11am today and Hartlepool Endurance Team was a bunch of Hartlepool athletes with loads of ideas, bags of enthusiasm and quite a high pain threshold. By 12pm this afternoon, we became a well organised, focused machine, ready to start putting our ideas into reality.
I met with Victoria Rogers from 'The Butterwick', and like a corporate trouble shooter, she thrashed our pencil drawn sketches into a work of art. Amazing woman! So here's how it stands now.
1. We train like mad so we do not look like idiots when we set out on both our 24hr bike marathon or our 26.2hr ultra run.
2. We promote our backsides off for a small pot of money to pay for perishables, emergency kit, race clothing and nutrition by asking all our loved ones with businesses to slip a few quid in order to advertise on said kit and literature etc.
3. We tell everyone who will listen that they will be struck by the spirit of the Joo-Joo if they do not visit our just giving page and donate their spleen! (justgiving.com/hartlepool-endurance-team)
4. Direct them also to our blog to see how seriously we take ourselves and to learn a little more about us (team-hartlepool.blogspot.com). Simple profile and mission web page TBA.
5. We start to tell the world the following; On a date yet to be arranged in April/May, we HET will be setting off on a 24hr bike marathon starting with a 'Dark hours Bike Roller Session' at a venue (also yet to be arranged, but hopefully Springs). We will then set off at the first sign of daylight on a 12/14 hr sportive style pack riding road challenge and return to the venue as the sun sets, ( I will ask Mr Wilson and Mr Hackett for their supreme knowledge of road riding to be our guide and propose an interesting if a little challenging route). A Butterwick/Red Dreams charity night will have begun; a ticket do with food, raffle, band and disco to raise more funds to be split evenly between these two exceptional charities. We, (the riders - and this is the good bit!), continue our 24hr challenge at the centre of this charity night, pushed on by our loved ones, fed copious amounts of caffeine and red bull until we collapse in a head at a count down to midnight!!!
6. When all the details are finalised, we all try and sell as many tickets as possible to this do and with the help of the Butterwick publicity machine (Victoria has this one in the bag), we sell the lot easily - potentially 180. What better way to end a 24hr challenge when you are tired, in pain, sweaty and miserable - happy people drinking!
7. When I have collated a list of very useful contacts from Victoria, we each take a couple and follow up on to see if we can secure a little more support both financially and with various donations of equipment etc.
8. Offer any suggestion to improve on the above ideas.
I'll hold off on discussion propositions for the ultra run for a while to get our heads around this challenge first, suffice to say that we have a preliminary range of dates (July/Aug) and a proposed route (5 mile loop around Seaton), and once again, Victoria from Butterwick had some excellent suggestions to help it run smoothly and gain maximum exposure.
Officially excited by this part of the project. Please let me know what you think!
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