The London 2 Brighton Ultra Challenge: Supporting the Walking Team.

The logistics of supporting a closely-knit team of walkers in this formidable test of endurance and fortitude is, itself, an exercise in meticulous planning, coordinated effort and anticipation for 48 plus hours.

In our group, the support effort starts a few weeks before the actual event as we make a list of walkers and the support crew. We then familiarize ourselves with the Challenge route and develop a feel for the distances between the rest stops and the general lay of the land.

Then we make an inventory of medical and other supplies, over and above what the organizers will supply. These include analgesic ointments and sprays, emollient creams, talcum powder, plaster, simple analgesic tablets and of course, food and refreshments to our taste. In addition, we had found ice cubes especially necessary to soothe the rawness and tissue discomfort that walkers experience at various points in the Challenge.

Lastly, we needed to plan the deployment of various members of the support team, to ensure that walkers would be promptly met at the rest stations and appropriately supported. This involved tracking all the walkers in our group and some to-ing and fro-ing between the rest stations as Walkers had varying paces and different times of arrival at the rest stations.

Despite these logistical challenges and the attendant fatigue, the members of the support team in our group were enthusiastic about their roles at all times during the Challenge weekend.

We’ll do it again, gladly.

Femi Adebajo