"It was a great feeling to pass people –
not the pain" !

Surviving the Southern 50
The Southern 50 is an annual event organised by Greater London North County that includes a 30 kilometer hike for Explorer scouts, a 50 kilometer (30 mile) hike and a 50 mile hike. These are all done in one day in the Chiltern Hills.For some reason we agreed to enter a team for the 50k event (not the 50 miles – we’re not that mad!) it seemed like a good idea at the time with the team comprising Martin , Stephen, myself and my younger & fitter brother Paul. Reality began to bite at just after 5am on Saturday 12th February when we were rudely awoken from our brief and fitful sleep on the gym floor of Tring school. Breakfast at 5.30am, kit check at 6.30am, at 7.05am we were given the grid references of the checkpoints we had to reach and then by 7.10am we were on our way. None of us had done this before so we didn't’t know what to expect. Our aims were (as agreed in the team meeting the night before) firstly to finish as a team, secondly to try and finish in daylight (which would mean about 10 hours) and thirdly to try and win the novice trophy for teams that had not competed before. Conditions were not helpful; - there was a very strong blustery wind, heavy rain showers, off road there was lots of mud that made it hard to get grip, and then there were the hills – lots of them !! By the second checkpoint we were all suffering with foot problems to some degree and we were spending too long sorting ourselves out at the stops. By about half way we realised this and decided we had to speed up – we were catching teams on the road but they were then passing us at the checkpoints – our inexperience was showing. This was partly because the checkpoint staff were so welcoming, with some sort of drink and food available at every one, and all of them cheerful and chatty – was this just a ploy to slow us down? After a navigational error early on we spent some time looking at the map and made a number of good navigational gains during the rest of the hike that gave us a real lift and allowed us to catch and / or pass a number of teams. With about 3 checkpoints and the finish to go we were sitting in a scout hut with a drink and were suffering. But we saw that the other teams around us were also in a bad way and we made a team decision. We all downed some Nurofen and said this was our last stop, from now on we keep going, just check in, grab a drink and go. We went into “gobble” mode – where we would see a team ahead and up the pace to gobble them up. Steve had a habit of whistling the tune from the great escape as we passed them! It was a great feeling (to pass people – not the pain !) and kept us going. Over those last three checkpoints we passed every 50k team that was in front of us. We were now on the home stretch to the finish, on a footpath that should lead to an underpass under the A41 and onto the road that would take us to the finish. We suddenly realised there was a team behind us and they were running – we started running. We came to where the underpass was – it had been blocked in ! Both teams consulted maps frantically, they went left and we went right, ours was the right call!! Just under 1k to go and we see a team in the distance ahead of us – we start to jog and catch them but they are a 30k team. We both get to the finish at the same time. We are ushered into the official finish area and told to sit down – team name and number given, they confirm we are logged in as finished. “Well done team 34 you are the first 50k team home” said the official. We looked at each other in exhausted disbelief – then we all smiled. As teams start at timed intervals it didn't mean that we had won but we had the satisfaction of line honors– first team home, and we had finished in daylight. On Sunday morning we found out how we had done: Time taken – 9 hours and 26 minutes Overall position – Third - Winners of the novice trophy. We were 4 minutes off second place and 18 minutes off the winners but we had achieved all we had set out to do – well done team 34 “The Phoenix Flyers”. Paul and I were very impressed with the way Martin and Stephen dug in when it was starting to hurt and got on with it. We kept together as a team and kept motivating each other to keep going. Paul made some great navigational calls, Martin taught him some “street” words along the way (he’s a country boy now you see), Stephen kept on whistling, and me – well I won the competition for the biggest blister! Why not join us next year – it’s great fun, honest!!