiasm for a game that is basic to the point of making me wonder if my IQ is gradually sliding downwards with every passing moment I play it.

All this made me wish I was able to get addicted to things that might be good for me, such as running, cycling, cooking healthy food etc. When I started training for this marathon lots of people said how I would get addicted to running and find it taking priority over everything else. Well, what a load of rubbish that was.

Seriously, all I have got addicted to from this training is buying plasters. I'm not kidding, all I concentrate on these days is finding ways to protect my feet and so far Compeed plasters have proved the way forward. I even bought some surgical spirit yesterday in an attempt to make my feet harder.

It reminds me of that scene in Forrest Gump where Lieutenant Dan tells Bubba and Gump to look after their feet and I know where he's coming from. Am I going to make it round this 26.2 mile course in Berlin in less than a month? I am starting to doubt it. What I am going to do is give it my best, and if I come up short, well, so be it.

Back to the Everest line, I've noticed how proud Glen is about getting himself in the South London Press and how he has been boasting about being the first to get some publicity(we also had a mention on Cricinfo recently) thus I am forced to burst his bubble.

The Wimbledon Guardian carried a story on me back on the second of August, so it's safe to say I am hugely famuos in my local area and spend my days walking around in disguise to avoid being mobbed by the local hero-worshippers....maybe not. Still, read all about me(even more) right here.

Until next time folks.

Maybe I can become an Olympian?

But then again, maybe I can't. I'm sat here watching the highlights of this slightly absurd Olympics and thinking that these guys are the nuts. Why did I stop riding bikes when I was nine? I am sure I would have something to offer by now.

It has been an interesting few days to say the least. After a nice relaxing holiday I came back and tried to pick up where I left off with the running. This was perhaps not my smartest move. Barely 45 minutes in to my run my right knee went and I could barely get round Richmond Park....and my sense of humour failed.

On Monday I had some orthotics made for my shoes by the London Orthotic Consultancy and this evening I was beaten to a pulp by a psysio. All this leaves me, hopefully, better equipped for September 28th...and considerably poorer I might also add!

I am just realising now how hard all this actually is, which was kind of the point. Must keep going, quitting is for the weak - just ask Tim Don

Since my last confession.....

Since I last posted on this here blog quite a lot seems to have happened, well, happened to me anyway.

On Thursday I teamed up with Jules and did my first serious run, eight miles round Richmond Park and amazingly I awoke the next day still able to walk, so that was encouraging.

I have stepped out of the loop since then after going on a work do to Hawaii, which was quite simply one of the best weekends ever. I am not one to make people jealous, but if you can imagine the best party you have ever been to, then put in one of the best locations you can imagine, add almost 3000 people, and a whole load of awards, of which you win one, and you'll be somewhere close. Oh, and did I mention it was all free? For three days. Flights, hotels, food and booze(although I still managed to spend £250, but so be it).

I have little doubt that this jaunt has probably set me back somewhat in my training, and as I sit at my desk at 5:15pm the day after returning, I am wondering if I can actually face hitting the gym tonight. The answer is most certainly no, but I fear I may have to give it a go anyway. Wish me luck.

Of course, it goes without saying that I spent much of the time out there telling everyone who would listen about the Everest Test, and as always the response was hugely encouraging. People love this stuff and hopefully we can capitalise on that and really start taking this up a level.

Padding up and getting the runs

During the last few weeks the Everest Test has become increasingly intense, which quite frankly, is bloody marvellous.

On Sunday 6th July eight of us ran the London 5K at some absolutely horrible hour; we met at 7:30am and having sunk multiple beers and eaten copious amounts of barbecued meat the night before I was actively encouraging everyone to "maximise our exposure" by going as slowly as possible. The race had to be completed in an hour so why waste coverage time by finishing any quicker??

My words clearly fell on deaf ears however, as we ran round in about 33 minutes which I was pretty surprised about - although I was more surprised by the fact that I thought I was going to die coming into the home straight and only have Ben Jarman to thank for his constant pep talks to get me over the line!

Now, as you may have read below I am planning to run a marathon at the end of September, so it is probably not such a good sign that I am struggling to get round a three-mile course. Well, hopefully come Berlin I will not be padded up and have a serious case of the meat sweats before I even start.

However, do not be surprised if that is the case on September 7th when myself and another load of Everest cricketers go round the Gyro 10K(http://www.gyro-events.com/) in full cricket gear once again, although I will do my utmost to avoid Kirt, Miles and Jules the night before this time!

Some of the boys are also doing the Nike 10k the week before but by the sounds of it full cricket gear is not acceptable dress for that one...tossers.

So, exercise aside I am spending my time desperately trying to avoid massive booze ups, which is really quite tough. Last weekend was my work summer ball - free alcohol all night - and this weekend is another company do, but this one is in Hawaii. Three days of non-stop alcohol consumption is likely to put my training back about two months, which is hardly ideal as I've only been doing it for six weeks, so at this rate I may not even make the start line!

My major concerns currently are my knees and constant blisters, I saw a physio yesterday who absolutely beat the crap out of me and left me bruised this morning, but it's all about no pain no gain eh?

So on that note I'm off to trap my hand in a door, as that's bound to hurt so I am sure make me gain in the long run....see what I did there?

Until next time....

Bleeping test

Well, I had the bleep test this evening, and what a bucket of chuckles that wasn't.

Evidently, I am somewhat short of match fitness and registered a rather lame 8.9. Admittedly, I had no idea what I was aiming for, but when someone said that Blade reached level ten a few days ago when he was half-cut, I thought I would do a tad better!

Still, I think my post-test salad laid down a marker for things to come, I will gloss over the four pints....it was Miles' birthday after all!

The physical side of this event is actually quite frightening, personally, I can't think of anything worse than not making it because I'm not fit enough. It's nine months away now, which means I'll have nobody to blame but myself if I'm not in shape...and I hate blaming myself, I'd far rather blame someone else!

I've been going to the gym about three times a week for around a month now, but I think it's time to up that, running is one thing, but I need to start doing some sport - squash anyone???

A Curry above the rest

Hello all, and firstly welcome to my blog. Here you will find details of my preparation for The Everest Test 2009, how I am raising money, organising myself and generally getting along.

My name is Alan Curr(aka Curry) and while I do intend to eat a curry at Everest Base Camp, this is not my sole reason for going there, merely a bonus.

"So what on earth are you doing," I hear you ask. Now that is a good question. I am going to Mount Everest for a cricket match. Unusual, yes. Record breaking, yes, life changing....I hope so. I could go on about the event itself but all that info can be found at www.atestabovetherest.com - where I also contribute.

So who am I? Well, I am currently an out of shape 27-year-old who quite fancies an adventure, and perhaps needs one to provide the long missing kick up the arse to get into shape and do something meaningful.

A minimum requirement for this event is to raise £1500 on my own for two charities, Comic Relief and The Himalayan Trust - more on those in future posts, and more on how I intend to do so as well.

Quite frankly it's about time I actually gave something to those less fortunate than myself and I would rather give to something I believe in than be guilt-tripped into it by one of those people on the street who try to tempt you in with lines like: "What's one less pint a month to you eh?"

Right, I intend to keep these things short, partly because I doubt anyone will read them and partly because I'm pretty sure there must be some sport on TV for me to watch.

So farewell for now, do come back soon and see how I'm getting on. Once we have a system set up for donating money I shall put that somewhere on here in big glowing letters so you can all give away some of your hard earned cash to a great cause.