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South Hants Volleyball Club organised a charity bike ride and walk, starting at the Red Lion Pub, Chalton, Hampshire, on Saturday 20th June. The aim of the challenge was to either complete a 10 or 20 miles walk across the country side, or a cross-country bike ride ranging from 13.5 to 54 miles.
The purpose of the event was to raise money for Alive & Kicking UK charity that provides jobs for previously unemployed adults in Africa at a fair wage to hand stitch sports balls; donates durable, repairable leather balls to children in some of the poorest communities in Africa and warns children about dangers of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB by printing every ball with health awareness messages. We were also hoping to raise enough money to be able to organise regular sporting events during the year. These events are going to be aimed at promoting the benefits of playing sports and maintaining good levels of fitness for youngsters and adults through volleyball. We were hoping to be able to provide everybody with free introductory volleyball session throughout the next year.
It turned out to be a great day. The day started early with everybody meeting up at 8.30am and getting little wet but the rain did not seem to scare anybody off. After sorting out all the formalities; issuing everybody with a map and directions; we all set off by 9.00am. Even the weather was on our side as by 9.10am the sun came out and the whole day turned out to be perfect.
The Red Lion Pub in Chalton agreed to set up a water stop station for the event and agreed for us to use their facilities through out the day and we really could not have done it without them so big thank you to them.
It total there were 17 people taking part in the event, 7 walkers and 10 cyclists. The walkers set out to do their 10 miles walk but unfortunately after taking one wrong turn almost at the end of their walk, 10 miles has suddenly turned into 18 miles (oops). One of the youngest walkers was Gaby Payne (12) from Portsmouth Grammar school; who managed to walk the whole distance of 18 miles and has proved to be a big star leading the group for most of the walk. All walker successfully finished and returned to the start / finish point at Red Lion Pub at 2.30pm.
The cyclist had a slightly longer day in front of them as 6 of us were aiming to achieve the full distance of 54 mile, which we knew presented about 8 hours in the saddle. Regardless of few punctures, one broken chain and two falls into bushes when going doing down the hill; we did it. Finishing at 4.45pm with clear riding time of 5.45 minutes, we were exhausted, but happy to have done it.
The total mileage achieved between all people taking part was 544.5 miles. Thanks to some very generous sponsors; including Oxygen Investments Limited who donated £100 to the event; the total money raised came to £1186. This is a great achievement for the South Hants Volleyball club and for everybody who took part and they all deserve big thank you.
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