Page 24 - 103RA 2018-20

103 Regiment Royal Artillery
Trailwalker: 100km, 4 people, 30 hours... and what?
By Sgt Nina Kitajewski
So, someone told me a great story of an event that they had attended which involved walking or running 100km along the South Downs in under 30 hours. While this was not a race, a record time had been set by the Royal Ghurkha Signals of just under 11 hours! The event sounded pretty awesome to me. The tricky part though was the fact that you had to enter as a team of 4 – how the hell was I going to find 3 other people to take part in this? Luckily, I am in the Army Reserves, so I am surrounded by fellow nutters!
The event was scheduled for July 2018 and so we decided to kick off the training in January. Fortunately for us, we all live on the edge of Cannock Chase – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The terrain provided the perfect trails for our training. Over the next few months, despite our busy schedules we managed to fit in plenty of solo and team training in all weathers.
July arrived, we felt physically strong and the forecast looked promising. Constant blue skies and bright sunshine filled us with optimism until disaster struck! Just two days before we were due to make the journey down south I received an email informing us that the event had been cancelled – with a temperature forecast of more than 27 degrees Celsius it was deemed too hot. Gutted!
All was not lost. A follow up email from Trailwalker informed me that we had been automatically enrolled in the 2019 event. A surge of interest from the Battery also meant we could put together a walking team. Team Walk was led by Lance Bombardier John Jarvis and accompanied by Bombardier Andy Hemsworth, Lance Bombardier Gareth Lueng and Gunner Jonathan MacDonald. Team Run now consisted of Staff Sergeant Richard
210 Battery Trailwalker running team. From left to right: Sergeant Nina Kitajewski, Staff Sergeant Scott Greene, Staff Sergeant Richard Chance and Sergeant Tom Morgan.
very welcome sight. The day went brilliantly; we caught up with Team Walk after a couple of hours to find them in equally high spirits. After a bit of banter, we overtook and managed to keep running for most of the day.
The support teams were incredible throughout. They helped us with food, drink and even some much-needed music at each
Chance, Staff Sergeant Scott Green, Sergeant Tom Morgan (PSI) and myself. We also had two amazing support teams consisting of WO2 Paul Cook, Staff Sergeant Andy Jowett, Sergeant Ray Jones, Sergeant Sarah Whitehouse, Sergeant Dean Whitehouse and Sergeant Harj Sangha.
Constant blue skies and bright sunshine filled us with optimism until disaster struck!
quick stop. As night fell, we needed to apply more caution to our running as the risk of a twisted ankle was high. Nevertheless, we pushed each other on. We had overtaken a lot of teams, so it was mostly just the four of us completely alone, guided by the beam of our head torches as we slogged up and down the hills. The finish point approached. The fragrance of Ghurkha curry scented the air. All that was left was one lap of Brighton Racetrack. We sprinted across it hand in hand with the small crowd cheering as we crossed the finish line.
The weekend of the event came around fast, it
coincided with our Annual Deployment Exercise
which meant we had a week of infantry training just
before Trailwalker and a week of live firing on the
L118 Light Guns just after! We left Otterburn Training
Area at the crack of dawn on the Friday and arrived at the South Downs at mid-afternoon. The atmosphere was a mix of nervous excitement and a slight apprehension. We registered our teams, pitched our tents and found the food tent. Dinner consisted of large helpings of pasta bolognaise, followed by a team photo and a quick beer to settle the nerves.
Team Support did not let us down. Despite it being past 1am they guided us to our tents where the most amazing feast had been laid on by the Ghurkha chefs. We had just finished sorting our admin when we received a message from Team Walk who were minutes from the racecourse. We all headed over to greet them as they too made a strong finish together over the line. Medals and prayer scarves were awarded. We had done it!
A year on from the event and I am still bursting with pride at how well everyone did. Team Run completed the 100km route in 18 hours 51 minutes and Team Walk in 21 hours 57 minutes finishing 42nd and 62nd respectively out of 416 teams. Both teams came inside the 51% of teams to complete with all four team members. Every member of Team Support, Team Walk and Team Run gave their all to this event and it was certainly an amazing experience we shall never forget.
Race day was finally upon us. Team Walk were set off at 0600 and Team Run at 0700. We all felt surprisingly calm even though the air was electric as we crossed the start line. A recent spell of rain meant lots of new grass had sprung up making it much more bearable underfoot. Energy levels were good and before we knew it we were approaching the first checkpoint. Our support teams had made themselves very easy to spot amongst the gaggle of white-fleet by hoisting huge Black Country Flags – a
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