On Saturday 18th April 2020 I joined the Forces Wives Challenge (FWC) in a virtual challenge to climb the height of Pen y Fan, 886m. Pen y Fan is the highest peak in south Wales, situated in the Brecon Beacons National Park.
Each year the FWC meet to tackle Pen y Fan together, however due to Coronavirus and the lockdown in place it was not possible for the event to take place this year. Therefore they set about creating a virtual challenge, one that anyone could join and be part of.
This was also a great opportunity to make a donation to my chosen charity, SSAFA.
Leading up to the challenge I got the tape measure out and measured the height of the steps on my stairs. Each step is 17cm H and there are 13 steps which gives a total height of 221 cm for each ascent. This meant that I had to climb the stairs 401 times to cover the 886m of Pen y Fan.
How hard could this be!
At 10am I took my first ascent up the stairs ... one down, only another 400 to go! I soon got into a rhythm and before too long I had completed 50 ascents up my stairs. It was then I realised how tough this was going to be! My legs had started to tire and I was a little dizzy from looking at the stairs constantly.
After 100 ascents I realised that I needed a strategy as I was walking in increments of random numbers. Annoyingly I kept losing count, so not wanting to cheat myself I went back to the number I last remembered. So I decided to tackle 10 climbs at a time and after each 10 I would take a break. Before I knew it I was half way!
By this point my legs were starting to hurt. I also had to worry about making it down the stairs safely, after tripping over my feet several times!
With some favourite tunes blasting I was slowly ticking off the numbers. I set myself a goal to complete the challenge before lunchtime and I was making great progress ... it could be done!
After around 300 ascents I really felt the strain so decided to take a well earned rest and treat myself to an easy peeler ... rock and roll! With only 101 to go I just had to keep going.
2 hours and 16 mins had lapsed and I was on my final ascent up the stairs making my way to that finish line! Wow that felt great!
It was much tougher than I had anticipated and I will have sore legs for days. I will never take a tough climb in the great outdoors for granted again!
Thank you to FWC for arranging the event, it was great to get involved!
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