Dig Deeper 2022 – Ben White

On Friday 30th September, Kilnbridge took part in the Dig Deeper 2022 charity competition. Having failed to take home any prizes the previous year the Kilnbridge team of Ben White, Pablo Porcel, Alastair Courtney and Rob Jones-Gerrard were keen to make amends.

This was the seventh year that Dig Deeper has been running and is an annual Construction Industry event held in the Lake District this year consisting of 32 teams of four running and mountain biking for a total of four hours up and down the Lake District’s hills. All entry fees go towards two very worthy charities: Anthony Nolan and 353. Other companies represented included Arup, Multiplex, Hares, Careys, ISG, Keltbray, Fosters, SRM, Wilson James, and SAS amongst others. For more details of the race, charities and sponsors see here: https://www.digdeeperrace.com/.

On Friday morning 08:00am the team set out on their bikes knowing that conditions were going to be tough – torrential rain was forecast for most of the morning, so they had planned their route to get as much cycling completed as possible before the heavens opened. This strategy succeeded as the team picked up 200 out of a possible 250 points in only 90 minutes of cycling. The run stage had been curtailed by the organisers due to the poor weather conditions, meaning that the four highest scoring stations higher up the mountains were no longer available – this was going to make things much closer leaving not much to differentiate the top teams. Despite the horrendous conditions, the team went all out to get as many of the remaining points as possible and through a big effort managed to pick up 165 out of a possible 185. After the run, there was laser clay pigeon shooting and another short orienteering competition followed by a short kayak sprint before the final cycle sprint back to the Youth Hostel. The team managed to finish with over 20 minutes to spare and were thus not optimistic at having done enough to get them the top spot.

It was a close run competition, but the Kilnbridge team managed to secure the top spot and thus came away as Dig Deeper 2022 Open Champions – just as importantly the team had scored more points than the organisers – the first time in the event’s history that this had happened!