So what news on a Monday night?

Sat here, shattered. Think it must be the after-effects of going to the gym Friday night, Saturday morning (PT session) and Sunday afternoon. Went a bit bonkers again Sunday afternoon, stepping the resistance to 5 for an hour on the cross-trainer and doing some weights.

I thought about going tonight but have to keep reminding myself it's a steady build-up to the biggest physical challenge I've ever faced so chill Geoff chill, no rush! Also started eating 'properly' again today so the treats are heading out of the window. Not literally but you get my drift (oh that was SUCH an Andrew Green-type joke I may need to shoot myself).

So breaking news: -

- I've now had a request from my old Comprehensive school to go talk to them about linking my expedition into their curriculum (sports, geography and science perhaps) and waiting for 2 more replies from schools; my old Primary at Barwick and the Primary my girls went to in Woodlesford.

- I've had one of my ex-colleagues suggest we think about linking me into the journalist students at the University (could be a great win-win there but I'll need to hide all the skeletons in the cupboard)

- The organisers tell me they'll be sending me a harness soon so I can hook it up to a tyre and train dragging that around for a few hours. Why did I sign up to this again?

- I've got a PR release ready to go; a company I know will distribute it to 3000 contacts for £100 (more money spent), and a couple of the charities are thinking about doing something including one GREAT contact who could open up a few media doors. Hollywood here I come ! Well, okay, maybe that's a BIT premature but it is kind of exciting.

- I also distributed the first 50 leaflets yesterday to local companies to see if at least one of them will respond with a £50 donation; something to start the wheels going round. On average I need 4.5 donations per day from today through until the end of the trek to hit my £100 000 target but must also start to focus on my top 10 potential co-sponsoring targets as I'd really like to get half the £25 000 paid for, probably out of their marketing budgets, rather than them declining because "We already have a charity of the year". Surely some must see an advertising/PR angle.

Oh and I must e-mail the remaining 125 people in my network to tell them the pages are up and running as well as decide if I really SHOULD have a Twitter account. Contacts are telling me it's the thing to do but ... is it? Really??

Finally tonight, stats update that I'm almost up to 300 views of the blog from the UK, 40 from the USA (driven by my 2 nieces presumably), 2 from Australia (Phil and either Jess or Louise I assume) and from Germany (guten nacht to the TWOT attendees) and 1 from Singapore (hello Yvonne).

And that as they say is that for the day. Sleep well.

This waiting game is KILLING me

Hmm, sat here twiddling my thumbs impatiently.

So far this week I've had a couple of great meetings with charities one-on-one and I've decided which ones have made it to the final list. I have 2 lists; one specifically for Yorkshire charities and one for national charities that have local ties. See the lists below.

I've also paid the second half of my deposit and I've set up one of the two Virgin Money Giving pages ready for donations (I'm using Virgin because they only take a 2% fee from donations whereas JustGiving takes 5%). So why am I twiddling my thumbs impatiently I hear you ask? Go on ... ask me, you know you want to.

Well I can't finish my second VMG page until Virgin set up one of the charities on their site and I can't get to my recommended training schedule by the North Pole experts because one of the charities has to be respond to Charity Challenge to 'complete' my registration. And ..... it's .... killing .... me .... to  .... wait !!!

I've got people asking about donating, I've got my own mental and physical preparation to start and believe me when I say it's starting to hit home (which is good). My brother called from the States last night (he lives there) to say he's just watched a documentary about the physical demands of the Pole and if I gave up he'd be okay with that.

Sod that for a game of soldiers I said; I appreciated the sentiment but I was going to do this because life isn't worth living by half and if it means I have to push myself harder than ever before, be fitter and stronger and more muscular than before (calm yourself ladies) then that's what I'd be doing. End of.

And so dear readers, here I am at 2045hrs tapping my fingers on my desk wishing like crazy that the last two pieces of the jigsaw would fall into place and then whizz, pow, wham and thwack (to steal words from the old Batman series on TV) I'd be away and running. Well, skiing.

Finally (almost): -

Jane and Paul, if you're reading this thanks SOOOO much for the first £50 donation .... that means there is just 1 999 to go.

Tania, good luck with the move to Germany (and let me know if I CAN come over cross-country skiing)


Charities (equal share of donations via respective pages on VMG or donate direct but refer to my North Pole trek in 2012 please): -

Yorkshire = Candlelighters, Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Heart Research UK, Jane Tomlinson Appeal, & tbc
(www.virginmoneygiving.com/geoffmajoryorkshire is awaiting final charity details)

National = Multiple Sclerosis, Samaritans, Muscular Dystrophy, Help for Heroes, & McMillan Nurses
(www.virginmoneygiving.com/geoffmajornational is already set up)

P.S.

On a not-so-promising note, the company I mentioned on the 13th January posting came back and said "Great, sounds absolutely amazing and good luck .... but no we don't want to donate".

The other two companies who are currently considering if they donate won't be back until mid-February at the earliest so either it will be good news in time for the official launch on 15th March ... or it's back to the drawing-board in terms of a sizeable kick-off donation.

Well that went well .... not

Okay so I admit it, tonights skiing lesson didn't happen. Why? Because my glutes and thighs were still stiff from Fridays epic 90-minute adventure and Saturdays PT session : (      

And they're still tender even now. Think it must have been the lunges and sumo-squats on top of the 3-mile simulated ski the night before, rather than just the general cobwebs Paul (the PT) helped me blow away.

Some potentially good news is two companies are assesing their possible involvement and a lovely friend is so stunned by my stupidity (read 'bravery' I think) she's said she might get some friends with 'spare cash' together for me to present to. Now how do I avoid getting giddy about that?!?!?

Time for bed and glad I didn't go to the ski slope tonight as it means I'll probably be able to climb out of bed in the morning to go to work. I tell you, even the saddle rash and pedalling in Cuba didn't match the discomfort this morning - it was that uncomfortable type of tenderness that makes you laugh in disbelief as you wince.

Good night

Today is day zero, so now it's to infinity and beyond .....

Well what a rubbish morning but a great afternoon. I'll not bore you with the morning debacle but sad to say I missed my catch-up with Marc Rocca which would have been great (because it always is and because he's smart/creative).

The late afternoon however .... so much better including my first stake in the ground regarding my ability to 'cross-country ski' (or rather simulate it on a cross-trainer). Three miles in 90 minutes doesn't sound great but it is what it is; settings were level 4, maintaining 115-145 spm (ski's per minute). That helps me understand how much I need to improve to hit two of my milestones in my prep for the North Pole.

One of the milestones will be the day before my 50th birthday (no no, no cards necessary for 30th July thank you just donations, which we'll come on to later) when my lovely cousin Mandy runs the Jane Tomlinson 10k Run-For-All in Leeds along with thousands of others, I hope to be simulating skiing for the same distance (10k) on the same day with something like 20lbs on my back to replicate pulling a sled.

Another milestone will be to build that up to simulating skiing for 13 miles for September on the day of the Great North Run, again with something on my back to replicate the effort of pulling a sled.

Now before I forget, donations. A few people have asked me if I have a website page yet for donations and the answer is no, not yet. I will be setting one up on the Virgin equivalent of Just Giving, primarily because I believe Virgin take less of a % from donations for their services. I will of course validate that but the MS Society and Samaritans have told me that so who am I to disagree.

Ah yes, the charities. Well I've now had e-mail, voice or face-to-face conversations with the MS Society, the Jane Tomlinson Appeal, the Samaritans and Candlelighters and have a meeting with the Yorkshire Childrens Hospital (second in size only to Great Ormond Street evidently) set up. That leaves Muscular Dystrophy and maybe one or two more to try to get a conversation with so, I'll be e-mailing them over the weekend.

I've also decided to go B-I-G on this in terms of aspirations with some VERY serious plans that will either temporarily break my spirit when they fail or catapult me through the roof if they succeed. Watch this space (although don't just sit there waiting as it may take a few months and you'll need to move to at least get a cup of tea I'd guess).

To support this 'getting super-serious about it'-approach I'm discussing with a professional services firm if they could provide free auditing of any and all monies being donated and/or sponsorship. They seem pretty excited about the whole thing.

I also hope to have an iPhone app developed to allow people with an iPhone (obviously) to keep up to date, and hope not to have to creep too much to get someone to develop it for free. Of course the priority is to ensure I personally underwrite the cost of doing the trek not spend money on stuff and, believe you me, the trek ain't cheap!! I'm paying the deposit next week of £7 500 so I'll be feasting on dried bread and puddle water for a month or two at least.

Sunday evening is my next 3-hour ski lesson so I'll let you know how that goes too. Might be onto the big slope at Xscape by 9pm.

Oh yeah and before I forget, a very small thank-you to my colleagues in bTp Business Change Assurance at Co-operative Financial Services for buying me a pack of nappy sacks and baby wipes to start my training as, evidently, the baby wipes are because that's what I'll be expected to use to 'wash' with and ..... well the nappy sacks speak for themselves I guess as you supposedly can't leave anything behind on your way to the Pole : (

Okay, got to go. Type to you later

Yup, that seems a useful step forward

Evening

Well now I've finished the painting for the weekend it's time to put my mind to more detail about the jigsaw that is PR and community as well as fundraising (actually, they're all inter-linked really aren't they) so I've written to 3 schools to see if they'd like to use the whole experience as a learning/special projects opportunity for their pupils.

Written to my old village Junior School in Barwick, my old Comprehensive and to the Primary school my girls went to in the village next to where I now live. I recall my old headmaster at Barwick setting 'special projects' and they were SOOOOOO much more interesting than the usual lessons. Also e-mailed BBC Look North and might e-mail the ITV equivalent regarding exposure; we'll see. I mean come on, a guy who can't ski yet and who will be approaching his 51st birthday when the trek begins has to be a bit of a story.

Doesn't it?

Oh and defo focussing on raising money for Yorkshire-based (aka Yorkshire & Humberside) charities. Just e-mailed the Jane Tomlinson Appeal to see if they want to be part of the whole thing and need to e-mail Claire at Samaritans to get some Yorkshire-region stats.

Re-start with my personal trainer next weekend too so that should be fun : (

P.S. Yes I know

Yes I know corporate sponsorship is FAR more complicated than I've implied below but it's just intended to be an implication, not a statement of stupidity or naivety .... just before the mailbox gets overloaded with letters of complaint : )

Night night

Okay, handbrake off .... check direction and away we go

So it's finally arrived; two months after initially spotting the North Pole adventure on the Charity Challenge website and pestering the team to find out when it might run in 2012, as you know they confirmed it and now .... oh my.

I went through a real roller-coaster yesterday with the euphoria of knowing it's a 'go' followed by the reality of trying to raise £100k and being bloody freezing for 14 nights in total without a warm hotel to retreat to. I think the latter actually scared me more than the former. Anyway, it is green for go so here's my thinking.

I will try to support 4 charities; Yorkshire Candlelighters, The Samaritans, Muscular Dystrophy and one other (have 3 in mind; might put it to a vote). To do so I have 4 strategies to raise money: -

a) Pay between £5k and £7.5k of the costs myself (well, through my company)

b) Get corporate sponsors to fund the other £8-10k as well as starting the charity donations. These will be split into a BIG SOLE sponsor for £15k who gets to call it their North Pole adventure, plus 3 mid-sized sponsors for £5k each (one of which will be me), and around eight smaller sponsors for £1k each.

Already got one company considering the £1k deal and had 3 friends/colleagues already offer personal donations but also had a decline from a medium-sized company who seemed a sure-fire fit with the theme of protecting yourself from the cold. Have written to an ex-boss about his organisation maybe playing a big part but we'll see.


c) I'll also aim for 2000 companies to donate just £50 each to one of the charities; I'll call them the 'cast of thousands' sponsors and be looking to drive some PR and maybe even leaflet drops to attract attention. I mean SURELY £50 isn't beyond that many companies ... is it?

d) PR; as much coverage as I and the charities can muster. My network on LinkedIn and friends/colleagues may help spread the word and the local monthly colour magazine has said they'll put a feature in but it needs to be bigger and wider than that. So many thoughts running round in my brain; sooooo exciting.

A lovely lovely offer from a fellow cross-Cuba cyclist to help wherever they can was a delight to receive tonight (thank you sooooo much Jane, and get well soon) and last night another ex-Cuban rider said I could go visit her in Germany where the cross-country skiing is amazing (so thank you Tania).

Big meeting next Friday with my mate Marc Rocca. He is Mr Creative (but realistic) so I'm hoping things like a cheap iPhone app as well as social network media will allow people to keep up to date with progress, but Marc knows his stuff so I'll try to bite my over-excited tongue.

Must also approach SnoZone at Xscape soon to see if they'll provide free access to the ski slopes and maybe approach my health club too. There must be some great PR in it for them, although I recognise if they do it for one member, they might find it difficult to say no to others.

Oh yes, and of course I've the small matter of training to be fit, athletic and full of stamina (mentally and physically) to squeeze in alongside all this and my client work.

Head buzzing !! Any and all thoughts gratefully received folks.

Correction and addition

The trek is to the GEOGRAPHIC North Pole, not the magnetic North Pole. Doh!

Following on from the posting yesterday that said Gary Barlow and co may be planning a North Pole trek around the same time, a friend tells me that today Prince Harry also announced he was considering one too around the same time.

Now I hate being called a trend-setter but ......

And today it's official .... and tomorrow ...

Jo Warren from Charity Challenge confirmed today it's official; the 8-day ski trek in 2012 to the magnetic North Pole is on !! It will be opened up on their website by next week so people can register therefore ....

... tomorrow I have to be sure I can secure the pot of money to pay the deposit towards the total £25k I'll need to finally qualify and pay for my insurance, and that's only part of the total I really want to raise. Gawd forbid the places get taken before I register.

Hmm and rumour is Gary Barlow and co are considering a trek in 2012 for Sports Relief so I also need to get serious about PR and corporate sponsorship soon as well as charity donations. Think I feel a headache coming on but a good nights sleep will help. Here's hoping : )

Quick update before bed

Well that was more fun than I expected;  a 3-hour ski lesson in a group of 7 and I passed my Beginner Stages 1 & 2. I can now do 'a series of snowplough turns in a controlled manner'. Who would have guessed the old man could pick up so quickly. What was that? Ahh yes famous last words - how true.

Left knee, calf (especially) and toes ache like mad though so you just KNOW they are going to be murder in the morning but I'll be booking another session for a fortnights time and that will get me onto the large ski slope if I pass Beginner Stage 3 and Intermediate Stage 1.

I also drafted my first letter and e-mailed a company in my network about becoming one of the first sponsors so let's see what kind of response that brings. I think I'll launch at a large event I'm already part of in early March. It's killing me not to be able to launch headlong into a fundraising campaign but I know restraint is good.

Isn't it?

First big steps this weekend

Yes, although the event has yet to be confirmed, this weekend I will take my first unsteady lesson on a ski slope. I have just booked a 3-hour lesson for Sunday evening (will try to get the first photos on here early next week).

I'm also writing to my first potential sponsors this weekend; I'll decide which ones to try my pitch to sometime tomorrow but I'll be sure to keep you up to date with my progress. Oh yes and thank you to those who have given me advice so far via LinkedIn.

Watch this space folks, I'm about to light the blue touch paper on a scary stunning adventure.