Fixing my feet

marathon des sables, originally uploaded by www.alastairhumphreys.com.

Ben and I spent a useful hour this afternoon with John from Fulham Podiatry on the recommendation of our coach, Faye. We were very impressed with his expertise and came away with plenty of useful advice. I think he was less impressed with the state of our feet! Ben's are pretty minging as he's spent 2% of his life squidged into ski boots getting alternately hot/sweaty and cold/frostbitten. And I broke my foot in the Marathon des Sables (lovely picture above), so was eager to get it checked out as it's not quite fixed.
John put us on a running machine to analyse a gait. I was irritated to be told that Ben had a much better running style. Ben was irritated to hear that, with some coaching, I'll be able to run much (even?!) faster...

Hill Reps in Richmond Park

"Oh God, what am I doing?"
A silent grumble for illumination as I climb wearily onto my bike in the cold darkness of 6am. I find it so hard to motivate myself to train. It's not something I've ever done before, nor something I particularly enjoy. I find it hard to justify the time it requires. It hurts. It's boring. I'd rather be in bed... So run the excuses of weakness as I pedal down the road. It is particularly difficult to dedicate so much blood, sweat and time to training when we do not even have a sponsor yet, following the withdrawal of Ernst&Young.
Thankfully dawn broke eventually and I cheered up.
After 5 hours of cycling, running, and hill reps, during which Ben and I covered 55km and burned over 3500kcal, I decided to dedicate the rest of my day to hobbling and eating. But there was no time for that; I spent the afternoon working on a photoshoot of Colin Firth (honestly), and in the evening went to a lecture by Saffia Farr about Kyrgyzstan. Now, as soon as I finish this, I'm off to bed! The 6am alarm for weights in the gym will come along oh too soon...
Here's a few pics of our morning. I particularly enjoy the one of me being ahead of Ben - a rare photo indeed! (I think he'd just stopped to tie his shoelaces)

The 'rules' of polar travel

Antarctica 2006, originally uploaded by Agent_Cooper.

People often ask me about the so-called 'rules' of polar travel. What does 'unsupported' really mean?
With the caveats that I don't think expeditions and people should be judged 'better' or 'worse' because of a failure to adhere to these arbitrary details, that I don't know who made these up, nor who has the right to pass judgement on someone's dreams, plans and triumphs, here are the polar 'rules'.

A Portrait in the Interior

Self-portrait, originally uploaded by Ben Saunders.

Where can you place him - among natural species?
There are precisely none in the hinterland
away from the qualified society of the littoral
- the stink of guano, the litter of penguin feathers,
whole colonies of raucous innocents massacred
or protected at will, flapping their impotent rage
at the skuas' tricks and thievery. You come to
a high plateau, the sink and mirror of Antarctica,
existential terrain - photograph him here.
Each day he grows heavier with the ice,
his breath cracking out and freezing,
a ruff of accumulating crystals around his neck.
His dry-shod fathers approve the struggle
- that company of prim-mouthed adventurers
who watch him now and for old times' sake
avert eyes and memory from natural deeds
that spring upon him like small jealousies:
the faeces he shakes frozen from his trousers,
the liquid in him resisting its natural flow.
How savage his face grows, tanned to leather
by wind and sun: the stinging glare off the ice
will not melt his carapace or loosen
the frosted helmet encompassing him
like a model hemisphere and pole.
His goggles have ghosted a pale moonscape
around his eyes; aqueous humour
admits the passage of light, marks out
the planetary stillness at his centre.
Picture him at the moment of temptation:
there's nothing to draw him back - no memory
served or inflamed by a temperate scene,
no water moving, no shrub to cast its shadow.
He gazes on the linear imperialism
traipsed by sledges and his own layered feet
across the plateau. A scraggy reckoning
is spun out by the pinioned wheel behind;
the summary horizon draws him on,
neutral, mineral, into his own terrrain.

- Chris Orsman

Morning running

marathon des sables, originally uploaded by www.alastairhumphreys.com.

"Man's greatest journey is the long step between the warm bed and the cold floor."

The alarm crushed my dreams at 5.20 this morning.
It was dark, my bed was warm. I did not care about Antarctica, or getting fit. I wanted to sleep.
But I made it out of bed, and out onto the black London streets. Cycling through the dark to Richmond Park my spirits rose and I enjoyed the smugness of having made it out of bed before almost everyone else.
The full moon was majestic. In the park I heard deer, saw the moon through the mist and the trees, and it felt good to be up. I met Ben and we started running. The sun rose, the miles passed, and home for breakfast. It was a great start to the day. The real value of mornings like this is that they cement in my mind the awareness that I am serious about SOUTH, and that I am willing to set the alarm at 5.20 if that is what is needed for success. The only problem is that Ben and I now have to head to the gym to be beasted by Faye. Wish me luck...

An interesting week.

Me

, originally uploaded by

averylongwalk

.

A nice picture to begin this entry, courtesy of Andy, to stop him complaining about my narcissistic tendencies to self-promote my Flickr pics on my own website and therefore demolish him in our nerdy contests to see whose pictures get the most hits each day...

It's been an unusually (if reassuringly) busy week for me. I spoke at the TravelPlan awards on Monday, a reassuring reminder that big corporations are beginning to take cycling seriously for financial, health and environmental reasons. On Tuesday I spoke for Mars in Stratford-upon-Avon. 'Wah'* of the day, and source of much personal amusement, came when I asked the local taxi driver what river Stratford-upon-Avon was on. He fell for it perfectly. The Mars talk went really well, especially as I broke from my normal spiel and experimented with a new corporate talk called 'Lessons from the Road'. My corporate talks go down really well, with excellent feedback, yet I am having zero success in convincing any speaking agencies to make an effort to get me engagements. Cycling round the world, sleeping in ditches, living cheap: they seem to feel it's not as glamorous or relevant to corporations as an Everest climb. So, as seems to be the norm in my life, I am just ploughing a lone furrow and doing it by myself. 
Wednesday I spoke for RBS, trying to cheer up some credit-crunched bankers, then on Thursday I spent an interesting day learning from a photographer. Richard Foster and his team are still-life whizzes and I spent the whole day watching them not quite manage to take one complete picture of a phenomenally expensive watch. Their attention to detail, high standards, and extremely high skill levels were really interesting to watch. They also sat down to eat roast chicken for lunch which was an unexpected bonus!
In the evening I watched a photography lecture, including this excellent short film about the sad demise of the Walthamstow dog racing track.
And today I was back in the SOUTH office wondering where we can look next for sponsors. Ben was hard at work geeking away at the new SOUTH website (watch this space!) and sadly I was too inept to be much use to him. So I made a few cups of tea.
This afternoon, as opera played through the sunshine from over on Parson's Green, Richard from Mountain Equipment came over to the flat to deliver some SOUTH branded training kit (pics here). Top quality equipment which will be well-used in the months to come, smart-looking logos to help convince sponsors that we are serious, and a nice present to send me encouraged into the weekend. I'll be back to the sponsorship-chasing-coalface withe enthusiasm on Monday morning. But, until then, I'm spending the weekend with some friends from Kyrgyzstan. Enjoy your own weekends.

*Urbandictionary.com defines a 'Wah' thus:
Used within the British Army as response to an answer to an obvious question that you have set the other person up to answer. Can become quite frustrating as you become paranoid answering any question in case it is a 'Wah'!
Steve "Is that a can of beer in your hand, Bill?"
Bill "Yeah!"
Steve "Wah!"
Bill "Bugger, been Wah'd again!"

How SOUTH got credit-crunched...

Danger! Ridiculously steep cliffs and chaotic tumbles..., originally uploaded by www.alastairhumphreys.com.

British sports events and expeditions are facing delays and cancellations this year amid a severe shortage of corporate sponsorship (wrote the Sunday Telegraph).
The credit crisis has led to companies slashing their marketing budgets, with dismal consequences for many sporting events. Richard Gillis of SportBusiness, the marketing and research firm, said straightforward brand exposure was no longer enough to attract corporate big hitters.
"Sponsorship budgets are the first thing to go in a downturn," said Gillis. "These events are going to have to start lowering their expectations on price or generate more compelling business opportunities for companies."
This analysis of the £5.3bn industry comes as an unprecedented number of major sporting events seek backers for 2009 as one in five firms cut sponsorship budgets.
The worst affected is snooker, with 888.com cancelling its sponsorship of the World Championships and Saga Insurance terminating its contract with the Wembley Masters. The World Snooker Association told players: "Both companies have stated that the current economic climate is affecting marketing budgets in all industries."
Tennis is also under pressure. The Queen's Club Tournament, once known simply as the Stella Artois, has been renamed after the 30-year association was not renewed. Even within Premiership football, West Bromwich Albion was forced to start the season without a shirt sponsor.
"Companies don't have money to splash around at the moment, so they are going for the big events," said Ben Speight, the head of research at SportBusiness. "The middle tier really are struggling to come up with new sponsors."
Among the events currently suffering setbacks, the Cowes Week regatta has come to the end of its deal with Skandia and the Epsom Derby has lost Vodafone, its sponsor of 14 years.
The Wentworth Matchplay golf tournament will be scaled back or cancelled entirely this autumn after a replacement for its sponsor, HSBC, could not be found.
Explorers Ben Saunders and Alastair Humphreys have been forced to postpone plans to journey to the South Pole on foot after their sponsors Ernst & Young pulled out, writes Sarah Butler.
The accountancy firm backed out of a planned three year deal in which it would also have provided £850,000 for the expedition.
Saunders said the firm had told him it would not back the trip because it was “cutting back on any non-core marketing activities” in the current economic climate.
The 1,800 mile return trip to the South Pole, which was intended to start in October, will now be postponed until next year after four years of planning.
The four month expedition would have been the first since Captain Scott’s ill-fated venture to attempt an unsupported return journey to the South Pole. It will now begin in October 2009.

Daunted by Greatness

tate modern, originally uploaded by www.alastairhumphreys.com.

Yesterday I was at Loughborough University. Our coach, Faye, was launching her new business, Oracle Elite Performance management., with an impressive conference aiming to encourage people to think more widely and openly about their own specialist niches.
Faye began by showing a video of staggering power, flexibility and athleticism from a Chinese acrobat/dance troupe to encourage us to think beyond our own particular sports.
The first speaker was Ben. I have never heard him speak before, and I was very impressed. As well as a polished delivery, I was really impressed by his achievements and began to get quite scared about my capability to keep up with him in Antarctica.
Up next was Matt, a genuine expert who made me realise how little I learned at university and how much I have to learn about efficient expedition nutrition. (No banana sandwiches in this new world!)
After lunch came Vern. An enormous hulk of a man, running a multi-multi-multi-million dollar America's Cup campaign, working on his PhD, an ex-professional rugby player who was also a very polished motivational speaker.
By now I was getting pretty daunted about having to take to the stage after all this lot!
To make it worse the next speaker was an Olympic gold medallist! Jason Gardener's humble tales of that 39 seconds was absolutely gripping.
By now it was five to 5. Everyone was meant to go home at 5. And I was still left to talk. What a nightmare to have to blurt out a talk when the audience all want to go home! What a nightmare to follow all those incredible people! I was sweating and feeling as out of place as the wonderful Guy Goma. This couldn't get any worse.
Faye, trying to be lovely, bigged me up in her introduction, saying all sorts of generous things about my speaking skills. As a speaker there is nothing worse though than getting the audience's hopes up before you've said a word!
Her introduction sealed my fate. I got up, did my talk as well as I could, and was very relieved when it was all over and we could escape to spend the evening watching a rugby match that many of Faye's clients were playing in.
Moral of the day: insist you speak first! Everyone loves you, they're still interested, and you can relax for the rest of the day!

One wish: the sun and a morning run

SOUTH, originally uploaded by averylongwalk.

Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there’s nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God’s sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.
Then listen to the Wild -- it’s calling you.
Have you suffered, starved and triumphed,
groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things
Then listen to the Wild -- it’s calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There’s a whisper on the night-wind,
there’s a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling. . .let us go.
- Robert Service

If you squint your eyes real tight it's like being a kid and flying your imaginary spaceship. The dashboard lights glow red, the white cats-eyes flash past at warp speed. The headlights rake the curves, lighting them then throwing them back to black as the wheels rip round the corners. The music thumps my head and it's on nights like this that (when I'm alone) I wind down all the windows and see how long I can tolerate the freezing night air. This night though I just settle for enjoying the squirming excitement in my stomach and the anticipation of the mountains ahead.
Even leaving London had felt exciting. Ben, Andy (the exped manager) and I hurled our rucsacs in the boot of the car and headed for Wales. By sunset we were in Merthyr Tydfil's finest/only curry house.
Curry. Beer. Pause. Relax. Chat. Andy nips outside to phone his girlfriend. Ben and I stretch out and enjoy feeling full and unhurried...
We stir ourselves into action. It's dark outside. Back into the car, and the music's loud and soon we're in a deserted carpark at the base of Pen y Fan. We change, heave packs onto our backs, light up our headtorches and point our noses upwards.
We climb, steady but fast, away from the car, the road, London, civilisation, the world. The night is clear, still, starry and silent. We feel hot in the cold air. The night is ours.
We pitch camp on the summit of Pen y Fan. I've climbed the mountain many times, yet never have known it so still. It's as well that there was no wind; this was our debut night in the expedition tent and it took us an hour to put up!
Happy chat, whisky, a pipe, a good sleep then morning arrived shrouded in cloud. Pot Noodle for breakfast, packs on, and a good-paced day of yomping lay ahead.
By the end of the day the weather was glorious, sweat poured and we spoke of little but food and how good it felt to have escaped the clutches of London. The only irritation was that the video camera mysteriously broke; an inconvenience on a film-making and mountain training outing. Still, it was so much fun that I know we'll be back out there soon.
Back in the car, back into London and straight to the pub to meet a buddy who's just back from some crazy times in Afghanistan. Burgers and beer to offset all the goodness of the hills, but to perfectly round off a brilliant training trip.

Midnight in the hills

Ben and Al, originally uploaded by averylongwalk.

High in the Beacons, with the lights of Brecon far below. I've never had such a calm, clear night on those hills. Fabulous.

Camping on the summit of Pen y Fan

DSC_1632_2, originally uploaded by averylongwalk.

Ben, Andy and I trekked (post-curry), up Pen y Fan last week and got some great midnight pictures up there. So good to get out of London.

The Worst Journey in the World

Rus_me icebogeys1.jpg, originally uploaded by www.alastairhumphreys.com.

'The Worst Journey in the World' is accepted as the greatest polar book of all time. Now the wonder that is Radio 4 have produced it as a play. It's fantastic and you can listen to Episode 1, for the next week, here.

Ups and Downs

PERU_Huascaran mountains.jpg, originally uploaded by www.alastairhumphreys.com.

It's a funny old world this expeditioning malarkey.
In the last week I have set up two meetings for Ben and me that I thought could be real openings to sponsorship for SOUTH. Both were disasters, with people who simply did not 'get' what we were doing. I came out of them despondent and thinking "what the hell are we doing?"
Then last night Andy and Ben went to watch 'Farther than the Eye Can See' (trailer below) and got fired up and motivated again. And this morning we have had the Brecon Beacons map out to plan this week's training route in the hills. Camping on top of Pen y Fan tomorrow, chat about Panda suits and Gorilla outfits in the Welsh hills, and a dream filming location in a village called Three Cocks. Suddenly it's all looking fun again.

James Caird

James Caird, originally uploaded by www.alastairhumphreys.com.

The James Caird, at Dulwich College. I was so excited and thrilled to see this iconic Antarctic boat. If you don't know Shackleton's tale I recommend you check it out: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Caird_(boat)

What an amazing thing to have in your school! You would learn more by staring at that boat, and thinking of Shackleton's story, than in a year of classroom lessons...

Filming at -40

Photography at -40 is tough, very tough.
Fortunately Martin Hartley is tough, very tough.
Here he is snapping Ben just prior to his North Pole speed record attempt in Spring 2008.

Standing Out

Us 'Adventurers', or 'Explorers', or whatever else we call ourselves are pretty interesting people. What we do is a bit unusual, and most of the world would not want to do it. Standing out's how we can pay the bills. The reasons we do what do varies a lot. Some do it for celebrity, some for glory, some to impress girls (or boys), some to pay the pay the bills, some with a lust for life, some with a death wish, some to avoid 'real jobs', some for fun.

Many people climb mountains, ride bikes, sail boats, run and row just because they enjoy it. That's the best reason of all. A few of us enjoy them so much that we decide to try to make a living from it. And that's where the difficulties begin.

To make a living as an adventurer you need to do some of these things:

a) interesting expeditions

b) write books or articles

c) take pictures or make films

d) 'motivational' speaking

You don't need to do them all. A few people get along fine without even doing category 'a'!

In order to survive, let alone thrive, in this 'business' you need to stand out. You need to be the first or the fastest or the funniest or the most inspiring or the best looking if you want to be top of the heap. And, if you're not careful, your undignified scramble to the summit can begin to be done by stepping on other people's heads and pushing them down.

It's very hard to stand out in our niche little market. The webshots of some successful adventurers below demonstrate that. There are too many motivated, intelligent, tough people scrabbling for too-few sponsorship, book and speaking deals. And we all need to claim to be the best and different. The reality is that we are not that different. We're mostly doing this stuff for similar reasons. We need to remember that we're all pretty similar, and we should respect and help each other rather than standing on heads. 

The critical thing is to maintain your self-respect and remain true to your original motivations. Don't fool yourself on the way to fooling others. If you do that, the rest will follow OK.

Share a load, hit the road

Chris camp sunset.jpg, originally uploaded by www.alastairhumphreys.com.

With over a year until our expedition begins, and the mornings damp and grey, I sometimes find it hard to enjoy the daily 6am alarm. My wife is unsympathetic. She boots me out of bed and sleeps sensibly, contentedly and undisturbed for a couple more hours.
Insidious thoughts worm into my grumpy mind. What difference will one training ride or one gym session make? There's over a year to go: roll over and go back to sleep...
Almost always I overcome these devils, and by the time I have splashed cold water on my face and stepped outside I am awake and smug to be awake and I am ready to train.
I know that every session I do will help me get to the Pole and back. It's not so much the physical fitness increasing fraction by fraction. It's more the memories in the mind, the strengthening of resolve that each weary awakening gives me.
Sometimes though it is still not enough and I just cannot make myself care. I know that I will regret it in the end, but I just don't worry enough about letting myself down. This week, however, something dawned on me. Every time I get out of bed to train it increases Ben's chances of a successful expedition. Every time I don't bother, or cut corners, or make excuses to myself in the gym; all these times I am reducing Ben's chances of making it. Our futures and our dreams are bizarrely intertwined for the next 18 months. And it seems that, even if I'm willing to let myself down, I'm not willing to let down somebody else. So I get out of bed.
And on which note, it's time for bed: it's swimming in the morning and I hate swimming.

I hate gyms

Lets Biking, originally uploaded by aliraza*.

Wise words from Miss Pollyanna (http://twitter.com/misspollyanna) "Well screw that! I am utterly sick of the turbo. I now know the reasons why I took up cycling. It's not to race or win, nope sirry! It was to feel the fresh air on my face. To battle on a solo mission on one's self over mountains and unexplored roads. To feel the elements all over my body as I can hear my ever increasing heart rate pound in my ear and lungs heave in the cold Irish air and then expel out all that crap that life throws at you. It was to find myself and be me. Cycling allowed to me for once to be utterly comfortable in myself and my own presence. We all at the end of the day really only ever have to live with ourselves. The bike in a nutshell made me like living with myself. It forgave me, accepted me and built me."

Disappointment

SOUTH is postponed until 2009.

It looks simple like that. It was an easy thing to type. It's easy to say. It was even an easy decision to take (our sponsor pulled out and there was no Plan B).
But a year is a long time. I quit my job to become what I really want to be: a full-time adventurer and writer. Now I am without an income and sitting in an office for the next year, chasing sponsors and dreams.
For now, I am not going to think too much about it.
We have so much potential for SOUTH - the filming, the charity aspect, an epic expedition. We now must take the chance to really, really make the most of this project, and to maximise our chances of success down in Antarctica.
I read an interview with Seb Coe recently. He was asked how he maintained momentum with years still to go before the London Olympics. He spoke about the need for "every day to add value", to ensure that you end each day closer to your objective than you began it. What I worry about now is that we have 14 months until we head for Antarctica. It is so easy to fritter days, weeks and then months when the pressure is off. I am conscious of the need to work like men possessed, to be driven and desperate to secure sponsorship as soon as possible so that we can get on and concentrate on the fun stuff and ensure the success of SOUTH. So much to do, possibly too much time to do it in?
SOUTH is a wonderful project. I am thrilled and fortunate to be a part of it. It is a great thing, and great things require lots of hard, hard work.

(The day after I wrote this entry I came across a similar blog from Seth Godin.)

All you need to know

(Thanks 5Alpha!)