Conquering the Endurance Challenge | Charterhouse School

"The weight of years of Charterhouse tradition was upon us." – Jan, Second Year Specialist (Year 13)

The alarm sounded at 7am sharp, and I jolted out of bed, knowing that I wouldn’t be back in it for another 23 and a half hours. The weight of years of Charterhouse tradition was upon us, and with our feet taped, items checked, and prayers said, we piled into the minibus.

We approached the first mile of the Endurance Challenge with some equanimity, taking in the sweeping views and drawing parallels with our Gold DofE a couple of months earlier. If only the 50-Mile Walk were flat. The hills began to wear on our feet and rapidly drain our energy. We made our way along the coast and, glancing down at our map, it looked as though we were virtually standing still.

I know the whole group was exuberant to see Father Clive with an infinite stack of Lucozades at around mile seven. It was a much-needed revival. The following miles were quite literally as expected: just walking, before we managed to reach our first major checkpoint at mile 18, where dinner was served and we began to understand the staggering magnitude of this challenge.

Darkness began to settle at around 7pm, a prefiguration of what the next 11 hours would look like. At this point, the mental battle had commenced, and it was no longer our feet that bore the greatest pain; it was the thought that we couldn’t rest for another half-day. The headphones went on, and we took full advantage of Spotify’s ‘Jam’ feature to sync all our songs together.

Our minds began to wander further than our feet could carry us. The train tracks began to merge with the trees, and the trees with the landscape, until everything became one large blur. A rather exhilarating feeling; the exhaustion began to subdue all my racing thoughts.

The final 10 miles felt both more inspiring and more dreadful than the rest. Charterhouse seemed to keep moving backwards with every forward step we took. I can recall the last hill vividly, even though it was pitch-dark. We merged with some other groups who were struggling perhaps slightly more than we were, combining our efforts to give it one final push.