Ben Saunders - Polar Explorer, Motivational Speaker

A Day in the Life

9am: Interval training at Barn Elms running track with Kerry Anley and Andrew Tongue:

3pm: Andy Ward (SOUTH's Expedition Manager) and I cutting and taping USGS charts of Antarctica in order to plot the route from Berkner Island to the Antarctic Plateau:



(Larger photos on my Flickr stream.)

{ Filed under Running, SOUTH, Training on June 27th, 2008 | 2 Comments }

2gether08

I'll be speaking at 2gether08 in London next week - "a festival of ideas and action… exploring how digital technologies can bring us major new social benefits". My plan is to throw open a challenge to what I'm hoping will be a fairly switched-on audience: how do we best use the internet to tell the story of SOUTH as it unfolds, and to engage as wide an audience as possible?

I'm on at 11ish on Thursday morning. If you're thinking of popping along, the line up looks pretty stellar.

{ Filed under SOUTH, Speaking on June 26th, 2008 | 1 Comment }

Feed Me

Thanks to everyone that emailed to point out that my RSS feed was kaput. It's taken me a bit of head-scratching to fix it, but the solution (in case anyone else is having problems persuading Wordpress 2.5+ to play nicely with Feedburner) lay in pointing Feedburner to /feed rather than /wp-rss2.php. And using Steve Smith's excellent FeedSmith plugin, of course.

If the above meant nothing to you at all, thanks for wading through it and fear not, the BBC have written a nifty guide to what RSS is all about, and why it might make your life just a tiny weeny bit better.

{ Filed under Miscellany on June 24th, 2008 | No Comments }

Water Fountains and Helicopters

I went training alone at Barn Elms athletics track one evening last week, and arrived to find a dozen or so teenage boys (decked out in the archetypal 'chav' regalia of hooded top, tracksuit trouser and fake jewellery) holding court in one corner of the track. Two of them had mopeds, and were riding them around the track, helmetless, when I ducked under the fence to begin my session.

My hackles were up as I jogged towards the posse on my warm-up lap, and I was already cooking up retorts to the abuse that was bound to be hurled and spat my way as I passed them in a vest and skimpy shorts. But none came, and the boys kept themselves to themselves.

After a few more laps in the evening sun, and a great deal more sweat, one of the boys approached on a mountain bike that was too small for him. I braced myself. "'Ere, mate", he said, taking a hand off the bars and angling the peak his baseball cap to block out the glare, "are we gettin' in the way of you runnin'? Just say if we are, and we'll 'ead somewhere else." I smiled spontaneously, thinking of the space I had as a kid, growing up in the countryside. My brother and I had a whole valley, almost to ourselves. "Of course not."

And then, a few minutes later, something utterly surreal happened. A police helicopter swooped low over the nearby trees and circled twice around the boys twice, so slowly that it was almost hovering, before scudding off towards the horizon. I blinked in disbelief, then ran on.

I was done after an hour and sat by the edge of the track with a towel and a drinks bottle. A different kid in a hoodie came up on a scooter. "Mate, is there a water fountain near here?" There wasn't, of course, and the tragedy of the situation struck me instantly. England (and perhaps the world) could do with a few more water fountains, and a few less police helicopters.

{ Filed under Random thoughts and reflection, Schools/Education on June 16th, 2008 | 4 Comments }

Inspiration…

…to go training on a Sunday afternoon: Graham Watson's fabulous photo of this seven-man break climbing the Passo Vivione in yesterday's stage of the Giro d'Italia. At this point they were twenty minutes ahead of the peloton. Grr.

You can see all of Graham's 2008 Giro coverage here.

{ Filed under Cycling, Inspiration and motivation on June 1st, 2008 | 1 Comment }