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!