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Perpetual motion refers to a condition in which an object moves forever without being driven by an external source of energy. The term is commonly used to refer to Machines which display this phenomenon. The law of thermodynamics would have to be broken in order for the device to be a true perpetual motion Machine.

Once again the August Bank holiday was spent taking part in EnduroChallenge. For those not in the know, it entails:

• Running from London to Dover (122km)
• Swimming across the English Channel with no wetsuits (35km)
• Cycling from Calais to Paris (262km)

All this for charity and bragging rights over the other teams.. After swearing I would never do this again, I had unfinished business and stuck my hand up again....how I lived to regret that after 17mins into my first swim shift!!!

The changes from 2005 were:

• There were two additional banks taking part, BarCap & Deutsche Bank (DB)
• The swim would start at 00h30, as this would be when the tides are at their highest
• The run & bike legs would be by distance and not time this year
• Route from London to Dover would be longer and over the North Downs for safety reasons
• Our charity was British Heart Foundation (thks to all those that donated)

In the run up to this years event, I wasn't able to get down to Dover as many times as I would've liked, and thus with a week to go, needed to do some cold water swimming. The hour shifts were not of concern to me, as I had already swum 3 x 1hr shifts at Lake Zurich. It was just the cold water. Anyone who has ridden with me in winter, will know how much gear I put on to keep warm, in short...I HATE THE COLD !

So the week before:
Mon - Lido, water temp 17degrees, I managed 18mins
Tues - Lido, water temp 16degrees, I managed 22mins before being pulled out the pool by lifeguards because I couldn't even breathe.
Wed - PANIC stations, after getting some Channel grease from Litchi (I owe her huge), I managed to do a a decent swim. Problem was trying to get the grease off the wall-to-wall carpeting on my chest!

The team this year comprised of:

• Keeto - 2nd time around, HATE the cold, score to settle.
• Luke - Irishman, also 2nd time around, IM Lanza 2006 finisher (nuff respect). He knew what lay ahead....
• Tim - aka "Welshie", was support person last year, loves the cold and always has a smile on his face. he was happy to run through the fields and talk to some of his 'family'.
• Maddie - our female member and hard as nails, good swimmer and also battled with cold. awesome run on leg 6.
• Greg - aka "Guns", also an IM Lanza 2006 finisher, and uberBiker, trained by sitting in sea at night in Southend.
• James - aka "Dolphin" an ex-Commonwealth butterfly swimmer, swam 4 miles in his 2nd shift !! And he can friggin bike aswell. We are trying to entice him to join our IM Florida 2007 road trip.
• George - the support cyclist on run route and driver on cycle leg (think he was on the boat as well.......)
• Louise & Ami - again our star support crew, who made sure we got to Paris, and all logistics were done. The best new purchase for 2006 event, hot water bottles to warm body after swim.

The run and bike course had to be recce'd before the event, so everyone knew where they were going. The 2nd round of run legs were very, very interesting and tough. We were running through farm fields, dodging cows, and jumping over stiles, all this whilst trying to run at threshold !! Needless to say some cows and sheep came in for some choice words when they just chewed grass when told to "f*** off out the way".

One thing Luke, Tim and I knew from 2005 was that in the end, it is the lack of sleep that smashes you and this added to doing stuff at threshold, leaves you absolutely mentally and physically drained. We also knew what sort of nutrition worked and what didn't last year. So our main source of food for 3 days would be; banana's, gels, power bars, jaffa cakes, sandwiches (on boat), and ProPlus caffeine pills (which ended up being scoffed like smarties!) Dolphin, being from Sheffield, arrived with his pork pies and sausage rolls!

Friday:
After the usual press coverage and photos, the first runners got ready for the 1st run leg. It was going to be a "neutral" run to Greenwich park and then they could all put the handbrake down. Our run order was determined by how hard the 2nd shifts were, and with some tough hills and terrain awaiting us, Dolphin was given the starting slot. We knew from some google searches which guys could run/swim/bike in the other teams...and there were some pretty friggin blitz guys out there (2h27 marathoner etc). We all drove to Greenwich and the guys set off. About 30mins later, we saw all the runners coming up the hill, about to start the actual race.

Leg 1 Dolphin:
Now considering Dolphin had never run further than 10km in his life ("Why would I" he said), he was looking in good shape. The command was given and off they went. We drove to the first changeover point and waited.

First to hit the changeover were CSFB, a minute later DB, Dolphin was next and BarCap 4mins later.

Leg 2 Luke:
Luke was next up and had to run against the speed demon from DB (29mins 10km). BarCap had their fastest runner as well on leg 2. Luke ran really well and looked good when reaching changeover point. I was up next at changeover 3. By now DB were in front, CSFB 2nd, BarCap were 3rd and we were 4th.

Leg 3 Keeto:
As soon as I started I knew I was going to have to work hard to catch the guys ahead. I knew the CSFB runner was catchable. With about 2km to go, I managed to catch and pass the BarCap and CSFB runner, handing over to Welshie in 2nd spot.

Leg 4 Welshie:
So onto Welshie on leg 4 and DB were now starting to get into their slower runners. Welshie ran an absolute storming leg, and smashed his normal 10km time by 2mins !! Shows what adrenaline can do, as well as a support cyclist shouting abuse at you ! We were still in 2nd place, but right up DB's backside.

Leg 5 Guns:
Within 2km had passed the DB athlete, the mini bus erupted. We knew that with the 2nd round of runs being harder than the first, we could hopefully get to Dover first. Guns flew round his leg and passed onto Maddie for leg 6.

Leg 6 Maddie:
We were in awe of Maddie as this was the toughest leg in the first round, knowing that her last leg is only 8km of hammerfest into Dover. She annihilated the other runners to give us an overall lead after 6 legs. Now onto the tough parts of the run.

Leg 7 Dolphin:
Dolphin wasn't looking fwd to his 12km cross-country leg, and considering he hates being out of water, had a storming run to keep the lead. The pain wretched on his face coming into changeover, will forever live in my memory.

Leg 8 Luke:
Next up was Luke vs the speed freak, we knew that we may lose the lead. Solid throughout the event as ever, Luke came out of the fields still in first place, with DB runner up his ar*e. Best sight of the day !!

Leg 9 Keeto:
Up against a very fast DB runner, and with some friggin steep hills, stiles and mud to contend with, I had to try and limit our losses to DB on this run. CSFB had also gained some ground, but were still lying 3rd. BarCap struggling with the x-country route were further behind in 4th. The DB runner passed me within 2km and now all I could do was try and hang on for dear life. Over stiles, through gates, past cows and over hills, we ran, whilst I was dieing to stay within 15secs of him. With one last hill to go and then heading into changeover, he shifted into another gear. I tried to do the same, and realised my chassis was due an MOT and there were no more gears. I knew there was a 400m downhill to finish it off and decided to just lean fwd, let the wind take my ears and propel me downhill at a rate of knots !! I cannot remember much from the downhill, but know that at changeover we were 15secs behind DB, and with 2 very strong runners to come, we knew we were odds on to win the run.

Leg 10 Welshie:
He again showed us what threshold/hill training can do.....he ripped his run leg to shreds (since heard some farmers have only now put out the fires across their land).

Leg 11 Guns:
With a 17mins lead over 2nd place, we drove off to final changeover. News came through that Guns had got lost and CSFB had taken over the lead. It had indeed happened, and Guns had to run up his steep hill twice !! By the time he got to final changeover to Maddie, he was shattered and was phenomenal in being on the CSFB's tail.

Final Leg Maddie:
She took off in hot pursuit of CSFB knowing she only had 8km to haul her in. Within 3km she had done that and carried on belting it till we came to the finish line.

We had won the run leg !! After 122km, only 5mins separated 1st & 2nd ! Deutsche were 3rd, and BarCap 1h40mins behind in 4th.

We then moved into a hotel for a few hours to shower and have some food before having to be at Dover Marina at 23h00. Never before has a cheeseburger looked so inviting.