From the infancy of Alpha Dental (which is currently a member of the Association of Dental Groups), the team has participated in regular challenges to raise money for good causes. Over the years, the partners alone have walked the Yorkshire 3 Peaks (23.5 miles), the Lyke Wake Walk (40 miles) and more recently, the Para’s 10 (a 10 mile run with a 15kg pack). In taking part in these, we have raised money for charities supporting Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and The Great North Air Ambulance. Alongside this, our wider team have got involved with countless sponsored events, raising money for numerous charities – the most memorable of which was when one of our head office team shaved her head for Cancer Research!
Last winter, a few of the partners were musing over what to do next when the Yorkshire 100km Challenge Event for Guide Dogs UK popped up on my Facebook feed. With classic bravado, Ben, David and I egged each other on to sign up, naively thinking ‘how hard can walking 100km in one go be?’
We had all been training pretty hard in the preceding months and started the walk injury free, or so David and I thought. About 5km in, Ben confessed to having hurt his shin while searching for his collie, Nara, who had sadly vanished a week or so before.
As the walk went on Ben was clearly struggling more and more, and at around halfway he resorted to using some walking sticks along with liberal amounts of Ibuprofen to power through the significant pain he must have been in. Ben was extremely stoic; the only time we knew he was suffering was when he asked us to slow up a bit or we noticed him lagging behind. At one point he even tried to get rid of us, telling us to go on without him. At the time I thought he was being selfless, not wanting to slow our time, but now I wonder if he was just sick of the frequent ‘are you ok?’ from David and I! Of course, we told him not to be daft – we had started as a team and would finish as one.
Even for the uninjured of us, the heat and simply being on our feet for so long was bad enough. The temperature got into the 30s during the heat of the day and we had set ourselves a good pace, aiming to complete the 100k within 24 hours, rather than the 30 hours permitted by the organisers.
Night walking was an experience. It was weird being on the moors with a head torch following glow sticks strategically placed to guide us. Oddly, I found it a bit easier than the day walking – mentally we were walking a glow stick at a time, rather than being able to see the next hill in front of us.
One thing we could not fault was the team running the challenge; they were excellent. From cheery greetings with pie and coffee at registration, to the seemingly unlimited food and drink at the eight stops along the way, this all helped to keep our spirits high. There were even masseurs at the end to help relax our tired muscles!
There were some lovely acts of encouragement from people along the way. At the top of a hill in the mid-afternoon sun, a lovely gentleman had noticed people coming past his house with the 100K t-shirts on so he had set up a little table and was dishing out ice water to us as we passed. Acts of kindness like this and several others – such as the lady who stopped us to tell us she thought what we were doing was ‘fantastic’ and gave us £10 sponsorship, as well as the random cheers and waves – really gave us a lift and spurred us on.
I appreciate there are much harder physical challenges out there, but for two thirty-somethings and one forty-something dentists, all with young families restricting our time to train, this was something that pushed us all physically and mentally. We were all fit enough but with Ben’s injury and countless blisters, it was tough.
22 hours 20 minutes after starting, we crossed the finish line. I still have no idea how Ben finished – David and I were exhausted and we hadn’t been carrying an injury. It turns out it wasn’t just a strain, as he thought, but it looks like he did 100k with a stress fracture.
We are nearing £2,000 sponsorship, which we are really proud of and have to thank our patients, staff, friends and family for their generosity and support.
Even before the blisters have healed, we are already talking about what’s next. We have signed up to do the Para’s 10 again, but we also have our eye on doing the ‘proper’ Yorkshire 3 Peaks next year – hopefully with no injuries this time…