ENDURE24 By Warrant Officer Class 2 Bikram Bishwakarma
With demonstrating teamwork, cohesion and resilience as the key objectives, Management Accountant Services (Army) (MAS(A)) entered a team for this year’s Endure24 held in Reading, Berkshire over the period 18-19 Jun 22. Endure24 is a civilian annual trail running challenge to complete a 5-mile route as many times as possible in 24-hour relay by the team members.
True to the maxim that ‘No plan survives first contact with the enemy’ the team lost 3 runners on the race week due to COVID infection. This resulted in MAS(A) fielding a much leaner and meaner team comprising of myself as Team Leader, Maj Carcone, Maj Harrison, SSgt Rana and Ryan Rance (MAS(A) Civil Servant) with SSgt Johnson on service support.
Wasing Park’s off-road trail offered full of testing but beautiful terrain that kept our minds, legs and lungs fully occupied throughout the race. Checkpoints like “Hill of No Return” immediately past the starting point and the “Heartbreak Hill” at 3-mile point tested runners’ physical and mental resilience to the core. In contrast, landmarks like the Church of St Nicholas, Wasing Wood and Paices Wood Lake provided wonderful scenic views and calmness to re-energise runners. The single-track, downhill path in the Fairy Forest added an extra layer of difficulty of negotiating overgrown roots and shrubs particularly at night. The only consolation was the flat last half mile of the trail.
Initially, a rough apportionment was 4 laps per runner with 4-6 hours rest between the laps. However, after completing recce lap by each runners the decision was made to run back-to-back laps to have a longer rest at night. Despite minimal or no training our runners simply propelled with positivity, pushing themselves to the limit and going extra mile for the benefit of the team and its common goal. The team completed 28 laps covering 140 miles and finished in the first quartile of 802 teams. Each member of the team did 5-15 miles more than they initially believed they could. Maj
Endure 24 Dream Team.
Harrison managed to cover 40 miles alone with an average speed of 35 minutes per lap. Maj Carcone sacrificed his rest period and ran back-to-back laps during the rainy night to allow the team to rest for longer and covered 25 miles in total. Despite joining the team at a very short or zero notice SSgt Rana and Ryan Rance both managed to run 20 miles.
Throughout the race, SSgt Johnson provided that crucial service support, encouragement, motivation and ensured that the runners were at the right place at the right time.
Endure24 was an excellent opportunity to strengthen the organisation’s already strong bond and team spirit. MAS(A) continues to promote team cohesion and our unique ethos; we are already looking forward to fielding a team(s) for the next year and aspire to position ourselves within the top 100.
Maj Carcone last seen smiling before his midnight back to back laps.
150 AGC JOURNAL 2022
Maj Harrison breezing through his 40th mile point.
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