I’m sitting in my living room on an early Monday morning listing to Buddhist chants, burning incense from Nepal, and reflecting on the last 6 or 7 months trying to determine if the impact is immediately obvious. Do I feel different? Is my outlook wiser? I’m not sure to be honest. I’m a bit jet lagged, my muscles and limbs ach a bit, and I’ve this ridiculous appetite – at least no bones are broken. I think I thought there would be a eureka moment once I returned but instead I’m left looking for something more. I have this underlying urge to do something else or to achieve something greater.
It was in August or September 2010 when we first talked about signing up for the Himalayan Action Challenge for The Prince's Trust happening in March 2011. I was already training for the Palace to Palace bike race for the Trust when a colleague and soon to be fellow competitor mentioned the challenge. As we chatted over pints and discussed what it might be like to go to the Himalayas to partake in a biking, trekking and whitewater rafting challenge over seven-days across 320km in the heart of the mountain kingdom of Nepal I struggled seeing myself actually being able to go for it. I never really thought I would convince myself that I’d be able to achieve the charitable portion of the challenge which meant I had to raise £3500 or just over $5600 by then let alone the amount of training required to prepare for such an event.
It was after completing the Palace to Palace challenge that I made up my mind. I was standing in a pub across from Windsor Castle with tired legs but feeling quite proud of myself for completing the 45 mile journey in just 3.5 hours. With a pint in hand chatting to a colleague and my girlfriend and soon to be fellow competitor we began comparing the differences between climbing to the base camp at Everest versus hiking, biking and trekking around the same region. We agreed that ‘base camp’ sounded anticlimactic whereas a 320km cross discipline event was something worth achieving…. And so the decision was made… Now all we had to do was form a team.
Four of us would form the team called The HAC’s, which is the acronym for the Himalayan Action Challenge but is also a phonetic play on the word ‘Hack’, touching on the team’s IT / Computer backgrounds and is defined as; ‘To program a computer in a clever, virtuosic, and wizardly manner’. MB, DL, JJ and yours truly would take this journey together having never really done anything like this before. None of us really knew what we were getting ourselves into…
First we had to put on our consulting hats to figure out how to raise £14,000 or just over $22,400 across the 4 of us. We had meetings, took minutes, and agreed action plans. This was our comfort zone. Over the next 3 months we inundated our dear friends, family, colleagues, and loose acquaintances with emails, customized e-mail signatures, and follow-up conversations asking for money to support the Prince’s Trust and our challenge and even secured amazing prizes to be given away at our holiday parties through the sale of raffles. It was hard work but by mid January we were all well on our way to raising everything we needed. By the end of the challenge we raised the 3rd highest amount and this was against teams consisting of 5 and 6 people.
Next came the training. Can you ever train enough I wondered? In hindsight the answer is no. The chap at the kick-off meeting in November said you should train but if you didn’t you could still complete the challenge but just not as easily. He was wrong. As individuals we all trained in our various ways. I went to the gym between 3 and 4 times a week for 3 months. I slowly increased the duration and intensity with a few setbacks due to flu and cold. Toward the end I was doing between 30 and 40 minutes of cardio with between 5 and 10 minutes of intense sprinting. I would also do over an hour of core muscle strengthening followed by stretching. As a group we trekked the Brecon Beacons in Wales and cycled around Richmond Park just outside London. On the run up to the challenge work intensified for most of us to the point where our lives were reduced to work and physical fitness. It was relentless and exhausting. Add to that the normal daily stressors and we were full on.
Our final steps toward preparation included completing our kit list. Temperatures were said to range between freezing at night up to the mid 30’s during the day (or 90+ Fahrenheit). We needed 4 season sleeping bags, mats, biking helmet and clothing, trekking poles and clothing, and swimming gear for rafting. We had clothes for camp and first aid kits. Oh how the first aid kits came in handy for the endless number of aches, pains, and blisters. Everything had to fit into a 70 liter hold-all bag and couldn’t weigh more than 15kg. This was a challenge in of itself.
----------17-Mar 2011 was finally upon us. We all met at Heathrow airport wearing our red Prince’s Trust t-shirts. Our flight would leave at roughly 9.20pm arriving in Bahrain about 7 hours later. It’s worth mentioning that Bahrain, like many other Middle Eastern countries at the time, was undergoing political unrest. It was on 16-Mar 2011 when the military opened fire on civilians to quell protesters in the city center. Britain’s and American’s were being urged to leave the country but international flights were still able to use the airport for transfers. Despite our anxiety, our short stay in Bahrain International was uneventful. Some 4 hours later, after filling up on Starbucks and resisting Chili’s and McDonalds we boarded the second leg of our journey for Katmandu in Nepal. 5 hours into the flight the pilot announced that we needed to circle Katmandu due to bad weather - 10 minutes later he notified us that we needed to divert to India as Katmandu was being engulfed by rain and the plane was running low on fuel. Some 30 minutes away we landed in a small town called Lucknow where we refueled and waited patiently for India’s bureaucratic customs agency to release us for the flight back to Nepal. In the end we arrived in Katmandu about 4 – 5 hours behind schedule. It was late and we were all tired and hungry. We boarded a bus and headed to the hotel. We ate, converted or withdrew funds in the local Nepalese Rupee currency, showered, and went to bed for a few hours bringing to an end our first 2 days of the adventure.
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19-Mar 2011 would be our first day of the challenge where we would need to cycle for 44km with 1170m of ascent and 980m of descent from Pokhara to Birethanti. We woke to a boxed breakfast and a bus trip to the domestic airport for our 20 minute flight to Pokhara. Due to fog our little prop engine plane was delayed by over 3 hours.
We arrived in Pokhara in the middle of the day and were greeted by intense heat with exhausted limp bodies from nearly 3 days of complete inactivity. The first leg of the race would require us to cycle up a wall of roughly 700m in less than 15 km’s. Within 5 minutes the HAC’s had wished they were back in London. Peddling as much as possible with sweat running down our faces we climbed and climbed. We sucked water from our camelbacks having our first gulps of treated water tasting something like diluted bleach. We were surrounded by children and adults taking part in Holi, whereby they shout Happy Holi before dousing you with water and sprinkling you with colored powder.
The 'Holi' festival of colours is a riotous celebration of the coming of spring and falls on the day after the full moon in early March every year. What timing. I can tell you, there’s nothing happy about ascending 700m in scorching heat while having colored powder and water balloons tossed at you. This may have been memorable but surely not happy. We had hit rock bottom as individuals but as a team we stuck together. When we rejoined the group at the top for lunch we realized this was more difficult than we had thought. We were half way through the day and in last place. We filled up on more treated water and rested before setting off over rough off road terrain. Most parts were downhill but the road was littered with rocks and crevasses and steep cliffs to one side. I had time to stop for a few minutes to chat to a few local children. They had massive smiles from ear to ear and spoke relatively good English. ‘Where are you from’ they shouted. I said ‘USA’. They smiled and said ‘do you know Manchester United?’ Mind you, these kids live in huts and shacks in the middle of the mountains but somehow they still knew of places like the USA and 
the UK and even knew of one of the greatest football / soccer teams on the planet. I was impressed. As we advanced we began passing other teams, one with a punctured tire and the other with a team member that hit one of those rocks and flipped over his handlebars. Luckily he had only scraped up his face and strained his wrists. He would live to race another day. In the end our team would come in 4 out of 5 on the day. We took a bus downhill to the river where we walked in the dark with the aid of our headlamps through a small village along the river banks before crossing the first of many hanging bridges connecting one river bank to the other. I’m thankful it was dark. We stayed at our first teahouse, called the Riverside Lodge; where we had a hot meal, cold showers and toilets with seats. The meal consisted of some sort of large single portion ‘spring roll’ and chips or French fries. Not quite what I expected but satisfied the need for calories. Following dinner we had our first debriefing where the guides told us about the day’s scores and what to expect the next morning in terms of wake-up, the challenge, and the any specific medical advice. 2 awards were also handed out for special achievements on the day. DL from the HAC’s was nominated and won for overcoming the tremendous mental and physical wall she hit earlier in the day but was then able to overcome to finish strong in the end.----------
20-Mar 2011 we were awoken to be served hot Nepalese tea in our rooms. Sleep was sporadic as 
the walls were paper thin and most people were still jet lagged. We ate a hearty breakfast before setting out on our first day of trekking. Said to be the most difficult of all the days, we would trek over 18km with 2250m of ascent and 450m of decent from Birethanti to Ghorepani. The first half of the day would have us ascend over 500m in just over 8kms. We were exhausted but managed to outlast our guide at one point as he handed us over to another guide so he could rest from fatigue. We rejoined the group at the lunch point where we started patching the first of many ‘hot spots’ on our feet in the hope we’d prevent the unavoidable blisters which would form in the coming days. We also completed the first of the daily mental challenges consisting of some sort of logical puzzle. Correct answers would amount to an additional 20% of the points earned on each day based on the order of the timed legs of the competition. The 1st place team for the timed finish would earn 50 points, the 2nd place team earned 40 points, and the 3rd place team earned 30 points and so on. 
After refilling on water and eating our local egg omelet like meal we set out on the second leg where we had to complete the climb to nearly 3000km’s in roughly 10m’s. 
On the trail we passed the team in front of us and were nearly passed by a team behind us but we persisted and managed to break away from the pack. We climbed and climbed and climbed. I dank an entire 3 liters of water on this second leg and needed to drink some water from my teammate’s camelbacks. When we reached the top we 
were treated to breathtaking views of the Annapurna mountain range, a hot cup of soup and an overall tie for second place on the day. 
The temperature was noticeably colder so hot drinks and the hot shower that followed felt amazing. The water was heated by a wood burring furnace in the center of the teahouse where we all huddled round to keep warm. Dinner was more traditional as we had dal, rice and an awesome veg and chicken curry. Bellies were full as we all headed to bed early - the next day would have us up and ready to leave by 5:30am.
the walls were paper thin and most people were still jet lagged. We ate a hearty breakfast before setting out on our first day of trekking. Said to be the most difficult of all the days, we would trek over 18km with 2250m of ascent and 450m of decent from Birethanti to Ghorepani. The first half of the day would have us ascend over 500m in just over 8kms. We were exhausted but managed to outlast our guide at one point as he handed us over to another guide so he could rest from fatigue. We rejoined the group at the lunch point where we started patching the first of many ‘hot spots’ on our feet in the hope we’d prevent the unavoidable blisters which would form in the coming days. We also completed the first of the daily mental challenges consisting of some sort of logical puzzle. Correct answers would amount to an additional 20% of the points earned on each day based on the order of the timed legs of the competition. The 1st place team for the timed finish would earn 50 points, the 2nd place team earned 40 points, and the 3rd place team earned 30 points and so on. 
After refilling on water and eating our local egg omelet like meal we set out on the second leg where we had to complete the climb to nearly 3000km’s in roughly 10m’s. 
On the trail we passed the team in front of us and were nearly passed by a team behind us but we persisted and managed to break away from the pack. We climbed and climbed and climbed. I dank an entire 3 liters of water on this second leg and needed to drink some water from my teammate’s camelbacks. When we reached the top we 
were treated to breathtaking views of the Annapurna mountain range, a hot cup of soup and an overall tie for second place on the day. 
The temperature was noticeably colder so hot drinks and the hot shower that followed felt amazing. The water was heated by a wood burring furnace in the center of the teahouse where we all huddled round to keep warm. Dinner was more traditional as we had dal, rice and an awesome veg and chicken curry. Bellies were full as we all headed to bed early - the next day would have us up and ready to leave by 5:30am. ----------
21-Mar 2011 started well before 5:30am. You see, when you are at altitude they say your body might act differently. For me I woke at 2:00am with a mild case of hyperventilation as I couldn’t breathe in enough oxygen. It took over an hour for me to settle. Like many others, I also had the most persistent and relentless sense of feeling bloated. Your bodily functions change when you’re that high. At least mine did. Add that to the number of snorers on my floor and you have the making of a restless night. Most of us left the teahouse just before 5:30am. It was still dark but we were determined to climb Poon Hill, rising to 3210m, to catch the amazing sunrise across the Annapurna mountain range. It took us about 45 minutes to climb to the top – this was no easy task given the altitude plus everything we had been through on the previous 2 days. The views were stunning and well worth it. There was a tea hut at the top so we were greeted by a hot drink and the sun slowly creeping up over the mountain peaks – It was a reminder that life is best when the moments take your breath away. We reunited at the tea house before embarking on another 18km trek from Ghorepani to Tatopani with 450m of ascent and 2010m of descent. If you think that downhill is easier you might be right in some sense but you’d be terribly misguided in another. You see, the muscles required to support 2010m's of controlled descent requires the use of muscles which are difficult to train in the gym. It’s also difficult on your feet as you are constantly pushing them forward into the front of your boots. This leg of the journey is when I started to lose my toenail and when most people had their hot spots turn to full on blisters. The HAC’s passed 2 teams that were in front of us and kept pace with a 3rd. There was one team, consisting of warriors who run marathons on weekends and compete in challenges like this for sport.
We were never going to catch them. In any case, our team pushed ahead crossing more hanging bridges, the kind that make you think about turning around, and trekking down steep gradients where the trail had been whipped out by falling rubble leaving behind a barely passable hill of falling rocks. We fought through pain and dug in deep to finish second on the day. When we arrived at our teahouse we took amazing hot showers and treated ourselves to a natural hot spring nearby. Cold beers and relaxation were just the ticket. The mental challenge on the day consisted of taking photos of various things. One such thing was a dragonfly.
If you manage to come across a dragonfly in Nepal do let me know. However, DL managed to bring her waterproof camera to the hot spring and sure enough; there was a fellow bather on the other side of the spring with a tattoo on her shoulder of a dragonfly - Job done. That night we had steak and chips. Meat never tasted so good. We went to bed but we were all in pain. Climbing the stairs required slow and calculated steps forward. Tomorrow would be a challenge beyond what we had experienced so far in that our bodies were starting to show signs of wear and tear.
22-Mar 2011 greeted us with another early start but this time there was pain in our legs. Through the night I had to cover my muscles with heat pads in the hope I’d find comfort. It took longer than usual to pack up as I had to cover the blisters with more care than on previous days - we had little time to put back two servings of eggs and toast before setting off on the next trek from Tatopani to Beni, which would have us cover 24km with 950m of ascent and 1320m of descent ending the day with a 16km biking section. The entire group was stiff so we did organized stretches that morning before pushing forward with our first timed section. We pushed ahead and managed to come in second at the midpoint.
We then stopped for water and a snack before pushing through the next section on an untimed uphill climb of roughly 200m’s over 2km’s. I had hit a wall and was bringing up the end of the group. The heat was intense, my feet were aching, and the front of my thighs had absolutely no flexibility. I could hardly walk and was over utilizing my walking sticks. The blisters on my left hand were deepening with each step. When we caught up to the rest of the group at the top for our lunch break I was a broken man. I knew there was one more timed section after lunch and unless I did something our team would surely come in last. I sat quietly and ate my lunch. 
I reapplied the bandages to my left hand and left foot. I stared for a while at my big toe as the nail had started to lift away. Just below the surface I could see the blackened skin as blood filled up below. I put my socks and boots back on and started to stretch, and stretch, and stretch. I took deep breadths and waited until I heard them call the white team to the starting line. The HAC’s were given white banners to tie to our rucksacks so the guides could differentiate teams from a distance. I knew I had to think about nothing but moving forward as quickly as possible. 2 minutes… 60 seconds… 10 seconds… go!... I pushed to the front of our group and set the pace for the first 15 minutes. The team then took turns leading the HAC’s… we pushed and pushed keeping pace with other teams. We didn’t pass anyone on this leg but we kept pace. There was a massive decent toward the end of this stretch. DL was bringing up the rear with the doctor nearby. She was overheating as the temperature was in the high 30’s. Heatstroke was not an impossibility. But like me, she pushed on, through the pain and the difficulties. We reached the finish line still holding on to second place for the day. We drank water and rinsed our faces before setting off for a 3km group walk to our bikes. Again the pain was overwhelming but we took it slow and reached the coaches (buses), the bikes, and our hold-all bags. We changed into our biking gear in the parking lot before mounting our bikes and setting off to the river’s edge. 
The journey was mixed as it was part paved and part off road. We passed trucks, animals, and ill-informed children running out in front of our bikes trying to grab hold saying hello or ‘Namaste’ – a typical term for salutation or greeting. DL faced mental challenges getting back on the bikes and JJ took his first spill. In the end we reached the river’s edge in one piece and in second place. 
Our tents were already pitched and we were given lessons on how to function in a group campsite. From the dishwashing line, to the hand washing process and the makeshift bathroom consisting of a hole dug in the sand, we were gearing up for the rafting portion of the challenge. The support crew really came into their own from this point forward as it became obvious how hard they too were pushing themselves. Not only did most of them complete the same portion of the journey but they also cooked freshly prepared food 3 times a day. 
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23-Mar 2011 came faster than I would have liked as I finally slept more soundly than I had on the previous nights. We woke to coffee and hot milk with cereal at 6:30am.
We then broke-down our tents and packed our dry bags before tucking into a full breakfast. We were given a briefing on what to do when you fall out of a raft in rapids to help minimize injury. I’d like to say this was encouraging but I think it frightened most of us. We were then given helmets, life vests, dry jackets, and paddles and away we went. Each raft had between 7 and 9 people including a guide who steered the boat. We had to disembark the rafts and walk along the rocky bank when we reached little brother as the water was too shallow to cover some of the massive rocks in the middle. We then decided to take on big brother which is where we all almost took a swim. The raft behind went over a massive rapid and lost their guide and one team mate to the water. The guide, to his credit, hung on to the side of the raft as it ripped through waves and passed dangerously close to massive rocks on either side. 
Our raft rescued the other castaway. For additional safety the rafts are guided by several chaps in kayaks who are able to rescue those that fall overboard as well as cruising ahead to help warn the rafts of dangerous rapids in the distance. Along the way we all took a swim in the refreshing but freezing cold water. 
After lunch we had a timed competition where we had to run from the starting line to collect and dress in our gear before boarding the rafts and rowing upstream and across to the other side to collect a stick before paddling back, disembarking, and running back to the starting line. The HAC’s finished second place in this competition. Memorable quotes along the way included ‘Stroke’ and ‘MB, you need to go long and deep versus short and shallow.’ We found a nice beach later in the day were we camped for the night. Another pasta meal helped to once again fill our bellies. That night dignity was lost across the HAC team as we learned the virtues of using the makeshift toilet. On the upside, MB received the daily recognition award for not going deep enough or slow enough on the river but really it was for taking it like a sport and for getting there in the end.
23-Mar 2011 came faster than I would have liked as I finally slept more soundly than I had on the previous nights. We woke to coffee and hot milk with cereal at 6:30am.
We then broke-down our tents and packed our dry bags before tucking into a full breakfast. We were given a briefing on what to do when you fall out of a raft in rapids to help minimize injury. I’d like to say this was encouraging but I think it frightened most of us. We were then given helmets, life vests, dry jackets, and paddles and away we went. Each raft had between 7 and 9 people including a guide who steered the boat. We had to disembark the rafts and walk along the rocky bank when we reached little brother as the water was too shallow to cover some of the massive rocks in the middle. We then decided to take on big brother which is where we all almost took a swim. The raft behind went over a massive rapid and lost their guide and one team mate to the water. The guide, to his credit, hung on to the side of the raft as it ripped through waves and passed dangerously close to massive rocks on either side. 
Our raft rescued the other castaway. For additional safety the rafts are guided by several chaps in kayaks who are able to rescue those that fall overboard as well as cruising ahead to help warn the rafts of dangerous rapids in the distance. Along the way we all took a swim in the refreshing but freezing cold water. 
After lunch we had a timed competition where we had to run from the starting line to collect and dress in our gear before boarding the rafts and rowing upstream and across to the other side to collect a stick before paddling back, disembarking, and running back to the starting line. The HAC’s finished second place in this competition. Memorable quotes along the way included ‘Stroke’ and ‘MB, you need to go long and deep versus short and shallow.’ We found a nice beach later in the day were we camped for the night. Another pasta meal helped to once again fill our bellies. That night dignity was lost across the HAC team as we learned the virtues of using the makeshift toilet. On the upside, MB received the daily recognition award for not going deep enough or slow enough on the river but really it was for taking it like a sport and for getting there in the end.----------
24-Mar 2011 came with a new set of surprises as DL was up most of the night with a sick stomach and JJ and MB learned how to use the sand toilet. We did a group stretch session in the morning playing a game of catch the paddle, which was more fun than expected and a good way to loosen up. By now most injuries were letting up and the teams were having fun. We set off down the river again with more antics than the day before. We found an amazing waterfall and the bat cave – less the bats. MB was swept away early in the day as we passed through a difficult rapid. He went under for a few seconds giving us all a scare but he quickly came up on the other side of a rock and was rescued within a few minutes. 
We actually passed a funeral along the river banks as a 
family lifted a deceased older woman onto a table of branches where we assumed she would be incinerated before being washed away by the river. We then boarded a ferry to be carried downriver toward a damn were we would have our first 
competition of the day. Each raft lined up under a bridge and prepared for a proper race to the bank about 5 – 10 minutes away. If you have never paddled non-stop at full steam for 5 – 10 minutes let me tell you, it’s difficult. I shouted stroke in unison with our paddles until I had no energy left to make a sound. We dug deep and stayed on the heels of the BT’s. We came in a close second yet again. By the time we reached the banks and broke for lunch the heat was unbearable. We had come to the end of the rafting challenge and needed to eat before changing into our biking gear. This timed challenge had us go from the Kali Kandaki River to
the Milmi School at a distance of 8km’s but with a 550m ascent and a 150m decent. It was hot and this was going to be a steep climb. We started out with as much difficulty as we had on the first day. MB hit a mental wall unlike any he had hit in previous days. JJ was coming down with a cold and needed to push himself harder than he had to date. In the end we arrived at the top of the hill in 4th place which gave us 25 points on the day. We were bruised and battered but still standing. The collective group then took a short bike ride to the school where we set up camp for the night. We had a nice meal consisting of chicken and rice but were exposed to a toilet that made the hole in the sand look like a porcelain goddess. ----------
made it through our last rough night. No one had showered in 3 days so we were all looking forward to the final leg of the challenge so we could clean up. In the morning we ate fried fritters and scrambled eggs. The mental challenge from the night before required us to come up with a phase that best encapsulated the challenge. I woke up at 4 in the morning to use the hole in the ground and was inspired by the HAC's with the following: ‘The Prince’s Trust Himalaya Action Challenge; where leadership, individual effort, and team work come together.’ This won us first place for the mental challenge and would be sorely needed as we set out on yet another grueling day of biking. Before getting started, we met with the school principle where we had the chance to donate money and other goods to the school. Over 1000 students from the surrounding area use this small facility to be educated so it was rewarding to feel as if we were making a difference. 
On our bikes we then collectively went down the steepest and longest hill I’d ever been on while riding a bike. 
Speeds were high and our hands quickly became numb as we constantly had to break to avoid going too fast. The final day of the challenge would see us travel from Milmi back to Pokhara coving 95km’s on our bikes with 1410m’s of ascent and 1533m’s of descent in temperatures reaching 37 degrees Celsius or 98 degrees Fahrenheit. We set out first as we were last on the day before. Each team slowly passed us as we made the grueling journey through country side and small towns. Children shouted ‘Namaste’ from their steps. JJ was having his roughest day as his cold and stomach were making the day twice as difficult. He stayed the course and refused to stop or to be carried by the coach to the lunch stop. We met the others just before noon and had our break along the road side. We napped and waited for the mid-day heat to settle before starting out for the final stretch. Before leaving DL and JJ completed the final mental challenge and managed to get the right answer. During the second half of the day on more than one occasion I thought I should just pull over and wait for the coach to pick me up. I couldn’t go any further – but then I would fight those thoughts and carry on. Pushing and pushing - 
Hydrating and peddling until the only thing I could feel was the
On our bikes we then collectively went down the steepest and longest hill I’d ever been on while riding a bike. 
Speeds were high and our hands quickly became numb as we constantly had to break to avoid going too fast. The final day of the challenge would see us travel from Milmi back to Pokhara coving 95km’s on our bikes with 1410m’s of ascent and 1533m’s of descent in temperatures reaching 37 degrees Celsius or 98 degrees Fahrenheit. We set out first as we were last on the day before. Each team slowly passed us as we made the grueling journey through country side and small towns. Children shouted ‘Namaste’ from their steps. JJ was having his roughest day as his cold and stomach were making the day twice as difficult. He stayed the course and refused to stop or to be carried by the coach to the lunch stop. We met the others just before noon and had our break along the road side. We napped and waited for the mid-day heat to settle before starting out for the final stretch. Before leaving DL and JJ completed the final mental challenge and managed to get the right answer. During the second half of the day on more than one occasion I thought I should just pull over and wait for the coach to pick me up. I couldn’t go any further – but then I would fight those thoughts and carry on. Pushing and pushing - 
Hydrating and peddling until the only thing I could feel was the
unbearable pain from sitting on a bike seat in such heat for so many hours. As we approached the finish line a dog started chasing me running alongside as if he was going to bite my leg. I wasn’t able to outrun him because my bike was in such a high gear but eventually he gave up. Those around me thought I had a strong finsih - little do they know I was gunning it to get away from an angry Nepalese dog. We crossed the finish line, one after the other until all four of us had done it. Our goal on setting out on the journey was to finish, and that’s what we did. As a team we finished every event and now we crossed the finish line each of us meeting this goal. What a relief it was. 
We then road the final 13km’s as a collective group into town reaching the hotel by 5pm but not before JJ took a spill coming down another steep hill. Many of us collapsed on the ground getting up only to toast with a complementary glass of Champaign. I drank mine like it was water. This was one last hydration before showering and then heading to the celebration dinner. It was there that we found out we came in second place overall by 3 points! Despite the setbacks over the past two days our combined total effort, including mental and physical challenges saw us lift the second place trophy over our heads. JJ also received the final recognition reward for taking the most spills on a bike – something I know he’ll wear with pride. There’s a word in the UK to describe the feeling we all had… let’s just say the HAC’s were chuffed on the night.
We then road the final 13km’s as a collective group into town reaching the hotel by 5pm but not before JJ took a spill coming down another steep hill. Many of us collapsed on the ground getting up only to toast with a complementary glass of Champaign. I drank mine like it was water. This was one last hydration before showering and then heading to the celebration dinner. It was there that we found out we came in second place overall by 3 points! Despite the setbacks over the past two days our combined total effort, including mental and physical challenges saw us lift the second place trophy over our heads. JJ also received the final recognition reward for taking the most spills on a bike – something I know he’ll wear with pride. There’s a word in the UK to describe the feeling we all had… let’s just say the HAC’s were chuffed on the night.----------
26-Mar 2011 would be our last day in Nepal. We were able to do some shopping and sightseeing in both Pokhara and Katmandu before heading back to London via Bahrain. Most of us grabbed a heafty meal at McDonalds in Bahrain’s international airport. This time we had earned it. Maybe that’s the lesson or the takeaway from this challenge. You can achieve extreme results if you push yourself. You can survive in an environment you thought impossible only 7 months earlier. I can now imagine myself doing what I once thought to be unachievable. In the end I’ve earned that recognition in myself.
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