Fat or fit, they all did it!

Maj Wendy Faux, OC Rear Party, 5 Rifles in Paderborn, Germany, relates B Company's efforts for Project 65 in Iraq...

“Well, we made it! 1065 laps in all. Bloody hard work but well worth the effort. We have raised the best part of £1000 already with more to come.”

Those were the words sent to me this afternoon as the Headquarters element of B Company 5th Battalion the Rifles completed their incredible fundraising challenge. Each lap was 1km long – so it doesn’t take much to work out how far they have run but here is something to help. It is the equivalent distance of travelling:

From London Victoria to Verona

From Plymouth to York….and back again!

From Basra to Bahrain…and back again!

From Paderborn to Salamanca… taking in a few taverna diversions too!

As I sit in my office and look across the beautiful skyline of Paderborn, Germany, through the drizzle and grey it is difficult to imagine the heat of the day and the comparative cold of the night – let alone then run through it all.

Major Gary McDade, the Officer Commanding B Company explained: “As soon as we thought of 100 hours – 1000 laps, we knew it would capture people’s imaginations. It proved to be quite some undertaking, especially being woken up at 3am to go for a run, but the fantastic support we have received from friends and family has really spurred us on. Project 65 is supporting some extremely worthwhile charities and as our colleagues in 1 RIFLES are having such a hard time in Afghanistan, we sincerely hope that the money we have raised may go some way to helping their injured soldiers’.

Pain doesn’t understand the rank structure and it hits all equally as Corporal Sean Rhodes from Telford described, “The run was hard work, but actually quite good fun at the same time. Everyone who participated gave their all for a number of really good causes. I have blisters all over my feet and my knees are shot to bits but it was worth it – honestly!”

Craftsman Andy Waite from Wigan pointed out that day and night, just as the Tarrant Rushton run will be, the runner pushed through to get the laps under their belt. “The worst bit was being woken up from a deep sleep and having to get straight into it. We doubled up at night so you were always running with somebody, but we staggered the changeover meaning that when you started you were on with someone who had been running for half an hour and was warmed up. The first couple of laps each time were emotional!”

WO2 Andy Kuss from Bath summed up the whole event: “The worst part had to be the lack of recovery time between runs. However, everybody turned up on time to run their leg, whatever the time of day or however hot it was. Many thanks to all of those who give their support to the cause."

Not all of these runners will be taking part as one of the 3 different teams from 5 RIFLES in June but it is safe to say that they will fully understand what the runners will be going through. In the next blog, we'll meet those who will be taking part in the run in June and how they are planning to go from sun and sand to wet and woods!

Having just checked our Justgiving site , www.justgiving.com/5rifles, we have passed the first target of £10,000. Only another £240,000 to go!