Yew Clothing » adventures

Just a 60km walk

jt_wong — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:27:21 +0000

We recently did a charity walk in the South Downs for the Child Welfare Scheme, a Nepal charity that we like. You can find out more about them on our People Yew Like page (http://www.yewclothing.com/community/people-yew-like). As it was ‘just a walk’ (and incidentally, the event was called ‘Just Walk‘) we didn’t really prepare that well. There was a training walk of about 30km (all pretty flat) so we thought that it would be moderately challenging. Jun had previously done a 50 mile walk and was confident that 60 km wouldn’t be that difficult in comparison (he may have forgotten to add the aging factor in, since his 50 mile walk was done in 1995). All those ultramarathon runners out there may laugh at a 60k walk, but it really was a long way. And a bit hilly too.

For pictures from the walk, go to our Gallery page – http://www.yewclothing.com/downloads/gallery/

We started at about 8.30 in the morning from Goodwood race course: all smiles and full of tea and bacon rolls. For the next few hours there were quite a lot of people around. We didn’t really head off that quickly, but just tried to keep an even pace up. The weather was awesome, so we were feeling pretty good. And after finding some gorgeous woods full of bluebelled carpets, we were liking our nature walk.

Then came Arundel Castle – which is rather nice, but also at the top of a hill – and we were definitely starting to feel the legs. Knee problems, groin strains and puffy ankles were starting to niggle at Team Yew, but there was a tea break at the top of another hill, at which point the sun disappeared and the wind picked up – giving us a rather cold and gloomy rest by this turret:

Fortunately, down the other side it was all sunshine and lush again. Oh, and then another hill as well.

The amazing thing about this tour of the South Downs was that we got to see so many things. We had woodland, rivers, chalk cliffs, castles, lots of hills, muddy marshland (apparently of great significance – but we didn’t stop to read the sign). By the time we set off from our dinner stop, we were ready to finish and have it all done with. We’d picked up a lone straggler from another group and walked the remaining miles with her in tow. There was a slight dip in morale when we realised that some of the distance markers near the finish were slightly out (making us think we had less to go than we did) and also the fact that they shoved a big hill right before the finish at Goodwood. Fortunately, a few pear drops solved that.

By the time we got to the finish at 9pm, the sun was dipping down. We were rewarded with shortbread at the finish (though a beer would have gone down quite well).

Marathon Fun

jt_wong — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:51:36 +0000

We’ve just finished the London Marathon Expo where we got to speak to loads of runners from different backgrounds. We met one of the only people to have done every London Marathon since it was founded in 1981. He told me there are 25 of them left and one of them is still under 50 – and still under 2 hours. Pretty amazing stuff.

We also got to meet Tristan Miller, who’s running 52 Marathons in 52 weeks all over the world. He’s doing it to raise money for UNICEF – which Jun worked at for a year, so he has a soft spot for them. You can check out his website at RunLikeCrazy.com. We gave him some free clothes to help him on his epic journey (see below…Tristan’s on the right, and you can see the reflective print on our everywear tops working well too!).

Inspiring Stuff Part 2: Dan Bent

jt_wong — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:10:40 +0000

Dan likes to cycle. Which is fortunate, since he’s on his way to Chembakolli, India with 2 wheels and a lot of pedaling. He left from Richmond on 18th July and is making his way through Europe as we speak. He is literally on his own with a tent. And, Why? Well, apart from Danger Dan’s spirit for adventure, he’s raising money for Action Aid. You can support him by visiting his fundraising page – justgiving.com/dannybent.

Yew were there to see him off and ride the first few miles with him. We also produced a special shirt for him to wear during his journey. Follow his exploits on his blog: http://mrbent.blogspot.com.