Tent 144

It might sound dramatic to the uninitiated person who has never contemplated doing the MDS, but I feel truly honoured to have shared my MDS experience with 7 of the best people I could have met.

 

There are probably only a handful of other meetings with friends and family that compare. My first day at school meeting my class mates, being put in halls of residence with my University mates and meeting my wife in a bar aside the good fortune meeting the other seven Tent 144 comrades is astounding. 

Apart from raising money for a fantastic charity, Mencap, it also facilitated sharing the tent with four of the remaining seven people. I am truly thankful for the fundraiser's, Rachel, idea to meet up early at the coffee shop at Gatwick. Without offending the other Mencap runners, five of us gravitated together, such that when we left the coffee shop we had found four like minded people: Graham, big Dunc, Jack and Matt.

At the departure gate we inherited the 6th musketeers in a very un-democratic  process. There was a guy Robert AKA 'Shorts' who I met at the Sandbaggers seminar where I completed my medical and ECG. He was another like minded individual and we only needed two more to complete the tent.

 

The luckiest meeting of minds was when we 'procured' our Racing Snake and General Extraordinaire. We said we wanted a small woman that was a physiotherapist in the tent as they would take up less room and be able to give us massages to recover from that days effort. Jo surpassed our wildest dreams as she was small and a physio. She was also quick. Very quick as the subsequent post will demonstrate...

 

Her husband, Jon, was our Mr Motivator. Every day was full of quotes to keep us going through the desert. Quite simply one of the nicest people I have met and definitely the toughest. He was my Bromance in the desert.

 

On the first night at the hotel when we queued for dinner we saw four spaces on a table, as Matt was sitting with the person he sat next to on the plane. So we ended up sitting next to Jo and Jon and they decided that they wanted to join our tent and we 100% wanted them in.

 

So tent 144 was complete.

 

The crew after all finishing...

To introduce each one:
 

Graham:

Graham was my room mate at the hotel so he had to put up with my snoring for three extra nights than the rest. He was probably the most confident out of us eight. He had quite a dry sense of humour being a man from God's country, Scotland, and was definitely the smooth one in the tent.

Duncan:

Big dunc was, Jo aside, the other racing snake in the tent. He has completed the ironman over ten times and has competed three time in the world Ironman championships at Kona. Unfortunately the big man had an injury on the way out to the desert so had to accept being near the back of the pack for once. I think this will make him stronger and drive him on to greater achievements in the future. Big Dunc was probably the most brutal one out of us such that he wouldn't sugar coat any opinions for the benefit of others and was our Mr Grumpy.

Jack:

Jack was our Mr Just Get on with it. No fuss just deliver. Quite simply a legend with a capital L as he runs his own business and marries this with running a charity farm and some property development. Very unassuming but couldn't do more to help anyone to, sometimes, the detriment of himself, his preparations each day or recovery.

Matt A.K.A Radar:

Radar was the tent navigator. He works in technology as a web developer and had all the kit. He even had a transponder in his bag so that people back home could follow his progress, to the mile, via the internet. Despite all the kit he was the most disorganised person in our tent such that he took up most of the tent with his kit and was the last one each morning to be ready to roll.

Robert AKA 'Shorts':

Shorts was the tent jester. Robert was crowned dick of the week. Aside from Graham's 'Dossard' comment, Rob won every 'Dick of the Day' award. I will mention specific daily honours during the write up but number one was running the first day with his shorts on back to front. What a dick but what a nice guy. Very emotional, he probably cried the most out of us. He also kept me company throughout the long stage with our conversations about the best West Ham and Fulham teams etc. He just smashed it...

Jo:

Our very own racing snake who came second in the woman's race. Turned up with a mixture of second hand and old kit. The only new stuff was her socks and she smashed the event. Her marathon PB of 2:26 is quite simply outstanding (only 11 minutes slower than the world record...) and her performance was breathtaking. She is also one of the most humble down to earth person I have ever met and was a sister to all of us in the tent.

Jon:

Jon, as I mentioned above, is one of the nicest toughest person I have met in my life. He was the tent story teller and kept us astounded with memories from throughout his diverse working life. He also supported Jo across the desert. The rest of us just had to think about number one but he did that and put her interests and goals number one. L-E-G-E-N-D. He also probably out of all of us put his body most on the line throughout the race. He constantly told us in the tent that he had fainted or vomited out on that days run.

I know that it's my legs, engine and mental toughness that got me through the MDS but quite simply I am not sure how far I would have got without the camaraderie and support from my tent mates.

Tent 144 forever...