Last week the Boat Club took part in the 'Danakil Week' distance challenge - named after the most inhospitable place on earth, the Danakil Desert.
The Danakil Desert is a desert in northeast Ethiopia, southern Eritrea, and northwestern Djibouti. The area is known for its volcanoes and extreme heat. With daytime temperatures surpassing 50°C it is one of the hottest places on earth and is inhabited by very few people.
Sixty-five athletes from Years 10 to 13 were put into five teams named after special forces regiments. MARCOS, Alpha Group, SAS, Special Forces and Navy Seals.
Each team had a team captain and a coach in their number. The challenge lasted nine days finishing on 31 January. The athletes could clock up kilometres by running, ergo, cross country skiing and cycling (cycling would only earn 1/3 km e.g a 60km bike ride was worth 20km).
Mr David Currie, Director of Rowing tells us more:
The commitment by the athletes and the team work they adopted to motivate their team was quite outstanding. The total distance covered by the whole group over nine days including full cycling km was 16,688km! To put it into perspective the whole school challenge to reach Kikunduku Primary School in Kenya (over five Saturdays) by this half-term is 7,050km.
The competition really heated up in the final few days between the two leading teams, Mr Safdari's team led by Dan Hallsworth and Mr Mackworth-Praed's team led by Charlie Crisp. The winning team was MARCOS with a grand total of 2,759.4km, second place was Special Forces with a grand total of 2,647km.
We also had an individual award for the athlete that completed the most distance. In third place was Dan Hallsworth with 417km, in second place was Fred Fox with 464km and the overall individual winner was Scarlett Maleham with a total of 468km. Just 4km separating them over nine gruelling days, outstanding.
The longest distance covered in one day was Fred Fox who did a 20km run in the morning followed by a 310km ride on an indoor bike. Luke Byca did the longest indoor bike ride of 317km.
It takes a lot to impress me when it comes to volume of training and this achievement by many of the athletes was nothing short of staggering, some students were managing 50km every day alongside a full day of online learning.
This week will have taught them so much about themselves and what they are capable of achieving if they make a plan and believe in themselves. Well done to all involved.
