KATE WHO STARTED IT ALL

Great to see Kate Philp at the event as she was in the event in the very early days and she was delighted to see her hopes and dreams come to fruition. It was a great event and 1000 people had a lot of fun. We are planning to hold it again on 19 May 2012 so put that in your diary

SOLDIER KNACKERED

Lee Anson from Cheshire somewhat exhausted or was it the afternoon after?? He and his team loved and will come again.

TWO PHYSIOS IN GREAT GET UPS

Two great girls from Headley Court who came to support. Covered in cam cream they had a good time.

SOLDIER CURRY

And they get a curry after all that hard work. They deserve it.

HENNY THE HERO

This is Henny who has been such a star in organising this event. Here she is beside her God father, Simon Mayall who is currently running rather more serious affairs   related to Libya

WELL THEY DIDN'T GO THE PUB!

Thrills and spills at the Imperial War Museum. My Helen and Henry leaping over the ropes like leopards!!!

FAMILIAR FACE?

And guess who this is? Yes its our very own CHIBBER about to do the abseil. I am sure she looks less chibby

Sorry, sideways again.

ABSEIL at OVAL

I tried to get him to smile but he didn't feel like it. I was asked if I would like to have a go. I had a pressing engagement somewhere else. I was off!! Its that head for heights, Kirsty promise!!

SOLDIER DAN

Dan kindly joins us for part of the day in beween film schedules. Thank you Dan for supporting us.
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ROARING RABBITS

Another shot of those toothy rabbits. I heard later that they just went to the pub!! Ever been eaten by rabbits?
They did finish though but some way down the batting order.

A WEB of WEBB-CARTERS

All my relations lined up to see me return from hospital. This is the next wave and all raring to go.  Thank you all for the effort, so glad you enjoyed it all

SOLDIER SKIRTS

Siobhan Murrray, Lynn Owen, and Amanda Smith from the Winchester Police who have declined to be on the march to do this for us. Lynn's husband Paul went by cycle from Lands End to John 'o Scott for the charity. Hurrah!!

THE OFF Phase 1

Am speaking to you from my hospital bed. I was run over in the rush!! 330 starters in the first wave paid no attention to my plea to slow down.  Uuugh, it hurts.

SOLDIER JIM

Here is Jim Mee who runs Rat Race. He looks remarkably relaxed with a 1000 lunatics out there. Will he be so relaxed when Soldier Challengers meet the TUC! Sorry, Jim I cant get you the right way up, but will do so later.

Well done Jim and his boys, they did a great job.  Lets now look forward to 19 May next year and aim for 2500 runners

SOLDIER PRIME MINISTER

The welcome message from the Prime Minister. What a coup! Well done Jo and Caroline. He said the most interesting event in London to day was Soldier Challenge. Others out there will have a different view may be, but for us this endorsement means an enormous amount. Thank you Sir.

RABBIT CHALLENGE

Here are a collection of rabbits grazing before the OFF. They were chattering away like a group of bunnies complete with floppy ears and squeaks. Where is Mr Fox?

SOLDIER CHIBBER BLOGGED

Chibber comes fom Minley Manor her team of roughy toughy Engineers were  all having a laugh at her expense. Chibber is Amy Pennington and was loving it all although she may not appeciate being on my blog. Certainly not in this form!! And probably not sideways either.  I will get you the right way up later, I promise.  Its a matter of time before this blog gets me into trouble.

GLOUCESTER SIGNALLERS GIVE IT A GO

Sarah Cattell, Sarah Challis and Louisa Walker from 252 Signal Squadron in Gloucester all lined for the start. Bags of enthusiasm and its very noisy. Not sure they had much of a plan but they were going to have a good time even if they go all the way by tube! Actually they looked too keen for that. I pity any TUC crowd who meets them. I saw them later and they were going well.

GENERAL CHALLENGE

Here is a General and his wife. He was competing. Bloody marvellous! Am I competing? Hmmmm. Great to have a full General taking part but then with a persuasive daughter like Blaire he didn't have much option!!

He later told me that he thought the event was extremely well organised.  He probably wont do it next year as he will be in Jersey

TROOPER SHINE

Trooper Shine who is one of our ambassadors who tells me he has a new car(his old one wasn't bad) and offered me the keys. I declined fearful of crashing it.  Would maker a good blog though! He is standing with his Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Seb Pollington who is wearing the T shirt for the Triple Challenge event in September which is Oxford and Cambridge Universities bicycling 1000 miles around Britain. More lunatics! Stephen Shine won't be cycling but driving his CO, shame!

SOLDIER MUTT

This made me laugh! Poor old mutt not knowing why everybody is so attentive. He will probably do better than most. I saw the little fellow later and he looked rather browned off.

SOLDIER CHAOS!

Well here we are at Waterloo in a delicious type of organised chaos. There must be about 800 people here and we have 2 hours to go. Great atmosphere and lots and lots of young some knowing what to do and some looking rather dazed. It all looked very good and the branding very pronounced. Many told me that the impact was really strong.

SOLDIER CHALLENGE HERE WE COME!!

This is Wendy Lynch who used to work for us in the bad old Queens Gate days and has been one of our brilliantly energetic volunteers for the Soldier Challenge. She has been one those enthusiasts that has kept the idea on track. And here we are at the Event Village in the now disused Euro Star terminal on the day before the Challenge so there is a lot going on to get it ready for over a 1000 younguns who will stampede round London. I expect the main problem will be avoiding the TUC march. Can you imagine mixing this lot with them?

OFF TO WALK 54 MILES

A few punters for the Cateran Trail in Scotland on 26 June. 54 miles is a snip they said. It was an interesting evening with many people who came up and took an interest. The flag is a very good way to attract a bit of added interest.  We had one really good volunteer in the evening who had been collecting for the charity all day. She had picked up on the web that we were looking for volunteers and has been helping us over four days. She comes  all the way from Wood Green at the far endo fthe Piccadilly Line. If we  have good people like her we wont go far wrong. She suggested we ask London Transport if they could help charity volunteers with transport costs on the underground. Why not ? It would be the so called Big Society in action.

THE HAPPY COUPLE

Robin and Celia Bacon taking it easy after manning our stand at the Ideal Home Show for a few hours. Celia has been up for a whole day previously so well done her. She leaps forward to unsuspecting couples and charms them to sign the flag and then interest is achieved. A small donation follows and then they are in danger of being signed up for a 54 mile walk in 24 hours. I saw one Granny slightly startled at the proposition. Celia is very good at it too. Meanwhile Andy McMenemy has completed his 9th marathon in 9 days.

8 DOWN and JUST 58 to GO!!

This is Andy warming up with the Mayor of Nottingham before the Nottingham Marathon.  He looks in good nick doesnt he? I mean the Mayor!!  It is remarkable that a human body can do so much and I watch Andy on his challenge with great awe. He is completing each marathon under the 6 hours.  Remarkable.

DIVERSITY DIGS

This rather lugubrious collection of bods is a diversity training group of our staff and in the centre of those standing is our tutor Shelley Collins who managed to hold our attention over some fascinating facts about religion, race/ethnicity and gender.  We go about our lives without grasping what is happening in these areas of our lives in this country and in the world. and from time to time it is worth reflecting. I have to admit however that I didnt attend the whole day as I was sent to the corner and eventually sent away for speaking too much.  So it is  "Show again" on another day. An interesting morning.

A VERY BUSY WEEKEND!!!!!

This was a ridiculously busy weekend for the charity.  Andy Reid and Josh did a 10 K run in  St Helens and here on the right we see Andy doing the last 2 Kms on his prosthetics, a really remarkable achievement.

Meanwhile there was activity at the Ideal Home Show and a couple of very young supporters. I have an idea they are related to someone in the office, do I detect a resemblance?

On the left  there is Barry doing the Fleet half Marathon which he broke the existing record of 1 hour 42 mins in a new time of 1 Hour 37 mins. He looks pretty chipper.  So he should have no problem in doing the marathon in a few weeks time and smashing another record..  Brilliant. 

If that wasnt enough Andy McMenemy was running in Wakefield  and Sheffield and he is going well. Since then he has been in Lincoln and Nottingham to day.  7 down and 59 to go.  We all salute this amazing attempt and when you put all these things together there is an enormous amount of visibility going on for the charity. I have to confess that I did not run or anything over the weekend.

I SURVIVED!!

The County Chairmen of the South East seemed reasonably happy over matters and I survived a potential mauling. This shot shows the team after a gruelling meeting looking pretty happy in the garden of the Deputy Constable of Dover Castle. The County Chairman of these counties have raised £360k in this year, a stupendous amount!! I think they deserved a break in a lovely garden. We were hosted by Jill and Simon Wolsey who are both in the piccy. We value these links with Regional Commanders as they encourage us in our work. It was a lovely afternoon and now a rush to get back for a brief on Soldier Challenge who have reached capacity at 1036 bookings. More about this at the weekend.

DOVER CASTLE TALKS and a NEW RECRUIT

Busy day on the seaside playing sandcastles? But in fact this is the venue for the Regional Planning meeting with the Chairman from Surrey,Sussex, Kent. In the foreground is Shannon Lloyd who is the new Regional Director for Surrey and West Sussex. She thought the caption should read "Me and my NEW home". So now off to meeting and I will let you know how we get on. I seldom get away unscathed!!!