Yomp

Dan Brown and Pete Blackman RV’d with Tom at 0430 to travel to Dartmoor for the Royal Marines 30-miler.
This is an infamous test of endurance – tackled by Royal Marine hopefuls only after 8 months of intensive training. Tom decided to give Dan and Peter 6 weeks notice.
A short but ominous briefing ensued in the biting wind on the edge of Dartmoor at 0630 - “…..Mission – to cross 30 miles of the terrain to your front carrying 33 pounds of equipment in under 8 hours, in a state fit for future tasking….”, “…when you cross that cattle grid, the only way off here is to get to the car the other end. There is no other option.”
Navigation was aided by good visibility throughout – and although the sun beat down all day, some solace was found in the thought that part of Dan’s 33lbs was made up of drip packs and syringes. The thought of having Tom sticking needles into veins seemed to galvanise people into constant hydration – each person drank around 6 litres of water and Met-Rx isotonic solution during the yomp.
7 hours 33 minutes later, the group arrived in one piece at Shipley Bridge, where traditionally Royal Marines recruits would become qualified commando soldiers. Further tasking was carried out in the Albion pub…