Mid-Year Review

This month marks an exciting event at my workplace: the mid-year review. For those readers who might not work for a multinational company you may be unfamiliar with this concept, but it is basically a sit down with your manager to review how you are performing and whether you are ‘on-track’ or ‘off-track’ to achieving your targets for the year. As mentioned, this is a high point for all (I am going to leave it at that as I know some of my colleagues read this!)

But anyway, in honour of this momentous occasion I thought I would undertake my own mid-year review for the Chile Challenge, to assess what I have done so far, how I am going against the targets I have set myself, and what I expect to do by the end of the year. And to top it off I am even going to do it in a Balanced Scorecard style, so here goes:

Performance Against Targets

• Total of 2394 km covered against Target of 2136 km (112% of half-year goal), comprised of:
  • Swimming 124 km
  • Cycling 1755 km
  • Running 233 km
  • ‘Other’ 282 km
• Best month was April with 447 km traveled (125% of target)
• Funds Raised so far £695 (excluding Gift Aid and Fund Matching schemes) from 17 donors
• Overall, a good achievement in H1 to get ahead of target at this stage of the year. This provides some headroom for a dip in training over the next month or so whilst I slow down and travel around other parts of Chile, but still allowing me to keep up my fitness and remain on track to achieve the overall target.

Effort & Commitment

• 94 training sessions and races logged in 181 days – just over one every other day (many of them multiple activities)
  • 19 Swims
  • 45 Bike Rides
  • 24 Runs
• ‘Other’ activities ranged from Combat & Spin Classes, to ‘extreme’ Scuba Diving & Surfing, to traditional Football, Cricket & Golf.
• Even managed to keep up training whilst on holiday in Cornwall, Bristol & Derbyshire.
• Triathlon / Life Balance – As those of you who partake in regular training training for long distance events (and your families) will know it involves a significant sacrifice of your personal life, ranging from early morning runs to late night swims. One of the hardest parts of this challenge has been the amount I have been away, and now I am over the hump I am going to consciously slow things down, to be able to spend more time with my family in the remainder of the year, whilst of course making sure I still complete the remainder of the challenge.

Major Events

• The year started out with a ‘Dryathlon’ of no alcohol throughout January, to help kick off the fitness vibe.
• May saw the first major race of the year, in the Stratford Sprint Triathlon. This proved to be a decent start to the season, with a strong swim leg in the pool, a slightly lonely bike leg around the back end of nowhere, and an unexpected trail run. My time was in line with expectations, but sadly the course itself was a bit unexciting.
• June however, was the biggie – the Avenger Triathlon, a half-iron distance beast worthy of the name. A tough course combined with a crazy hot day made this an extra challenge, but just shy of 8 hours racing saw me complete the race. Following a similar pattern to the last one, this started well with a great swim time, but the bike course was a killer, in particularly the last 25 km or so, and the half-marathon was something else – but it was all worth it to finish such an event!

Communications

• Started writing (this) blog to raise awareness, and help my supporters track my progress.
• 50 posts written in the first six months.
• 323 posts read and 22 regular followers.
• Plenty of information provided on Chile, with even more photos to come (most of my best pictures are of Northern Chile!)
• Tons of ideas for the rest of the year (hopefully I will get around to actually writing them up!)
• A critically acclaimed presentation to work colleagues, along with a unique fold and keep booklet with FAQs on the Challenge.

All in all, a decent start to the first half of the year with plenty more still to come. Highlights still to come in H2 include a fully Olympic Triathlon in Windsor, the Great Birmingham Run, and an action packed Road Trip through Chile itself. The main thing is I am still on track to achieve my target of 4260 km by New Year’s Eve, so thank you for your support so far, and I hope you keep reading for the rest of the year!