Final Total!

I know it's been a while but we've just been able to work out how much we've finally raised for our 3 charities (Royal British Legion, Soldiers Charity, PJI Benevolent Fund). I'm very proud to announce that our grand total is £10,546!! 

Amazing! Thanks to everyone who supported us and a Happy Christmas to you all.

Caption Competition

Fozzy: "Bloody hell, my bollocks are itching!"
Kelvin: "What's that guy pointing at us?"
Chappers: "What's that bright thing up in the sky?"
Si: "That's the sun, isn't it?"
SJ: "No, you don't get sun in England, maybe it's the moon."
Phil: "The moon? I've never seen the moon before - I'm normally asleep in the bar."
Teddy: "Are you Richard Gere?"

Fundraising Update

Good news - done some preliminary adding up of our donations. There's still quite a bit to collect, but initial indications are that we could have raised just over £8000 in total - fantastic effort!! Thank you to everyone for your support.

It is still possible to donate on-line, just visit our giving page at:

ATS Challenge Virgin Giving Page

Publicity

We had a follow up article in the Oxford Mail today with a photo - not as big as last time but good publicity nevertheless!

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/9118212.Marathon_cyclists_smash_target/?ref=mmnsp

There is also an interview on BFBS on the breakfast show tomorrow morning at about 0925 (ish) talking about the Challenge.

Listen on line at BFBS

Some Stats

For those who might be interested here are some stats from the Challenge:

Total Distance Cycled: 1056 miles.

Total Distance Cycled by each Cyclist/Team:  approx 264 miles.

Average Cycling Speed over the total distance: 15.5 mph.

Time in the Saddle per Cyclist/Team: approx 17 hours.

Total Ascent (Cycling):  20,413 ft.

Total Descent (Cycling):  21,154 ft (most of which was done by "The Downhillers" - Fozzy & Ian!!).

Total Miles Walked: (Ben Nevis = 8.6 miles; ScaFell = 12.8 miles; Snowdon = 6.4 miles) Total = 27.8 miles.

Total ascent/descent (walking): (Ben Nevis = 4298 ft; ScaFell = 2779 ft; Snowdon = 2411 ft) Total = 9488 ft climbed (and the same descended).

Therefore, each team member cycled 264 miles (spending 17 hours in the saddle) and walked nearly 28 miles whilst climbing and descending nearly 10, 000 ft.......

All in 92 hours and 5 minutes!!!!

Introducing the Team - 11

The Chief Blogger (well - the only blogger!) - Simon was born in Kingston, Surrey, in October 1959 and spent his early years in the Far East and Germany (when Britain still had a bit of an Empire!) before his parents settled in Wiltshire.  After school in Somerset, he trained as a PE teacher in Cheltenham and taught for 5 years before joining the RAF as a PEdO in 1988.  After a tour at RAF Shawbury, he qualified as a PJI in June 1992 and has completed a variety of tours within the PJI cadre since then.  He also completed a 6-month tour in the Falklands.
He is married to Jillian and has 3 grown up children, Ross, Michael & Charlotte, along with 2 yellow Labradors and a cat.  He owns a property in France and plans to retire there when he leaves the RAF.  Having played rugby at a reasonably high standard (Bath Rugby & Bedfordshire) his interests are now following Bath & England Rugby, gardening and DIY, along with riding his Kawasaki VN800 (when the weather is nice!)

Introducing the Team - 10

Jim the Medic.  Also from the Parachute Regt, Jim is the other soldier in the Section and provides the medical support to all our parachute trials, as well as being the resident car mechanic for JADTEU!  Jim provided the essential medical back up to our Challenge event, which fortunately wasn't required.  He also led the team up the 3 mountains.  Jim’s interests range from cars (particularly VW Golfs) to building his own house – which he has been doing in his spare time in between fixing everybody’s cars!  Despite being a whiz with cars, Jim has yet to learn how to switch on a computer (at work at least!) or to get a photograph of himself!