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It
all started back in the mid-60s, when a bunch of Scouts with an
unseemly amount of zeal decided it would be fun to try walking 50
miles around Banbury... in December.
The
days are short in December. It's cold, and often wet. And farmers
get tipped off if the route is going to cross their land, and make
a special point of ploughing it (this probably isn't true, but it
feels true when you're walking).
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| It's
not all downhill from here, sadly... |
And
yet every year - except 2001, thanks to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease - about 300 people have a go at the Tour de Trigs night
hike round Banbury.
This
year's course was actually 52 miles long (plus an extra two miles
for a schoolboy team who missed a checkpoint, and got sent back).
Walkers
left Blessed George Napier School and climbed straight up Crouch
Hill, before heading north through Hanwell, Farnborough and up to
Bishop's Itchington in Warwickshire.
Then
they headed west to Compton Verney and south through Tysoe, Brailles,
over the dreaded Brailles Hill to Cherington, and on to Hook Norton
and Shutford, passing close to Broughton Castle. The survivors trudged
up Crouch Hill again, and back to base.
Many
walkers are locals, though this year two flew in from America. They
won a trophy - for the fastest team living more than 30 miles from
Banbury.
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| Half
an hour before starting isn't enough to plot the route. |
This
year a team of men from Oxford, Kevin Mayo, Mark Edwards and Jeremy
Hope, raced against three women from the Midlands to become the
fastest finishers. At
one point in the night the women forced the men to run for five
miles, before making a navigational error separated the two teams.
The
women finished in just under 16 hours. A short time later, they
were told they would be disqualified for breaking strict rules on
kit during the walk. They were thought to be the only team disqualified
in the event's 38 years.
This
year, 106 walkers completed the full distance within 24 hours -
42% of those who started. The percentage is usually lower.
More
amazing
still, though, is the fact that dozens of volunteers stay up all
night to run the event, many of them spending many hours standing
on bitterly cold hilltops. They're the real heroes of the Tour de
Trigs.
Visit
the Tour de Trigs website .
You
can also read impressive personal accounts of the
and walks
- on the Oxford and Cambridge university websites, curiously enough.
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Click
here
to see 360-degree pictures of the 2003 Tour de Trigs
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听
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The
Tour de Trigs is organised by
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