Annual Camp....

For the uninitiated, every year TA soldiers go on a two week excursion to another part of the country and engage in military training. This is referred to as "Annual Camp" and this year CUOTC journeyed to Folkestone, Kent to stay in St Martin's Plain. Whilst the rest of us were comfortably sitting in our coach, holding rifles and catching a pre-camp nap; the VTCC team decided to put all the hard word and training to the test and cycle from Cambridge to Kent. 

The day itself was rather murky when they left Cambridge bright and early, and team members Hannah, Tom, Trev, Katie, Huffie and Alex were all ready to face the journey ahead. Some had already, the day before, cycled from Norwich to Cambridge and seemed in good spirits when the rest of us caught up with them. Riders Tom, Katie, Huffy, Alex and Rich had cycled from UEA to the Cambridge TA Centre so another big ride to Folkestone seemed good preparation for the VTCC. 


After the rest of us watched breathlessly as the team devoured what seemed about twice the amount of food that we could consume comfortably the team embarked for Kent. RSM Shaw rode nearby in a van as a precaution but also to provide the team with much needed morale and food to sustain the grueling pace needed to get to the camp before nightfall. 


Those of us who had already arrived could only wait for them to arrive hopefully still maintaining the good spirits that they had enjoyed in the morning. Our first arrival was Hannah McInroy-Naylor who unfortunately had suffered illness the previous day but had made it to the majority of the route before being brought in using the team van. She brought news that Tom Betts had taken a minor fall and subsequently shredded some of his team uniform but other then that the team was unscathed! 

Then the others arrived, and after being shown an impressive array of sunburn (especially Alex Yorke who seemed to be imitating a candy cane in his stripey complexion) they were fed and showered and promptly fell asleep to what I presume was a much needed rest. 


This was the first big test of the team for the kind of distances that they will be facing on the Challenge. Not only did they face up to it, and continue on with good humor but also managed to have a turbo-trainer session the following week as well as completing all of their military training. 

This bodes well for raising plenty of money for ABF and Combat Stress and hopefully a victory for Cambridge!