Written by Mike Hollingbery, CEO of Bozboz as part of the Wired Sussex guest blog month.
They did it! Three Bozboz team members, Mike Street, Sam and Nichola, completed the Oxfam Trailwalker in an incredible time of 25 hours and 45 minutes on 27th and 28th July.
To put this achievement into perspective, the Oxfam Trailwalker is a 100km trek to be completed within 30 hours. It is equal to two and a half marathons – The equivalent of walking from London to Southhampton. It originally began over 30 years ago as a training exercise for the Queen’s Gurkha Signals Regiment, to test soldiers’ stamina and team skills - Now hundreds of participants take on the challenge each year with Oxfam to help raise money for charity and the Gurkha Welfare Trust.
Training leading up to the event was a strenuous task that the team took in their stride. In total they walked over 100 miles in preparation for the trek. This included night walks, treks in blistering heat and through pouring rain. Their personal lives were also altered to help prepare, with Nichola choosing to walk rather than drive most places, Sam having to pause his normal sporty life style due to a leg injury which he didn’t want to get worse before the walk, and Mike even changing his diet.
The whole Bozboz team got involved leading up to the event by having fundraising events such as a ‘Highstreet vs Hipster’ day, and an office BBQ. We had to get a bit silly, didn’t we?
When the day finally came, the team were a little nervous. Setting off from Chichester at 7am Saturday morning, they endured heavy rain fall, blisters, nausea and pulled muscles. The helpful volunteers and Bozboz support crew were on hand offering food, drink, places to rest and relaxing massages to help with the pain. To get them through the long hours, they played games such as ‘Would you rather’ and made sure they only spoke about positive things - Negative talk was forbidden! As Sunday morning hit, the team came striding to the finish line, greeted by Bozboz team members, friends and family. They were well inside the average finishing time, and were extremely relieved to have finished this amazing challenge.
After a little rest (and a few ice packs later) Mike Street concluded that taking part was “Bloody difficult! It’s not just ‘walking’. It’s walking 2.5 marathons with a total ascent that’s not far off that of the Three Peaks. You walk for 21 hours with no more than 5 hours break over the whole event. It’s gruelling. It’s tough. But if you get the chance to do it, do it. Taking part was an amazing experience and I will certainly remember it for years to come.”
The whole Bozboz team are incredibly proud, and the Trailwalkers are just about able to move again. They managed to raise an incredible £1,000 for the charity. We’d love to hit the £1,500 so if you have some spare change, please donate it to a great cause. Go to www.justgiving.com/bozboztrailwalker.