| Post-Event Write Up (Author: Dave Kinder) |
Wednesday 8th to Sunday 12th of June saw a Financial Services team compete in the Microsoft UK Challenge in and around Aberystwyth. For the non-enlightened (i.e. those who have yet to sponsored us) the challenge is a series of timed team races involving running, cycling, canoeing, construction, problem solving and navigation skills. One hundred and nineteen teams were competed, of which LogicaCMG entered eight: two from Energy & Utilities, and one each from Financial Services, Outsourcing, Space & Defence, Telecoms, Public Sector and IDT. Other companies fielding teams included the likes of Lloyds TSB, GCHQ (Team 007!), Accenture, HP, Marsh, Aon, Airbus, GlaxoSmithKline and The Army Training Regiment.
Aberystwyth is situated on the edge of the Cambrian Mountains, so the steep terrain combined with the tough competition made sure that the event lived up to the name 'Challenge'.
Financial Services Team of old men qualified comfortably as "Masters", much to the younger members' chagrin.
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| Stage 1 - "Map Memory" - Wednesday night. |
The first stage, Two hours long and at night! Start time was 11pm, so equipped with head torches, nerves, nice clean bright yellow suits, a little water and a few more nerves, we headed off to drive to the start.
Pete, Max, Dave and Martin volunteered/were picked for the stage. The gun went off and 119 teams of four ran to maps positioned 100 metres from the start. The maps gave the locations of three compulsory checkpoints to visit, but we were not supplied with maps to run with so, following some calm and precise cartography (a.k.a. frantic scribbling), we ran to the first checkpoint. At each checkpoint there were more maps with the locations of three bonus points, each worth 15 minutes off of our stage time. We split into pairs (Pete/Max and Dave/Martin) for the bonus points, meeting up again at each compulsory checkpoint. We crossed the line together in 1h 53m 28s, comfortably inside stage time. Once our bonuses had been subtracted we scored a time of 8m 28s, putting us into 19th place after the first stage. A fine start!
Whilst running in the night stage, Dave's room had flooded, so after less than four hours sleep, we were up and ready to go for.
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| Stage 2 - "Perfect Timing" - Thursday Morning. |
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An early start followed by a drive to a picturesque, if frighteningly hilly, location. This two and a half hour stage was undertaken by Rob, Richard, Pete and Dave, with Martin and Max chilling out in the van. Again, a running stage with compulsory and bonus checkpoints to visit, but with the added complication of the bonus points only being open for set times. This time we had maps, but with a less than perfect start we missed a turning in the woods that left us with a lot to do in less time than we would have liked. Despite this minor setback, we finished the stage in a very strong 15th place.
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| Stage 3 - "The truth is out there" - Thursday Afternoon |
Martin, Rob, Richard and Max formed the team for this two and a half hour biking stage which took place in the same area as the morning stage. While the stage was running contrast, if you will, a very chatty Pete talking to the other LogicaCMG teams with a very tired Dave sleeping like a baby in the van.
This time there were Question Points to visit. At each Question Point there was a puzzle to solve, or question to answer. Each Question Point had an information point associated with it to help answer the question. A trip to an Information Point meant an extra bike ride. We visited five Question Points and were able to answer two questions without needing to visit an Information Point. Rob and Max (the strongest bikers) visited the three extra Information Points, whilst Richard and Martin concentrated on getting between the Question Points. We Finished 25th for the stage, and were standing 17th overall at this point.
Tired, sore & hungry (and stinking a bit) we headed back to base for showers and dinner. And - we thought - an evening's rest, and maybe a half of shandy to celebrate Dave's birthday. Alas not, for at the Captain's Briefing, this next challenge was announced.
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| Stage 4 - "The Late Egg Race" - Friday Morning |
Remember "The Great Egg Race", with Prof. Heinz Wolff? No? Ask your dad then. If you do remember, then this was very similar, except that it started at one o'clock in the morning. The goal of this one-hour fastest to finish stage was to construct an apparatus that enabled a golf ball to move without interference from team members from the start line, under and over two obstacles and finish up within a bucket, over four meters away; using only lengths of wood, screws, and bungee cord. After a couple of hours sleep, Dave, Max, Martin and Richard were up for this one. The stage was held in a well floodlit field. Floodlit for the first five minutes that is; after which the lights were turned out. We lost a bit of time over-engineering our release mechanism, but had a reasonable stage, finishing in 52m 41s and were standing 16th overall following it.
We finally got to sleep at around 3am, heads spinning with designs we should/could have used.
No flooding this time, but up again for breakfast at seven o'clock for.
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| Stage 5 - "Property Portfolio" - Friday All Day. |
A long one, this. Six hours of running, cycling and canoeing with a compulsory one hour break for lunch included. The stage was loosely based on Monopoly, with Check Points replaced by Property Points, and Bonus Points taking the form of Apartment Points and the Community Chest. Just like in Monopoly, getting full sets of properties was of great importance. As usual, only four team members competed at any one time, but it was permissible to make two substitutions. Accordingly, whilst Pete and Rich ran up some of the highest & hardest terrain we would come across in the whole event, Max and Rob biked themselves to the ragged edge through two-foot-deep puddles and down terrifying descents, Dave and Martin worked on their tans and visited sports masseuses. After lunch, Pete & Rob carried on Running, whilst Dave and Martin canoed, Canadian style, to get as many points as we could from the reservoir. At this point we were 14th in the running.
Back at base, we met up with Cormac, our senior executive team member, for dinner. Cormac was briefed for the stage ahead.
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| Stage 6 - "Disasterous Dialect" - Friday Night. |
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Yep, another night stage. This one based around Scrabble. Cormac was positioned a 25 minute run from the start, so at the gun, Pete, Max, Martin, Dave and 472 others charged into the night, with head torches blazing (some brighter than others - Pete "Kilowatt" Huzan) to form part of a river of light heading towards the Senior Executives. Cormac had a Scrabble board, a few letters and a map of locations holding further letters. He also had four tags that we could take to the Letter Points to receive a letter for each from the Course Marshals. Cormac also had a puzzle we could solve to get two extra tags that we could use to get a further letter at each letter point. Martin was a genius and unlocked the puzzle. We then ran out into the night again - Pete and Max as one pair, Martin and Dave as a second to exchange tags for letters, while Cormac devised a high scoring scrabble layout. Dave and Martin couldn't find one of the Letter Points (the road had been mysteriously moved), so Cormac had to revise his board in a hurry. We had a hard run out and back, and then back to the start again to finish. We came in inside the Stage time, and Cormac finished the scrabble board in time. Unfortunately, we picked up our first and only penalty points of the event - 20 minutes for a score miscalculation on the scrabble board. Overall position: 16th.
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| Stage 7 - "The Last Shall Be The First" - Saturday Morning |
Saturday morning we were given the task of playing 'Losing Draughts'. Like normal draughts, but with the aim being to lose all your pieces. None of the team were too enthusiastic about their draughts skills, but Rob had played it 'some years' ago so Rob (now deemed Draughts Expert), Cormac, Peter and Martin were chosen to pit wits against five other teams in the 12th to 18th positions. We started off well, with Rob winning his first match, all four then lost a game each. Bonuses were awarded for wins, so this hit us hard, dropping our overall position to 18th.
By this point, with the end in sight, there really was an air of excitement about the place. So for one last time, before our drive home, we boarded the bus for.
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| Stage 8 - "Going To The Prom" - Saturday Afternoon |
We had glorious weather for the last stage, another running stage. The whole team drove out to the start and dropped off our competitors: Pete, Max, Richard and Rob. They were tasked with running via Check Points, Bonus Points and Equipment Points to the finish on the North beach in Aberystwyth. The Equipment Points held the pieces to make a crude stretcher - which would be constructed by the whole team, Cormac, Dave & Martin included - on the beach, before carrying one team member a couple of hundred metres to the finish line. Richard had picked up a knee injury, so was the obvious choice for the stretcher, but the rough treatment he received being dragged over the groynes meant he might have been better off running! The guys who ran the bulk of the stage managed to visit every point on the course, and we finished well inside the stage time - ending the event on a great performance.
Medals collected, champagne sprayed, and ice creams consumed, we headed back to base to prepare for a night of partying.
We finished in 18th position, a mere 3m 52s behind LogicaCMG's top team - Space and Defence - congratulations to them.
We had a fantastic event, we bonded as a team, we pushed ourselves beyond what we normally do, we raised a lot of money for the NSPCC and above all we had great fun. Here's hoping that LogicaCMG will be competing in next years event - to be held in Ayrshire and the Isle of Arran. Start training now. It's worth it.
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