8:40am Sunday 25th April 2010
A FANTASTIC team of four have returned after a brutal six-day desert run in blistering heat to raise money for people with learning disabilities.
The four friends battled on despite fatigue, bandaged feet and 40-degree heat to complete a 150-mile run across the world’s driest desert in Chile, called the Atacama Crossing challenge.
The Red Hot Chile Runners team – consisting of Richard Cheetham, 44, a fitness coach for Basingstoke Rugby Football Club, and former Basingstoke RFC players Ross Stirling, 27, David O’Dwyer, 27, and David Lambert, 28 – have smashed their £5,000 target and have also raised almost £6,000 for Mencap.
Having reached the start of the race, in San Pedro de Atacama, just in time – following a 14-hour bus journey in the aftermath of an earthquake – the quartet set off on their gruelling run over sand dunes, dried river beds and salt flats.
Mr Cheetham, who lives in Winchester and is a sports coaching lecturer at the city’s university, said: “It was brutal – we all finished in various different states – but it was awesome.
“The hardest thing was probably the heat – it really got to us. It topped 45 degrees on the first day, was 40 degrees every day and we were only allocated a certain amount of water per day. The longest day was 45 miles from 7.30am until just before midnight.”
Mr Lambert – a Captain in the Army Air Corps and an Apache helicopter pilot who returned from Afghanistan a month before the race – became ill and spent one night on an intravenous drip, but was amazingly back up and running again the next day.
Mr O’Dwyer, a lawyer based in London, and Mr Cheetham had their feet bandaged due to severe blisters.
But despite their trials and tribulations, all four were among 121 out of 150 runners to pass the finishing line.
Mr Stirling, a graphic designer in London, and Mr O’Dwyer finished in 51st and 52nd position, Mr Lambert came 72nd and Mr Cheetham finished in 77th position.
Mr Cheetham, whose team-mates all went to Cranbourne Business and Enterprise College, in Basingstoke, said: “It was a relief to finish. All of us were in a lot of discomfort but we were elated. After six months of training, it was incredible.”
He added: “The best thing was the camaraderie. We really supported each other. And it’s amazing how much we’ve raised – much more than we expected to.”
The adventurers are already planning to climb Mount Aconcagua, in Argentina, the highest mountain in the Americas, as their next fundraising challenge.
Anyone wishing to make a donation to mark the team’s efforts can go to justgiving.com/redhotchile runners.
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