The leaflet on the Jain Spirit Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge cam through my door in January. Prior to that we had been contemplating climbing Kilimanajaro as a family but a friend who had done that convinced me that Arjun was too young. This seemed to be  good training for that sort of climb though.

I sounded out the idea with the rest of the family and although not wildly enthusiastic they didn’t say no. As a family we do a fair amount of walking and sports so we felt that we were up to the challenge.

The challenge date was on June 21 so we had a reasonable amount of time for training. The one thing I was worried about was the weather. Even in the summer you can get heavy rain in the dales and the thought of walking in torrential rain was not very appealing. 

The leaflet talked about the walk being around 24 miles walking up and down the 3 peaks of Yorkshire. If you wanted to do it as a challenge you had to do it in 12 hours but I just assumed that the Jain Spirit challenge would be over a couple of days. – not quite – we were also planning to do it in less than 12 hours.  This seemed a bit ambitious. The boys however were more enthusiastic now. Give them a tough challenge and they respond!

June still seemed a long way away so having registered we actually didn’t do any specific training. Hitesh and boys do enough sports anyway so it was really me who needed the training.

The first training session organised by the Jain spirit was in the Brecon Beacons on Saturday 25 April. We didn’t go that session due to other commitments.

It was supposed to be a 9 mile circular hillwalking trek. Unfortunately the weather started off reasonably sunny but then turned to torrential rain and hailstones. Everyone found it a lot harder than expected. Most people didn’t have all the right gear and I understand an ambulance had to be called for 2 people who got hypothermia.

I’m glad I didn’t go. I would surely have pulled out from the challenge. Even from talking to those who went, memories of my Mount Kenya climb came back with a vengeance when we were completely soaked to the skin, cold and hungry.  

This then was the wake-up call. The organisers had a meeting organised to discuss the equipment, training etc. It was still refreshing to see that most of those who’d experienced that awful Saturday were still keen to do the challenge. Kaushik had a training schedule organised and urged us to follow it to ensure that we were ready for the day.

There were a lot of children registered on the challenge and following that weekend, Bharatbhai (Shishukunj President) organised an early Sunday walk for the children. As the children all have to be in Shishukunj by 8.40am , this had to be an early start-around 6.30am.                               The first time there were around half a dozen people but every week the numbers increased- At one stage there around 30 people! Different routes were chosen to try and bring in variety and some hills. This training experience was wonderful in itself. The smiling faces of everyone after a late Saturday night was wonderful. My boys never complained about getting up so early because the camaraderie and the spirit of unity created by the group was tremendous. Bharatbhai and others always organised some snacks afterwards so that the children were not starving when the got to Shishukunj.

On 26 May another walk was organised by Jain Spirit around the Chiltern Hills.  This time the distance covered was around 18-20 miles – The weather was ideal and most completed the full route. Now I was feeling a lot more confident. I had been walking regularly during the week or doing power training exercises and the Chiltern Hills walk whilst tiring was quite satisfying

I continued with my regular training schedule- the boys had their squash, badminton, tennis and cricket so reckoned they didn’t need any training. They came on the Sunday walks just to be with their friends and maybe to show off how fit they were! 

The day of reckoning finally arrived!. A coach was to leave around midday on Friday but we’d opted to go by car picking the boys en route so they didn’t miss any school. The traffic was horrendous all the way and we barely managed to get some dinner before the talk and brefing.

The briefing by Dave, the leader of the Yorkshire Group who were to look after us during the walk was a complete shock. He told us that this was probably the hardest thing we would ever do in our lives- harder than the national 3 peaks challenge! He reckoned that around 30% would give up after the first hill and more after the second. There was no shame in this he added since it was a difficult challenge. Small comfort indeed!

Outwardly we put on a brave face, but inwardly doubt crept in. Had I trained enough? What if it started raining? We didn’t get to bed till around midnight due to the excitement, and anxiety. We were staying in converted barn and were supposed to be up around 4.30am. No chance of any sleep though as the bunkbeds were not the most comfortable and creaked everytime anyone tossed or turned. Not the ideal way to start off the hardest challenge of my life! I was relieved when it was finally time to get up. The cold shower did the trick of awakening all my senses and following breakfast we set off to Horton from where we were supposed to start.

Before we set off, Jatinbhai gave a wonderful motivational speech to spur us on and recited the navkar mantra. Unfortunately the field where we were all standing was invaded by midgets which kept biting you and getting into your mouth when you were saying the navkar mantra. We were literally itching to get away.

There were 90 of us and we’d been put into groups to stagger the start times.There was however only a minute’s difference between one group and the next and so the groups did not really stay together. We started at around 6.30am  and after about 15 minutes of walking, we started ascending up Penys Ghent, the first hill. This was when my problems started. I found it really tiring and found I could barely breathe. The hayfever season was in full force and the heavy early morning air led to an acute asthma problem. I was lagging behind the others. I was also lots of drinks having brought lots of fresh frozen lemon juices from home for nourishment. I decided I could not keep up with my group and said I’d join another group. It wasn’t really necessary since there so many walkers from other organisations as well that it was like ants proceeding up and down the hill.

I’m not sure how but I finally got up the hill- the view from above was a little disappointing as it was quite foggy but you still get a sense of how high you’d climbed. That motivated me!. However I was seriously wondering how I was going to complete this challenge. As were descending I met Dave. He walked with me for a while as I was not with any Group. I told him how tired I was and was wondering whether I could actually do this. To my surprise he told me well I’d done and told me to carry on. He said he was surprised at the speed at which we’d climbed the first hill and said we were all doing really well. This was the type of motivation I needed!

We had refreshment stop at the bottom of the first hill and to my surprise my group came in after me as they’d taken a wrong turn! And I’d thought it was impossible to get lost! 

I decided to walk at my own pace though rather than with any group as there were enough people there that I could talk to and meet on the way. The next five miles were pretty much on flat tarmac which I found fairly easy.