Peak performance key for 100km Dales’ trek

They have signed up for this summer’s Oxfam Trailtrekker, a 100km (62.5-mile) non-stop charity walk through the magnificent Yorkshire Dales, which takes up to 30 hours to complete.

Adrian Stokes, 44, James Robertson, 31, and Joel Dalby, 34, from HML, as well as friend Hollie Burgin, 27, are one of six teams in training for the June event, which is supported by the Yorkshire Post by the third consecutive year.

The group hopes to raise more than £2,000. In total, last year’s event raised nearly £300,000 with 537 hardy walkers taking part.

Mr Stokes, a quality assurance analyst for business intelligence at HML, said he was confident The Q Team could get through the night.

It wants to complete the challenge within 30 hours, despite the exertion involved.

“You are in the rhythm of walking, and you have been walking 16 or 17 hours before it gets particularly dark.

“I didn’t have any problem with tiredness (last year). It was not until I got home and sat down in the chair that I felt it.”

Now Mr Stokes is focusing on increasing his stamina and is using an exercise bike for sessions of up to eight or nine miles, as well as a Wii Fit video game.

Mr Robertson, a quality assurance tests analyst, said: “It is probably the day or so before that you feel nerves and then the adrenaline starts to go.”

The team has set up a blog – www.theqteam2011.blogspot.com – which documents their training, shows pictures from last year’s event and gives details of how to sponsor them.

Mr Robertson said they were hoping for some temperate weather in the Yorkshire Dales, England’s second largest National Park, to make the race a little easier.

“The first year we struggled with the heat because it was absolutely roasting.

“Last year it was slightly cooler and it started raining. The main thing is the blisters – I found the condition of my feet was the biggest hindrance.”

He said the team was helped when they were flagging, however, by the rising sun and the prospect of a good atmosphere at the finish line.

Mr Dalby, also a quality assurance tests analyst and keen middle distance runner, said: “Everybody is brought together on the first night and then you cannot wait for it to start.”

The event runs along the Leeds-Liverpool canal, takes in stretches of Wharfedale, scaling the top of imposing Malham Cove.

The trail’s highest point comes at Penyghent, with walkers climbing to the top of the 2,227ft peak.

Previous Trailtrekker-style events from Oxfam have taken place all over the world, and organisers hope this event will be a sell-out.

Last year’s winning team was a group of cycling enthusiasts from Barnoldswick, who completed the 62-mile circuit in just over 17 hours.

Other competitors took up to 31 hours to finish the course, hobbling home well after lunchtime to the applause and cheers of the watching crowds.

It also featured a 60-year-old woman who had completed more than 100 marathons around the world, while one hiker marked the occasion by proposing to his girlfriend – successfully – during the race.

Neil Warman, chief commercial and finance officer at HML, which is part of Skipton Building Society, said: “Oxfam is a very worthy cause and I’m delighted HML and its employees are able to support this uncompromising challenge for a third year running.

“HML has a strong culture of supporting local and national organisations that we’re very proud of.”

HML is Britain’s largest financial outsourcing company and provides outsourced mortgage administration services to more than 30 UK and Irish financial institutions and has about £43bn of assets under management.

Its clients are banks and building societies but it says it cannot name them.

Now HML wants to become a “one-stop shop” for the administration of savings and lending products.

As well as Skipton, the firm has offices in Glasgow, Derry in Northern Ireland and Padiham, near Burnley.

A life-changing experience

TrailtrekkeR will be staged over June 4 and 5. Shorter routes have been drawn up for the first time this year to encourage more participants.

The event will include bronze and silver finish lines at 38.6km and 64.9km respectively, with those making the full 100km given a gold award.

Hikers must compete in teams of four and collect at least £1,500 in sponsorship. Oxfam distributes all the money to help counter poverty and suffering worldwide.

Previous trekkers have described the 100km round trip as a life-changing experience.

Walking 100km at a rate of three miles per hour is estimated to burn 5,925 calories.