Page 90 - Light Dragoons 2022 CREST

The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
Charity
The Light Dragoons have never been a unit to shy away from a challenge. I was approached by Mr Duffy, an ABF fund raiser, who informed me about an event he was running called “Race the World”. The event had only been run once before and was a huge success, the goal being to cover the distance of all 7 continents (39,219km) by walking, cycling, running, swimming, tabbing or any discipline that could be tracked on Strava fitness app. The event was open to all serving soldiers, their fami- lies and association members.
Race the World
The guys accepted the challenge and soon we realised that going up against 35 Army teams, this was going to be an epic task. 39,000km doesn’t seem like a lot but when an average soldier covers about 5kph tab- bing, that amounts to over 7,000hrs. We needed a plan!
Each Sabre Sqn was allocated two conti- nents and HQ was given the largest, Africa at 9538km. Every continent was open to complete for 7 days, but the guys realised mid-week actually how much effort was
needed. With help from the wider LD fam- ily putting in a lot of miles we completed the first continent in second place.
The remainder of the continents were, to be honest, a struggle. The Regiment deployed to process the influx of Afghan refugees from Op Pitting, a large percent- age deployed on Op Rescript to aid the civil authorities with the COVID pan- demic, so crossing the remaining six con- tinents was not the priority. That said the effort did not stop; the Sqn’s deployed with WattBikes and rowing machines, com- pleted Sqn runs and the LD association all clocked up miles.
Race the World was not only about beating the rest of the Army teams but to raise vital funds for the ABF. The Light Dragoons and wider regimental family pulled together and raised a massive £1078.84.
The event was a great success, but with all the disruption and work commitments, we were unable to fully commit. In the end, we managed to finish 5th of 35 teams and 2nd in the fund raising. A great effort by the whole regimental family for a great cause.
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