Story about the South African contingent

Written by Stuart Marshal on 21 May.

In Oct 2009 and Oct 2010 we took a group of guys from work as part of a team building exercise to top of Kilimanjaro. In fact 26 of us in Oct 2010. 25 out of the 26 made it to the summit. So ealier this year at our annual sales conference Philip challenged us to come and do a real walk on the IOM. 136kms
We took up the challenge and 12 of us from Old Mutual Cape Town have entered. We make up 3 teams. 1 ladies team of 4. 1 mens team of 4 and a mixed team (of which I am 1). The guys are very excited to come across and experience the island for the week and then rather nervous about 136kms. I keep getting asked about the height of the hills, conditions of the road, possible weather, what do we wear etc.
We have been training in and around Cape Town for the past few months and last weekend we did part of the 2 oceans marathon route in reverse. Claremont to Hout Bay over Chapmans Peak drive into Noordhoek and then up over Ou Kaapse Weg into Steenberg. The last part felt very much like the Sloch. It was after 30kms so the timing should fit in with our parish attempt.
We have also been telling them a bit about our experiences in the island when we lived there and describing the TT experience, the beauty of the island, the white sheep on the green green hills, friendliness of the people etc has got the group really excited.

We arrive on 17 June and some of the others are flying in via Dublin arriving Tuesday 21st. Robbie Callister has agreed to come talk to us on Thursday evening so that might help settle some of the nerves. Although when you see his times we may end up even more nervous.
This is my first attempt at any walking race distance and Amanda and I did our first walk as a half marathon at Langebaan on the West Coast. 3hr 33min for our first 21km walk. we have done another half marathon since then 3hr 18min and this weekend was our furthest walk of 40km. So Peel is starting to feel doable but Lonan feels like a long way off.