Homeward Bound

So here I am in Beijing having completed the longest, toughest, multi-horse race in the world. And boy was it what it said it was going to be… Things are all a little surreal at the moment so just a few words to start with whilst I get my head around the feat that I have accomplished and put the full journey into words in due course.

I signed up for this race back in February, so the last 6 months have been pretty much all consuming in the quest to get to the start line. And now both the start and finish line are behind me so here is a little summary…

44 fierce competitors

1016 km in 8.5 days

29 unforgettable horses

28 horse stations manned by some of the most hospitable people you will ever meet

1 fall

1 kick

1 river crossing

A couple of flash floods (meaning rivers where there shouldn’t have been rivers…)

Too many bogs and marshes

Way too many mosquitos

Numerous aching joints and muscles

An incredible support team including the medics that kept patching us up

Thankfully no blood

A whole lot of sweat

A few tears at the end when I finally achieved what I had thought at times I might never do

And a lot of new friends 

And then there’s Jeanette. We teamed up at horse station 1 so rode all but the first 35 km together. I couldn’t have done this  without her and in all my preparation I never imagined that I would laugh as much as I did during the race. I feel very lucky to have shared this journey with her.

It was a privilege to cross the line with her and Charmane. We’d shared a ger during pre-race training so it seems very fitting that we ended the race together as well… 

Jeanette and I were also awarded the KBO award, in the words of Winston Churchill, Keep Buggering On. Or as Jeanette so eloquently put it comparing us to cockroaches that you just can’t kill 😉 So there you go, the recognition for just putting your head down, digging in and not letting anything get in your way. Oh and always trying to have a smile on your face makes that a bit more bearable! So that’s what we did, our aim had been to get to the end and we did it with time to spare!

So the race might be over, but there is still time to sponsor me if you haven’t done so yet… 100% of all donations goes directly to the charities

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/gemmaractliffe