Adventure Capitalist

Though my usually calm exterior hides it well, at heart I’m a restless soul, looking for the next big idea, the next big adventure and challenge to take on. If I don’t have a “Big Thing” in my life to work towards, I easily get bored and somewhat aimless.

For the last couple of months I’ve been thinking about what I could take on, and my mind inevitably drifted off towards physical challenges: Should I do an Iron Man Triathlon? Maybe try to climb a high mountain?

Then the penny dropped: I will do it all.

So this is the challenge that I am setting out for myself to achieve by the end of 2014:

• Run a marathon in 2010: 42.2 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards)
• Do half an Ironman (“Ironman 70.3”) in 2011: 1.2-mile (1.9 km) swim, 56-mile (90 km) bike ride, and 13.1-mile (21.1 km) run
• Do a full Ironman triathlon in 2012: 2.4 miles (3.86 km) swim, a 112 miles (180.25 km) bike and a marathon (26 miles 385 yards, 42.195 km) run
• Do the “Seven Summits”-challenge and climb each of the highest peaks on each of the planets continents by the end of 2014:
  • Mount Everest, Asia (8848m)
  • Vinson Massif, Antarctica (4892m)
  • Kilimanjaro, Africa (5892m)
  • Mount Kosciuszko, Australia (2228m)
  • Elbrus, Europe (5642m)
  • Mount McKinley, North America (6194m)
  • Aconcagua, South America (6962m)

When it comes to the “Seven Summits”, only 140 people have ever done it, so I would be become part of a select crowd.

In terms of raising money, I want to do it at least in part for charity: I’m not sure yet, but I think I want to do it for Asthma research and awareness. I was myself diagnosed with Asthma late last year, so one of the motivations is to both show that the disease does not have to limit what you are physically capable of, I reckon if I manage to raise enough awareness my challenge could become an inspiration to young kids suffering from Asthma.

Also, Asthma kills around 1400 people a year in the UK alone, and around 5 million people in the country suffer from it, and very little progress has been made in the last 20 years, so I would love if I could help to do even ever so little about it.

As for raising money: I’m hoping to fund this partially out of pocket (everything except the more challenging mountains I can probably manage out of pocket), but to complete the challenge I will need outside help financially (a try at climbing Everest can cost around $60000 from what I’ve heard).
Any raised money will be used towards costs directly attributable to the challenge (flights, accommodation, equipment, climbing guides etc, and possibly minimal living expenses if I have to take extended time away from working), I’m not doing it for money, though I won’t be able to do it financially on my own, so in particular scaling Everest and Vinson Massif are dependent on raising money from other people.

On a personal note: yes, I’ll admit, I’m not only doing it for charity, personal glory is also involved. It is an audacious challenge, adventure and a memory for life. Whatever I do afterwards, I’ll know that I have done something extraordinary in life, and have something to tell potential grandchildren in my old age.

When it comes to the timetable and events: I might add further challenges as I go along, but there is method to the madness, I figure the escalation of the challenges means I can slowly condition my body to be able to actually complete every challenge (with the Marathon being the easiest one, already done one before in 2004). If I can, there is a possibility I’ll escalate the timetable and try to finish earlier.

Any feedback, suggestions or offers of advice and help would be greatly appreciated.