18,420 box step up Reflection

The Children’s Respite Trust is a Uckfield based charity providing round the clock support for the families of children with complex medical needs, severe learning or physical disabilities. The work they do dramatically improves the lives of children and their families across Kent and Sussex by providing them with the opportunity to get a short break - doing things the rest of us would take for granted. We wanted to show our support to this amazing charity by raising enough funding to make a difference. The challenge had to be immense to encourage plenty of generous donations.

We had a target of £5000 - this money would pay for a support worker every day for an entire year.

What better obstacle to tackle than the beast itself - Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. To climb its 8,849m within 24hrs, stepping onto a 20” box would take some grit and determination.

Tom, Josh and everyone at SweatIT would like to thank everyone who supported them before, during and after the challenge. The gents have had the opportunity to reflect on their experience and put into words their recount of the weekend.

How it came about

It’s been over a month since Tom and I completed our Everest box step-up challenge and we’ve had some time to reflect on what was a long, brutal and frankly ridiculous endeavour. 17420 steps climbed. 8849 metres ascended. £4230 raised. It was no mean feat, but going back to October when our idea was formed (by Abi - she will claim it was me!), we were blissfully unaware of just how tough this would be. Our original plan included Abi and myself completing this challenge, it was only when I walked into the office to confirm with Tom the total number of steps that he decided “I want in too”. Unfortunately, Abi’s ankle had other ideas and she became known as Greenboots for the rest of the build-up.

Training/planning / meeting the charity

When we look back now, it's easy to see how wrong we were about the challenge that lay ahead for Tom and I. The plan was simple:16 steps, every minute on the minute for 24 minutes, then take 6 minutes rest and repeat for 8 hours, take 36 minutes rest, and repeat that process another two times.. EASY! To be honest we should have foreseen the issues that would arise from this plan, especially considering our lack of preparation and Tom’s insistence that he was “Going in cold”, although I did eventually convince him to do a couple of hours of step training. We genuinely believed (call it naive optimism) that the hardest part of this challenge was going to be reaching the huge fundraising target we had set ourselves.

Day1 -

Our original plan was to complete this start to finish in 24 hours working with just 2 30-minute breaks. As the first 8-hour period unfolded, so did our plan. We set off at an aggressive pace with a strategy of 16 step-ups every minute working for 24 minutes with 6 minutes off. We completed this from 10 am to 6 pm. Tom went through a dark period at about 3 hours in when he realised, we still had 20 hours remaining and exactly what he had got himself into. It was around this time that his knee started to flare up ever so slightly. This was also at a moment when support wasn’t as high, we were on our own and had the time to worry about what was ahead. While I managed to keep spirits high and keep chugging on through Tom’s dark spell, mine was just around the corner and at 8 hours in, I got hit. Both of my hamstrings, quads and calves began to cramp. I started missing steps due to the pain and as our final timer sounded at the 8-hour mark, I collapsed, unable to bend my legs at all due to the cramps. Abi was able to bring me back to life but there was no getting around the fact that this strategy simply wasn’t going to work. We spent an hour reviving ourselves and revising our plan. We decided that we’d have to be much more intuitive for the rest of the evening and set out again after an hour of rest at a pace of 14 steps per minute, for 12 minutes followed by 3 minutes rest. We took longer periods of rest when we needed but by midnight, having only just cleared halfway, we were forced to call it a night by our loved ones who had stayed on to keep us company through these dark hours. If we were going to finish at all, we needed rest, and so we rested.

Day 2 –

After only a few hours’ sleep, getting back into the gym early that Saturday morning was not fun. Just completing what we’d started became the name of the game now after overshooting the original aim by miles. We’ll put that down to bad weather. But by 8 am we were back to it, sticking to our new plan of 14 per minute, 12 minutes on, 3 minutes off. We found with our new pacing strategy, we were able to control our heart rates much easier and with that as well as the buzz from the SweatIT members smashing their Saturday sessions, we were off to a good start. However, once the members had gone and only a handful of supporters remained the new gym which we constantly associate with vibrancy and energy had become in Tom’s words “A bit of a morgue”. Energy levels continued to drop as it became apparent that we weren’t going to finish on Saturday either. And having completed another 12 hours of Step-ups, we made our way gingerly to our cars and back home for another short sleep populated with dreams of counting to 14 and the sounds of creaking wood.

Day 3 –

Sunday dawned and despite both of us moving like we had each aged about 70 years in the space of the last 48 hours, we felt good. We had been reliably informed that we only had to complete 4 and a half hours of stepping to go to reach the elusive summit. We initially decided to break the time up into blocks of 2 hours, 8 sets of 12 minutes. However, by the time we reached the 2-hour mark, we wanted more and so pushed on for another 30 minutes. Energised by the thought that we were getting close now and that ‘The Dorito’ – affectionate name for the orange line graph we used to track our progress – was almost completely filled in. As we began to creep closer to the summit, the once dead gym began to fill with life again as friends, family and faithful members flooded in to cheer us to the finish. The last couple of hours went by in a flash, with people shouting at us and stepping with us, everything felt much more manageable. And when everyone joined in for the last few minutes, it almost felt fun and the final minute…GLORIOUS.

Suddenly standing on those boxes at the end of 17420 steps, it felt like we were much higher up than just 20 inches. A collective effort from many more than just Tom and myself made this possible. A whole team of friends and family keeping our spirits up night and day, fighting off cramps and feeding us. We can’t thank them enough! Looking back, this challenge was more one of mental resilience than physical endurance. Whenever the task seemed too big and that box began to grow, all we had to do was take that first step. Set after set, that was the main challenge and it’s a big takeaway that I hope to transfer into the rest of my life. The journey itself doesn’t matter, it can be as big or as small as you like, what matters is your next step.

See you next time.

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