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How times change

Monday, March 8th, 2010

I ran 30 miles along the Northern Line the other day. I’d run that far once before and didn’t really think anything of it the morning I set off, in part because I didn’t know how far it would be but then I also didn’t think much of it afterwards.

At school, “long distance” running meant the 800-metres.

When I started training for my triathlon a few years back, I knew nothing about swimming (I still know very little) and the three miles across the Solent seemed incomprehensible. Shortly after I announced my idea I met a guy thinking about the Arch-to-Arc (run from London to Dover, swim the Channel, cycle to Paris) which quickly put my aspirations in perspective. He also told me he once ran 140 miles from Birmingham to London in a race where he wasn’t allowed to stop for more than 20 minutes at a time. Again, perspective.

As a teenager I never used to ride a bike. I was scared for some reason and the thought of pedalling the three miles to school on a daily basis never occured to me. In stark contrast, however, I caught myself commuting ten miles through the cold just before Christmas and arriving at work thinking it was too short a ride to start my day. I also cycled a thousand miles home from Norway last year and am aware of many, many cyclists who have spent years covering the globe.

Reading about and actually doing these things has altered my perception of the world. It has shifted my perspectives, my benchmarks, my expectations.

And now, writing this whilst facing the wrong way on a high-speed train to London, the dull ache in my quads is casting my mind back to the cause: last weekend’s run.

As I said, I didn’t think much of having run the length of the Northern Line. I didn’t do any specific training for it. I didn’t research the route or so much as look at a map until I was on the Tube heading for the start (and even then, to be fair, it was Laura rather than me with the maps). I didn’t get an early night, wake up feeling nervous, eat special food or wear lucky pants. I just got up like any other Sunday and started running like any other run.

I like that I can just go out and do these things, take them in my stride and not make a song and dance about them. I like that my mind has been opened to possibilities – physical, mental and otherwise – and that I’m in a position to be able to try these things and experiment. I like that such things become part of my everyday, that my friends and family have come to accept them, that it’s an expectation of me in some ways and that “that’s just what I do”. I like that it doesn’t feel like a big deal.

But then again, just once in a while, from time to time, I also like to sit back, reflect on what it is I’ve just done and think to myself: “Hey! That was pretty cool…”

Posted in Challenging Norms, Living Life | No Comments »

How to have an adventure for £100 – Part 1

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

This is a low point.

I’m entering the third hour (or is it fourth now?) of standing at the side of the road with a thumb out and a sign saying ‘Cardiff?’ – as optimistic as the expression on my face each time I car turns the corner.

This isn’t even an adventure, let alone a holiday. What the hell am I doing with my life?

It was a noble idea – not needing money to go on an expedition. “A hundred pounds and a rucksack is all you need!” I’d declared the day before as I set off from my front door without much of a plan. It had started well. I got straight on a bus for Heathrow and, carrying as I was, only £20 notes, the driver had no change so I got the ride for free. Admittedly karma caught up with me almost immediately when I had to buy another, more expensive ticket to get out of the airport because, apparently, you can’t walk. Still, it felt like progress.

But they’re laughing at me now. Not the metaphorical, removed “they”. No, I’m taking about the builders who are pointing down from the construction site above and laughing at me as they have been for some time.

This is a low.

I’d thought it was hitching in the dark that was working against me but having gone through the rigmarole of finding a quiet corner of a recreation ground to sleep and cooked my porridge in a playground the following morning, daylight was doing me no favours.

Thumb in, sign down and rucksack on. Time to take action.

I didn’t let the futility of walking in the direction of Wales from London register. It felt good to be moving and the effort of walking was far less than that of maintaining the positive mindset and facial expression required for hitching. Besides, I was freezing. I’d been roadside for a good hour or two and no amount of running on the spot could keep the blood flowing to my finger tips.

It was a cool winter’s day and the walk to Eton was a pleasant one. I turned right and made a beeline for the next sliproad onto the M4. I scrambled up and over the boundary to an A-road and walked sheepishly along its side – there was no way I could hitch on here. I marched onwards but, two roundabouts later, there was still no sign of a suitable hitching point and I ducked away from the road to lunch by a hotel car park, away from the drone of traffic. By “lunch”, I mean two bananas and half a packet of chocolate digestives – the contents of my cupboards emptied into my rucksack the afternoon before.

I was at a loss of what to do. I couldn’t possibly hitch here – no places to stop, too many junctions, roads too busy – I could keep walking but who was to say it was going to change anywhere between here and Cardiff, my first destination? Sitting still wasn’t an option and walking back too depressing so without any logical backing, I kept walking.

And what a place to walk!

Let me tell you that the A4 between Slough and Maidenhead has a lot to offer – Staples, Dixons, McDonalds, Sara Lee factory – and all of this on the wonderful convenience of a large strip of concrete with easy parking access. Arguably less designed for the pedestrian but who am I to complain? Headphones helped drown out the engines but I couldn’t quell the hunger in my stomach. I’d eaten more than enough biscuits for one day and there was not a supermarket in sight. Marks & Spencer didn’t count and corner shops were unlikely to fit my budget.

I arrived at another junction with the M4 in a slight daze. Marching on empty, continual noise in my ears and a mild confusion as to what exactly I was trying to achieve on my week off work besides a headache. I filled up my water bottle in a pub, put my rucksack down at the side of the road ready to have another go at getting a ride. I reached into my pocket for the pen to write on my whiteboard but it wasn’t there. I checked the other pocket then the same one again. I looked on the floor, opened my pack and rummaged through all the bags. It wasn’t there but I had an idea where it might be – 4 miles back along the A4 where I’d stopped for lunch and used it to write a message on the sign and take a photo.

No problem. I’ll just go back to Staples and get a new one (I told you the A4 had a lot to offer). A hit for the accounts but it would hamper my hitching and ruin the photo theme for the trip without one. And so I set about walking back down my new favourite road. How far back was Staples? I couldn’t quite work it out until I arrived back at my lunch spot in a cold, frantic sweat some 90-minutes later. There was no Staples. I’d imagined it and walked back the entire length. The A4 is rubbish.

At least my pen was there. The most pathetic of rewards for three hours of utterly wasted life. I almost couldn’t bear to do it but my glucose deprived brain raised no alternatives and so, for the third and, I sincerely hoped, last time that afternoon/ever, I trundled along the grey bliss of the A4. (I even caved and went to M&S to buy the cheapest savoury combo I could find – reduced pitta and houmous).

Right. Here we go. This is it.

I’m slightly concerned about being picked up by the police but this has got to be the spot. The road goes directly to the M4 and 50% of that traffic will be going my way. There’s a perfect layby for someone to pull over in and I’m safely tucked behind a barrier. Sign up, thumb out. Surely God is going to cut me a break?

Moments later a tiny black Volkswagen with the back seat down pulls over behind me.

“Hi”, I offer hesitantly, looking around me in disbelief, “Are you stopping for me!?”

Posted in Challenges, Challenging Norms, Expeditions, Living Life, Sponsorship, Writing | 1 Comment »

Walking to Work… My Next Challenge by Ewan Laurie

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

This is the first in what I hope will be a long line of a new feature entitled ‘My Next Challenge’.

Each month we’ll have a new person tell us about an upcoming adventure – what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, what they’re worried about and why they’re excited.

I first met Ewan when working for BSES and he got in touch with me last week to see if I would join him on his commute (very topical given this month’s Everyday Adventure mission). I, of course, said yes.

Here’s his plan…

I’m Ewan Laurie and my next challenge is to walk from Guildford to Wimbledon (25 miles), to raise money for Money For Madagascar, who support some of the world’s poorest people. I was lucky enough to lead an expedition to Madagascar for BSES in 2007, and the generosity of even the poorest people there has remained with me since.

I’m a teacher in Wimbledon and we have our biennial “Make A Difference Day” on Friday the 5th of March and loads of things are happening for lots of different charities. It seemed like a good opportunity to raise money for Madagascar, but how?

Some of the staff are being sponsored to walk to work and I though I’d take that a step further and walk to Wimbledon from Haslemere, where I live, which is about 40 miles. Then I realised that I had a parents’ evening the night before and wouldn’t be able to start early enough to make it on time, so I’m starting in Guldford instead (hopefully our only compromise).

If you think this is something you think you’d like to support, please point your browser at the following link and write “MADD Walk” in the “special instructions” box, so they know you’re supporting our walk:

http://www.moneyformadagascar.org/howtod.htm

I haven’t had much time to put the idea together, so I’m extra pleased that Tim’s going to join me (we go back a few years, but we’ve never done something like this together). Hopefully Roy, the Spanish Assistant is going to come too, which should add a cultural dimension.

I need to get to work roughly on time, so the plan is to drive from Wimbledon straight after the parents evening, grab a bite to eat and start trundling through the night.

You can plan a rough walking route on Google Maps by typing in two postcodes and selecting the “walking” option from the drop down menu in the “get directions” function. It’s slightly worrying that the website then warns you that there might not actually be a footpath along sections of the route, so torches are going to be important!

We’ll be setting off on Thursday evening and you can follow our progress on Twitter (the updates are visible on the right hand side of this web page).

What’s your next challenge?

If you’ve got an adventure planned or an idea in your head and you think it’s something I can help with or which might make a good feature like the one above, why not drop me a line?

Posted in Challenges, Challenging Norms, Guest Entries, Living Life, My Next Challenge, TNC Supported | No Comments »

Commute with Gusto! – Everyday Adventure #3

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Enjoying the pungent aroma of a fellow Tube rider’s sweaty armpit thrust across your face. Sat in static traffic so long that the radio starts repeating songs you heard earlier. Watching your breath as you shiver waiting for a bus that should have been here, ooh, a good half hour ago now.

Commuting is a drag.

Not only do you have to endure all of the above but you’re not even trying to get somewhere you want to go. It’s not like fighting crowds to escape Brighton having cycled there from London or a sleepless night in a coach on your way to the ski slopes. No, you’re going to work.

Getting to and fro your job can be tiresome but not this month, soldiers. Not in the month of March, in the year of 2010. This month, on the streets of the UK, across Europe and the world over, we march purposefully on our way to offices. This month, loyal troops, we race excitedly to our workplaces. This month, we commute with gusto!

Some ideas:

Take a new route – Dig out a map and plot a novel course (or just go blind) ; follow a sat nav (even if you’re walking/cycling); try a different bus/train/Tube combination
Walk/run/cycle to work – Whatever you’re not used to, try that (and if you do all of them, use motorized transport for the novelty). Too far? You don’t have to do it every day, just give it a go once. Set your alarm 30 minutes earlier, or an hour, or four hours if you have to.
Slow down, go sightseeing – What interesting places do you pass on your way to work? Or, more to the point, what interesting places do you miss every single day as you pass by in an early morning mental fug? Take it easy. Take it slow. Look around you and see life from the other side of the street. Leave earlier and embrace your journey as an experience not a chore.
Make it fun – Do it with a friend. Treat yourself to a new book/album on the MP3 player/coffee on the way. Put your jacket and wellies on and splash in the puddles (rather than whinge about the weather). Treat the journey as if you were going somewhere new or on holiday and maybe it’ll set your day off to a better start.

Some answers to your excuses:

I know the best way already – Boo for you! Is life really about efficiency? This is the very thing we are trying to address this month – turning the commute from a necessity to a pleasure. Just once.
I don’t have time – Yes you do, you’re just sleeping when it goes by. Sure, it’s already a traumatic experience when the alarm goes off at the normal time but who ever achieved anything great without first putting in a little hard work? It’s a one off. Get out of bed and get to it.
There’s only one bus/train/road/cycle lane – Oh, come now, is that the best you can do? Get off the bus a stop early. Walk to the next railway station from home. Deliberately drive the wrong way and see where you end up. Ride your bike on the road, run it along the pavement, find a dirt track or a field to cross. Use your imagination!

You know the drill by now. Stop reading this and get a map out. Plan your adventure and report back to me on the comments form below or on the Facebook page within the month.

Now, what are you waiting for…? Go have an adventure!

This is an Everyday Adventure…

…and it is here for you to try.

There are no rules, constraints or conditions. Treat this as a spark for your imagination. Use it as an injection of excitement into your daily routine.

Please spread the word, email a link to this page or share it on Twitter and Facebook with the buttons at the bottom right. There’ll be a new idea for each month of 2010 along with another fantastic image courtesy of David Tett Photography.

http://thenextchallenge.org/2009/07/cross-the-street-and-walk-on-the-other-side

Posted in Challenges, Challenging Norms, Everyday Adventures, Living Life, Motivation, Regulars | 4 Comments »

Tell me, where did you sleep last night?

Friday, February 26th, 2010

I’m quite excited about my plan for this evening’s Everyday Adventure. I wish I could tell you what it is but I can’t. Not just just yet, anyway. If I pull it off then I promise to add it in the comments box tomorrow morning. But anyway, this isn’t about me. It’s about you…

How did you sleep this month?

Back at the start of February I gave you a brief: to camp in your living room, sleep with the windows and curtains open, wake beneath the stars, swap your duvet for a sleeping bag and generally recreate a bit of child-like excitement when it came to your night’s sleep.

I’ll be honest, in comparison to the great response I got after the Lunchtime Jailbreak in January, this month has been comparatively quiet. Did you not give this one a go? Or were you just a bit shy about telling me what you got up at bed time? Comments below or on the Facebook page please!

I did, however, hear of a tent pitched in a back garden on a school night and the promise of a living room fort all the way from South Korea. I had a few interesting bedroom spots on my £100 adventure last week (see the photos here) but set out specifically for an Everyday Adventure the night before my first school talk. Wanting to put my money where my mouth was before preaching to a hall full of young people, I shunned my cosy bedroom in favour of a bivi bag and some bushes just up the road from my house.

Monday will see another Mission Possible for your daily life uploaded here. That means you have three more nights to squeeze in an overnight adventure and let me know what you got up to.

Right, I’m off to have an adventure…

Posted in Challenges, Challenging Norms, Everyday Adventures, Living Life, Motivation, Regulars | 4 Comments »

100 pounds, 29 photos – The Story Board

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

I’m not sure what exactly made me wedge a miniature whiteboard into the back of my rucksack last Sunday but I’m certainly glad that I did.

Not only did it help with the hitch-hiking (several people said they wouldn’t have picked me up without it and one suggested that the evident literacy indicated I was less likely to be carrying knife) but it also gave me a great excuse to have some fun with my camera.

I hope you enjoy my story board as much as I did.

(Can’t see the slideshow above? Try here instead. And if you can’t read any of them then hover your mouse over these images to get captions)

Posted in Challenges, Challenging Norms, Expeditions, Photos/Videos, Sponsorship | 3 Comments »

Should I break a World Record? (Vote now!)

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Come spring time I’ll be saddling up in one of those three-wheeled pedal-powered vehicles they call a rickshaw. I’ll be raising money for Special Olympics Great Britain by trying to pick up 2,012 passengers in celebration of the London 2012 Olympic Games. I’ll also be trying my darnedest to have a bit of an adventure as well.

And maybe I could break a World Record at the same time…

The current record for cycling a rickshaw stands somewhere around 900 miles and was only set last year. That seems like an attainable target if I were motivated to do so. But am I?

The aim of the trip is to promote Special Olympics GB, explore the country a bit and have some fun. I’m not doing it to clock up miles, break records or prove anything. Why bother with the pressure, hard work and distraction from core business?

But then again… why not?

If it means I can put “World Record Holder” on my website, get my name in that Guinness book and open a few more doors when it comes to getting a future expedition funded or an article in the paper, then where’s the harm?

It’s not really what I want to do but then I know I can be a bit of stickler for sticking to petty principles unnecessarily. Is this a harmless step to boost my profile and help with “the business”? Or am I diluting and clutching at a meaningless trophy?

These questions aren’t rhetorical. I want your answers. Vote in the poll and leave your comments below. Let me know what you think!

(PS I am acutely aware that it sounds like I’m taking my ability to ride one thousand miles in a rickshaw for granted – I’m not! – this is just the decision process…)

Posted in Challenges, Challenging Norms, Polls, Sponsorship | 2 Comments »

£100 – An expedition on a budget

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

I set off today with a rucksack and a hundred pounds to have an adventure.

Too often we restrict ourselves, hold back on our dreams or rein in our aspirations with the perceived constraints of the world – time, commitments, lack of expertise or knowledge, money.

I, like everyone else, fall foul of this on occasion and I caught myself doing just that as I entered the new year – “I can’t go away on an adventure because I don’t have any money”. But how could I continue to fill these pages with calls to action if I myself live in the very shackles to which I wave the key?

And so I am setting off on a low budget adventure. £100 is what I have – a laughable amount for a lot of great expedition budgets and a vast sum to many other people.

You can read more about my objectives and follow my progress in the window above (or on Twitter).

Or…

You can turn off your monitor and have a think about what’s holding you back from your next adventure, your next step. Is the constraint genuine or is it something you can work around if you really put your mind to it?

Posted in Challenging Norms, Expeditions, Living Life, Motivation | 5 Comments »

A Simple Democratic Corporate Life – Six of the Best, January 2010

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Here are some blog entries from other peoples’ websites that I have enjoyed or got something from over the last month and think that you might too. Have a look and vote for the ones you like.

Congratulations to Alastair Humphreys whose article ‘Please stand on the right (if you are a loser)‘ got the most votes in last month’s poll.

(If you’re viewing this through Facebook or an RSS Reader, you might have to click the View Poll link above or try the original article instead).

See all Next Challenge polls here

Posted in Challenging Norms, Lists, Living Life, Motivation, Polls, Regulars, Six of the Best | 1 Comment »

6 things you could learn from mad feats

Friday, February 12th, 2010

1. You can make a living doing what you love

Ranulph Fiennes is probably the most famous British explorer/adventurer out there but even he had to start somewhere. One of the turning points for me entering the adventure world was reading his autobiography and going through his realisation that he could turn his hobbies (mad adventures) into a living.

If you went to a bank manager and asked for a loan so you could make a profitable empire from travelling to both Poles, climbing Everest and running 7 marathons, on 7 continents in 7 days, you can imagine the response you’d get. But if Fiennes succeeded in living off this most implausible of ideas, what can you get away with?

2. Money might not be as important as you think

Money is unquestionably one of the first things that people think about when taking a big step in their life. That’s natural and often necessary. But you might not need as much as you think.

Al Humphreys eked out £7,000 of student loans to last him four years cycling around the world. That’s an average annual expenditure of £1,750 covering everything – food, accommodation, travel – and he was having one hell of an adventure at the same time.

You might not want to live off banana sandwiches and jam (as Al did) but I reckon we could all take away something about working out what’s actually important to you. For Al, I think it was keeping his adventure going and if that meant roughing it then that’s what he’d do.

If you’ve got an idea, a dream, a vision or just something you quite fancy having a go at but haven’t got the money, then prioritise. Do you really need to get the train or could you walk or cycle? Do the buy-one-get-one-free cocktails on a Thursday seem so bargainous when they mean you can’t pursue your big idea?

I didn’t really have many adventurous plans for 2010 because I thought I didn’t have enough money but I swiftly chastised myself for the narrow mindedness. I’m now training to run a fast mile (that means turning left out of my house and running in a straight line until the road ends i.e. free); I’m going to run the length of every Tube line in London over the year (also free); and I’m going to use the £100 cheque I got for Christmas to set off with a rucksack and see how much adventuring I can get from five twenty-pound-notes.

Money needn’t always be a hurdle.

3. You are capable of so much more than you think

In 2006, comedian David Walliams swam 22 miles across the English Channel. In 2009, actor and stand-up Eddie Izzard ran 1,100 miles in 51 days.

These are both great accomplishment in their own rights but what makes them more so is the people that did them. In many regards these two might not be considered “ordinary” people but on the merits of their physical prowess I suspect that is exactly the category they would fall into.

Fitness and exercise were by no means their forte but look what they’ve done – if they can reach such great heights in areas of weakness, just think what you could do with something you’re good at!

4. Your horizons can expand, you can aim higher

Many people think that a marathon is the pinnacle of human endurance. They used to think that women couldn’t run them. Now ultra-marathons are all the rage and I read about a guy who ran the 900 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats in 9 days. You didn’t misread that last sentence nor did I mistype it.

You’ve heard of an Iron Man triathlon, right? That’s a 2.4 mile swim, 112 cycle and a marathon to finish. Sounds pretty tough but did you know that there is a Double Iron Man? And a triple and a quadruple. What about the Deca Iron Man, ten times the distance. Heard of that one? And how about the Double-Deca Iron Man? Twenty consecutive Iron Man triathlons back to back.

Such things would have been unheard of 20 years ago but humans haven’t evolved that quickly. New gear, training techniques and nutritional supplements can’t explain it either. People have simply started pushing boundaries.

I’m deliberately throwing at you the most ridiculous things I’ve ever come across because they have taught me something: Whatever you’re thinking about, someone has done something tougher.

That used to annoy me, I thought “everything has been done” but now it inspires me because it means that anything I want to do is possible. I so rarely question possibility these days and just get stuck into how to make it happen.

You might not want to run around the world (been done) but do some research on the sort of things that do interest you and I dare you not to expand your horizons and start aiming higher when you see the amazing things that other people have done.

5. You need to push yourself

There are things that we accept to be “good” and “fun” – like having a beer on a Friday night, sitting in a jacuzzi, relaxing on a beach – and they’ve earned those labels through being easy, safe, relaxing and at the very epicentre of your comfort zone.

The things that make the protagonists of these adventures – Ran Fiennes, Al Humphreys, Borge Ousland, Eddie Izzard, Mark Twight, Phil Packer – so great, however, is that they’ve stepped away from the fun and easy, and had a go at the tough and the scary.

There’s nothing wrong with relaxing in a hot tub on the beach with a cold beer but don’t let that be the extent of your activities. There’s a time for chilling out just as there’s a time for pushing yourself and a time to scare your living daylights out.

I am quite certain that the people above and, undoubtedly, whoever it is that you look up to, did not get to where they are without doing a few things that tested them, scared them, worked them hard.

6. You can have an adventure every day

Listen to someone talk about their last expedition and you’ll hear the chime of Amazonian birdsong in their voice. Watch closely as they speak and you might catch a glimpse of an Alaskan peak in their eye. Read their prose with the book held at arms length for, at any moment, the lion they evaded in Zimbabwe could jump from the pages.

Expeditions are exciting and you’ll realise that the second you find out a bit more about one. They are exciting for many reasons and, for me, one of the greatest is that they are a brilliant way to embrace the world and embrace life.

But you don’t need to climb a mountain, cross a desert or even break a sweat to have an adventure. You can fit them around your daily routine, squeeze them into your lunchbreak or bash one out on the weekend. Try a new route to work, see how far away from your office you can get on your lunch hour, sleep in your back garden or your living room, try out a new pub rather than the same one you always go to, sign up for a weird evening class or join a club, explore your local area. It doesn’t matter what you do or how you do it as you long as you get out there and try it.

You can read more about how to have an adventure everyday here.

(This article was originally written for Escape the City. Photo courtesy of David Tett)