The team have kicked off the Autumn season in style with two fantastic challenges taking place last weekend and all this week...

Race the Sun, with rain and near-nakedness!
This event saw a crowd-pleasing 65 teams descend on the Lake District for a day of climbing, cycling and canoeing from sunrise until sunset. All teams completed the course despite the rain (Race the Sun??) The weather did clear up at the end of the day and it was all smiles at the finish as the last team came in wearing... well, nothing except some rather eye-popping under crackers! The celebration dinner went down really well with an emphasis on the superb camaraderie during the day from everyone - teams, marshalls and supporters. Team Ghostboaster 1 picked up the award for fastest time of 7 hours 34 minutes. There were some great contenders for the Team Spirit award. Skanka's Lucky Egg had their very own custom-made Cool Runnings bobsleigh outfits, and so many teams showed real guts considering the wet and cold conditions. However, it was Altiora Peto, a team of 17-year-old school friends and a dad, who bagged the award when one of their bikes was damaged at the start on the off-road section and they all took it in turns to run carrying the bike to the mountain base section - and still climbed Helvellen and completed the day in a fantastic 11 hours 4 minutes!
We've had some great feedback from the day and already teams are asking when they can sign up for 2010!

News from the Far East
Also at the weekend, Matt flew to China for the Great Wall trek. The party arrived safe and sound on Monday and since then Matt's been Tweeting his heart out... news from the East is; Jackie Chan is filming while they are out there, Matt saw a huge snake, had a great night for Lucy's birthday, and discussing the pros and cons of She Wees... so we expect that all is going really well. Expect more news when he's back next week.