Capital Effort

Harry Mostyn, Apsley Head of House, writes: At 7.30am on Sunday, Apsley awoke – with a chorus of grunts – to the unwelcome sound of a large bell. However, the mood soon changed with a liberal daubing of pink face paint and the distribution of ‘Restore’ T-shirts. Outside, we were greeted by a howling gale and pelting rain but all 55 of us rose to the occasion and braved the unfavourable conditions to launch our Capital Cities Tour. Half an hour later, we were running in a sun-licked Quad preparing to enter Cardiff. The ‘vibe’ was certainly one of positivity and anticipation. On arrival in the Welsh capital, we all piled into the Shell prep room and set out on bikes, aiming for the Welsh coastal town of Fishguard, spurred on by Tom Naughton’s rousing music. We were ahead of time, but had still not embarked on the most challenging leg of our journey – the dreaded rowing. Morale began to sink as time went by very slowly on the ergo machines. But thanks to the sterling efforts of Karl Reiger and Jason Zhou, we made it to Ireland. We then set off on a long cycle across the whole of Ireland via Dublin, and then on to Belfast. After a couple of hours in the clammy, musky room, where hygiene was beginning to be a problem, we were greeted with the bitter-sweet news of our arrival on the Irish coast – which of course meant that we had to hop onto the ergo machines again. This time, however, it felt much less painful – probably because the distance was shorter! – and we soon arrived on the Scottish coast, ready for the last leg of our journey: a run all the way to Edinburgh.  Legs were tiring as we all limped around the Quad. After a considerable amount of time, Freddie Hilton calculated that if we all did three more laps of the Quad, we would have completed our journey. This prompted Mr McPherson to sprint up the Apsley stairs and grab his bagpipes to pipe in our arrival and mark the completion of our Tour. We all grouped together for a photo, displaying the vibrant colours of the countries we had ‘visited’ in the space of just over 8 hours. Understandably, there were some red and relieved faces present; but we all felt a tremendous sense of pride.

Add to the boys’ impressive £4,000 total on their JustGiving page