Officers work out for charity
Both Senior Superintendent (Operations) Kowloon East (KE) B J Smith and Chief Inspector (OPS) KE Simon Southgate are training hard for separate but demanding events later in the year. For Simon it is 250-km self-supported crossing of the Gobi desert that sees him up at 4 am every morning running 15 km carrying a 25 lb pack. He has previously completed the Sahara desert under the same race format and once this is over he will only have the Antarctic Race (November 2010) and the Atacama Crossing in Chile (March 2011) left to complete the "4 Deserts Race" series.
"Having just adopted two huskies from the Dog Rescue Centre the training for this race gives us all a good workout first thing in the morning. I also train with BJ in the evening so by the time it is getting dark again I am already thinking about bed. Still it's all for a good cause as I am raising money for Operation Breakthrough, and the St Baldrick's Children Cancer charity," said Simon.
For BJ it is an ultrathon in Mongolia that is taking up his spare time through training although he avoids the early starts.
"For me getting up whilst it is still dark is the work of the devil.........he is not known as the Prince of Darkness for nothing. I prefer to train at lunchtime or in the evenings and of course make use of the weekends for the longer runs. I completed the Racing the Planet event in Namibia last year, which is a very similar event to the one Simon, is competing in so I know how tough that is. Mongolia will only be 100 km but with a cut off time of 18 hours will still prove a challenge," said BJ.
Force members wanting to know more about Simon's 4-Deserts Challenge, and sponsor him may visit his website: www.sims4desertchallengecom.webstarts.com
Working
out on rough terrain