Beeble’s Three Peaks Challenge
It has been a while since our last challenge, so we thought it was about time that we set ourselves a new one. This time however it is not going to be any boring, gym-based challenge. No, this time we are tackling the great outdoors and doing it all for charity.
What is the challenge?
We thought long and hard about what we could do, trawling through the internet to come up with something that would be tough but also different from our normal exercise routines and therefore a challenge that will require us to change our training to prepare for it. Big drum roll please…… We have chosen the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge.
About the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge
The distance we will be covering is 24.5 miles and the three peaks are as follows: Pen-y-ghent (2276 feet), Whernside (2415 feet) and Ingleborough (2372 feet). The challenge is to complete this distance within 12 hours, which to me seems entirely possible if it wasn’t for the fact that we will need to map read with a compass. Now I don’t want to come across as completely incompetent, but a map and compass is about as much use to me as satellite navigation is to a pigeon. So whilst I can see that 24 miles in 12 hours should be relatively easy whatever the terrain throws at us, not being able to find the route could cause us a problem. What about your challenge partner I hear you ask? Well my challenge partner is my fellow writer, personal trainer, business partner and wife Nicky and she is the reason we invested in a satellite navigation in the first place. So as you can see while our fitness levels are fine we are more than likely going to get lost or walk twice the distance we are meant to.
The Charity
We have chosen the World Society for the Protection of Animals as our charity. We are animal lovers at heart and we feel that the WSPA do a fantastic job looking after the planet’s animals not just for the animals’ sake but for the people’s sake as well. Teaching people in less developed countries the benefits of good animal management enables them to benefit from farming healthier animals. The WSPA focus on four main areas of animal welfare:
- Companion animals – responsible pet ownership, humane stray management and cruelty prevention.
- Commercial exploitation of wildlife – intensive farming and the cruel management and killing of wild animals for food or by-products.
- Farm animals – intensive farming, long distance transport and slaughter of animals for food.
- Disaster management – providing care to animals suffering as a result of man-made or natural disasters, and thereby protecting people’s livelihoods.
By increasing people’s awareness and bringing the welfare of animals to our attention, we are no longer able to turn a blind eye and it is your actions that will help to make a difference. One of the biggest tasks they face is re-educating people in India who use bears to earn money for them by getting them to dance. As you can imagine the bears are not sent to the Royal Ballet School but instead they are beaten and tortured until they perform the tricks and then they are beaten some more. Many of them are harnessed, not with a “nice” neck chain but with a rope that is forced through a hole the owners create through the palette at the top of the bear’s mouth. Please be generous and donate so we can help the WSPA.
Our Training
As you can probably imagine being personal trainers our fitness levels are fairly high and so although we will ache after this challenge the actual participating should be achievable. We will however be adapting our training over the next coming weeks to include more hill walking and lots of stretching. Hill walking puts a lot of strain on the legs and back so we will be focusing on the following stretches:
However the real training is going to be learning how to use a map and a compass. Our first map training will be this weekend so if there is no post next week you will know we didn’t make it and we are probably halfway up a mountain arguing about which one of us is actually lost.
When
We will be taking on the Three Peaks challenge on the 9th May 2009 with an early start at 5am and, if on target, we will return by 5pm feeling a great sense of achievement and pain.
Your Support
Do please help support us on our walk as the WSPA need as much help as possible to help the animals of our planet. Even just a dollar, pound, euro or other small domination of your currency will help us to help the WSPA. Just click on the link below and you will be taken to our donation page. All your donations go directly to the WSPA and not through us.
Thank you in advance for your help and support.
