Every year the staff of the company I work for choose two charities that we raise money for throughout the year. We run various events like raffles and quizzes, and we also run one BIG event/fundraiser every year. Last year for example we had 120 staff members abseiling off our building - we like to put a personal challenge in there!
This year was our biggest staff charity event ever. We persuaded 300 members of staff to sign up to complete
the Hell and Back challenge, all in the name of Irish Life Staff Charities.
The committee arrived at the event nice and early and got stuck into the work. Myself, Greg and Cormac had the fun job of greeting our heroes as they arrived and directing them to our own special area for check in and registration.
All those purple shirts looked pretty cool I thought!
It's hard to describe how it feels doing Hell and Back. It's a 7km course - a lot of it is uphill, a lot of it through swamp and a lot of it through man-made obstacles like tyre climbs, rope ladders, and crawling passages. So obviously (not being majorly outdoorsy, or majorly fit) I found it extremely physically challenging. But what I enjoyed was the camaraderie of it all - random people helping each over the obstacles or warning people about what was up ahead "be careful - there's a massive dip as soon as you get in here" - words you always want to hear when facing getting from one side of a swamp to the other eh!
For a look at all the obstacles check out this video here:
And I did it! And here is the photo to prove it
Another after-pic with some ladies I used to work with in a previous team.
Today I feel proud, with a real sense of achievement. But my God I am in pain all over my body and covered in bruises, and also covered in welts from being hit with bb's in the awful
sniper alley.
