What is Trailwalker?
Written by Shamir Gurung
Oxfam’s Trailwalker is a 100km endurance challenge started by the Queen’s Gurkha Signals regiment over 30 years ago. Set up by the legendary Gurkhas in 1981 to test teamwork, endurance and determination. Trailwalker is the ultimate physical and mental challenge. It can be daunting taking on a new challenge, especially a 100km one, but generous and ever exciting volunteers of Oxfam and QGR are there to help every step of the way. The Trailwalker route runs 100km from Petersfield to Brighton following the beautiful South Downs Way through some of the UK's most stunning countryside. Located between London and the south coast, the South Downs National Park is also famous for rolling hills, pretty villages and beautiful landscapes.
Trailwalker is all about teamwork. Participants need to motivate and encourage each other from start to finish to get the job done, so training as a team of four before the event is essential. It will help build team spirit and give a chance to work out strengths and weaknesses, so by the time Trailwalker comes around participants are prepared to pull together to achieve something astonishing.
The other important team is the Support Crew - friends and family who'll meet you at checkpoints along the route to provide supplies and encouragement.
Trailwalker isn't just a physical challenge. In 2013 Trailwalker teams raised an incredible £1 million The money you raise will help Oxfam and The Gurkha Welfare Trust provide life-changing support to poor people worldwide. The teams must commit to raising at least £1500, but the average Trailwalker team raises over £2,000.
Trailwalker 2013- Our story
Written By Sujit Gurung
Summer of 2013 has been somewhat adventurous for us three Gorkhali youths Sujit, Shamir, Kul and a close friend Swarneem. We started our adventure running and trekking up to 50km a day, three times a week in the hills and woods between Ashford and Canterbury for two months. At the same time our sponsorship page was set up managing to raise over £1500 through friends and families, the job was made much more simpler after raising over £500 during the Gorkhali Annual General Meeting.
July 27th was rather nervous yet exciting morning for us. We had 8am start and after a good night sleep in the tent, short interview with BFBS Gurkha radio and full English breakfast in the campsite, we were all excited to start along with thousand of people and the elite military runners. Bottles filled with water, countdown began and at 8am the bagpipe started playing, time clocked in and we were on our foot to begin the unforgettable 100km of our lives. We made a good start in this chilly morning being able to complete the first 10k within 1hour 6 minutes.
Temperature gradually started soaring over 20 degrees over the afternoon and there was heavy rain and freezing weather in the evening and over night. We were fortunate to have such an encouraging support team our own family members at every checkpoint cheering us on, providing us with food and making us comfortable in every angle as possible. We could hear them cheering and paying the drums from over 100meters away, sometimes it did get very annoying especially when we were worn out after about 70km with tired legs, blisters, descending and ascending up to 250 meters rocky hills which made things difficult for us. However seeing the support team encouraging us always drove us to keep moving forward. We also had immense support from our organisers, our “mamas” from QGS and QGE who was there providing food, drinks and again encouraging us at every checkpoint, which mentally aided us a lot.
On July 28th it was almost 5am in the morning and we have been walking and running for almost 21 hours before we left our final checkpoint. Finish line only around 10 km to go, we were walking half asleep hallucinating in middle of cow farms and going down hill became much more difficult at this point as we were walking at the pace of turtle. In the morning dawn sun had started to shine and we could not wait until we reach the finishing line and in my mind I said, “I am never doing this horrible thing again”.
Around 7am the Brighton Race course slowly started to creep up into our sight and at this point we were all fully awake with huge sight of relief and suddenly energetic and excited to get to the finish line. We could see our support crew again cheering us with the same level of energy as in every checkpoint and this was the best moment from the entire journey, crossing the finish line in 23 hours with people clapping and congratulating us. It was definitely one of our proudest moments of our lives and we did this all for good cause, to support our own heroes the Gurkha veterans.
Written by Shamir Gurung
Oxfam’s Trailwalker is a 100km endurance challenge started by the Queen’s Gurkha Signals regiment over 30 years ago. Set up by the legendary Gurkhas in 1981 to test teamwork, endurance and determination. Trailwalker is the ultimate physical and mental challenge. It can be daunting taking on a new challenge, especially a 100km one, but generous and ever exciting volunteers of Oxfam and QGR are there to help every step of the way. The Trailwalker route runs 100km from Petersfield to Brighton following the beautiful South Downs Way through some of the UK's most stunning countryside. Located between London and the south coast, the South Downs National Park is also famous for rolling hills, pretty villages and beautiful landscapes.Trailwalker is all about teamwork. Participants need to motivate and encourage each other from start to finish to get the job done, so training as a team of four before the event is essential. It will help build team spirit and give a chance to work out strengths and weaknesses, so by the time Trailwalker comes around participants are prepared to pull together to achieve something astonishing.
The other important team is the Support Crew - friends and family who'll meet you at checkpoints along the route to provide supplies and encouragement.
Trailwalker isn't just a physical challenge. In 2013 Trailwalker teams raised an incredible £1 million The money you raise will help Oxfam and The Gurkha Welfare Trust provide life-changing support to poor people worldwide. The teams must commit to raising at least £1500, but the average Trailwalker team raises over £2,000.
Trailwalker 2013- Our story
Written By Sujit Gurung
Summer of 2013 has been somewhat adventurous for us three Gorkhali youths Sujit, Shamir, Kul and a close friend Swarneem. We started our adventure running and trekking up to 50km a day, three times a week in the hills and woods between Ashford and Canterbury for two months. At the same time our sponsorship page was set up managing to raise over £1500 through friends and families, the job was made much more simpler after raising over £500 during the Gorkhali Annual General Meeting. July 27th was rather nervous yet exciting morning for us. We had 8am start and after a good night sleep in the tent, short interview with BFBS Gurkha radio and full English breakfast in the campsite, we were all excited to start along with thousand of people and the elite military runners. Bottles filled with water, countdown began and at 8am the bagpipe started playing, time clocked in and we were on our foot to begin the unforgettable 100km of our lives. We made a good start in this chilly morning being able to complete the first 10k within 1hour 6 minutes.
Temperature gradually started soaring over 20 degrees over the afternoon and there was heavy rain and freezing weather in the evening and over night. We were fortunate to have such an encouraging support team our own family members at every checkpoint cheering us on, providing us with food and making us comfortable in every angle as possible. We could hear them cheering and paying the drums from over 100meters away, sometimes it did get very annoying especially when we were worn out after about 70km with tired legs, blisters, descending and ascending up to 250 meters rocky hills which made things difficult for us. However seeing the support team encouraging us always drove us to keep moving forward. We also had immense support from our organisers, our “mamas” from QGS and QGE who was there providing food, drinks and again encouraging us at every checkpoint, which mentally aided us a lot.
On July 28th it was almost 5am in the morning and we have been walking and running for almost 21 hours before we left our final checkpoint. Finish line only around 10 km to go, we were walking half asleep hallucinating in middle of cow farms and going down hill became much more difficult at this point as we were walking at the pace of turtle. In the morning dawn sun had started to shine and we could not wait until we reach the finishing line and in my mind I said, “I am never doing this horrible thing again”.
Around 7am the Brighton Race course slowly started to creep up into our sight and at this point we were all fully awake with huge sight of relief and suddenly energetic and excited to get to the finish line. We could see our support crew again cheering us with the same level of energy as in every checkpoint and this was the best moment from the entire journey, crossing the finish line in 23 hours with people clapping and congratulating us. It was definitely one of our proudest moments of our lives and we did this all for good cause, to support our own heroes the Gurkha veterans.