COASTLINES, CALF INJURIES AND CAMARADERIE

Congratulations – and commiserations – to Sam on his fantastic efforts in Man vs Coast on Saturday.

Sam, of our planning team, and his friend Tristan, headed to Cornwall last week to take part in the challenge on Saturday, where he has so far raised more than £575 for Parkinson’s UK.

The 26-mile course from one side of the peninsula to the other saw Sam and Tristan tackle tough terrains, short swims, water jumps and multiple descents and ascents as they made their way from St Michael’s Mount to Land’s End.

Unfortunately, nine miles into the challenge, Sam injured his calf as he traversed a steep descent. With the support of other competitors, he managed to continue for a further eight miles before being forced to pull out.

Sam said: “I managed to limp on to the last feeding station at mile 17, where I decided to pull out before I did myself any long-lasting damage.  The terrain was rocky, and with continual steep ascents and descents, there was no rest for my injured leg and the pain was fairly constant at that point. 

“I got a lot of support from the other competitors, and it was the support team from a triathlon club in St Neots also doing the event, who kindly gave me a lift to the finish, after they insisted we stop for cake and coffee in St Just!

“Tristan, who I was running and trained with, went on to complete the course in an impressive six hours, despite being held up by me for 40 minutes or so when I first got injured.  It is really frustrating for me to have trained so hard and failed to complete, because we were going well and we had the fitness to finish in a respectable time, but you have to be sensible when push comes to shove.

“I’m delighted to have got as far as I did, and I loved the camaraderie and atmosphere of the day. To have raised almost 50 per cent more than my target for the charity is a great feeling,” he added.

We’re so impressed with Sam’s achievement, and gutted that he wasn’t able to make it to the finish line.

Maybe next year…