The Road to Ventoux - Part 21
The Road to Ventoux –9/05/2022
Team Ventoux3
The Ventoux3 challenge is raising money for the Out of the Blues charity at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/outoftheblues.
Three weeks today, my wife and I fly out to Marseille for the Ventoux3 challenge. Preparations are starting to feel very serious. It is always easier to work as a team than an individual when trying to achieve a goal. I am blessed with friends and family who have come together to support me with my Ventoux3 challenge. We had our first planning meeting last weekend.
My mentor, predecessor and Out of the Blues Trustee, Prof Nicol Ferrier, his wife Dr Viv Ferrier and one of their daughters Dr Mary Ferrier, are all travelling out to Two other friends and colleagues, husband and wife duo Dr Sasha Gartside and Dr Richard McQuade are dividing their efforts so as to give me support and company throughout the challenge. Richard is going to join me for the second climb from Malaucene, while Sasha is going to join me for the last climb from Sault. I suspect Sasha will have her work cut out keeping me going! Richard and Sasha have also been able to provide the team will valuable intelligence having previously (on separate occasions) done the climbs from Bedoin and Sault.
My daughter, Ailidh, and her partner, Adam Taylor, are going to join us for the challenge. They are going to be providing key logistical support, looking after food and fluid for critical fuelling and hydration (temperatures in Bedoin are starting to approach 30 degrees at the moment), changes in clothing (the summit will be around 5-10 degrees with wind chill, and the decent even colder), photography and social media coverage. They will be being transported up and down Ventoux to various locations by my intrepid wife, who is in charge of transportation (as well as putting up with me talking endless about the challenge!).
To give us a team feel, we now have team T-shirts, and team flags to help riders spot where the support team are (see photo). These incorporate the fantastic new challenge logo designed by my highly talented nephew Ollie Scognamiglio – many thanks to him.
Finally, there is Harry Hackett, a Psychology Placement student at the Northern Centre for Mood Disorders, who has been posting these blogs onto the Out of the Blues website and tweeting about the challenge. Many thanks for your help!
I could not ask for a nicer or better bunch of people to be working with, trying to raise money for the Out of the Blues charity. I look forward to celebrating with them after the event! In the mean time I am focusing on the last two peak weeks of training……
Don’t forget the www.NorthernMentalHealth.org site that provides a wealth of advice around dealing with isolation, self-management of anxiety and depression. Please have a look at the site and share it with others – there is something there for everybody.
I wish everybody the very best and I hope you all stay healthy. Whatever your situation, try to make exercise of one sort or another a part of your daily/weekly routine. If you want to get involved in the Ventoux3 for Out of the Blues challenge in any way, then drop me an email at hamish.mcallister-williams@newcastle.ac.uk. The dates are now confirmed as the 2nd or 3rd June, with a reserve day of the 4th. The exact day will be weather determined (see blog #20 at http://outoftheblues.org/news/cat/the-road-to-ventoux).
Hamish McAllister-Williams