I thought we were out of the race

Sunday, 5th of October 2008 was the date on the calendar for us to collect our remaining South Pole kit. It was to be a day of excitement - the start of the final run-in towards the race. But, as we flew to Bristol and drove to the meeting point, I felt that our race was over before it had even begun….

I still only had £45,000 of the £126,000 required to enter the race and during the last couple of weeks of September the financial markets hit their worst crisis since the Great Depression. During the week before kit issue day, I received two more rejections for sponsorship. The first was from a CEO of the North American division of a global bank and the second from a smaller retail company at home.

I just couldn’t see how it would be possible to pull this off - getting from £45,000 to £126,000 in a matter of a few weeks was just too big a hill to climb. I had resigned myself to the fact that without some radical change in fortune, we were out of the race. Being out of the race meant a year of training wasted. Sunday mornings at cock crow with Simon in the Phoenix Park dragging tires for 6 hours – pointless. A year of effort and time and negotiations for sponsorship – worthless. All I could think was “What am I going to tell people?”

I suggested to the team that if we weren’t going to be able to enter the race, then it would be unfair to go over and collect the kit. I felt it would be dishonest.

“I agree but we’re not out yet and I think you should call Tony and let him know where we are with the cash. See what he says.” Simon said.

I called Tony and he told me that he would like me to come over anyway. In relation to the finance he just said, “Stick at it.”  Simon and I flew to Bristol airport from Dublin. Noel flew in from Belfast and met us in the airport. I was so disappointed and so worried, I hardly spoke on the journey and by the time we arrived in the town hall I wondered what I was doing there at all.

The day was all about the South Pole Race and I felt like an outsider. We listened to Tony present the logistics for the race, we heard the real experiences of Conrad Dickinson’s time in Antarctica, and finally we were issued with the kit. As we received the sledges, the jackets, the sleeping bags and fleeces, I felt like a fake. I didn’t have the money and I sat there thinking, ‘We’re going to have to give all of this back. What’s the bloody point in taking it?"

As the day came to a close I had a face to face chat with Tony, the race organiser. I told him that I had only raised £45,000 towards the team’s entry costs and that it didn’t look like anyone else was going to sponsor us. His response was the same, “Just keep on trying,” he said, “this is what getting to the South Pole is about. Let me see what we can do at our end.”

So, as we travelled back to Bristol airport with the kit, I knew we were out of the race…