If anyone could ride an infinity printer in record time from Lands End to John O’Groats. It would be adventurer, extreme athlete and all round good guy, Richard Smith or Challenge Rich as he is now known.
Seriously though, we can’t believe it’s actually that time already…
For 5 days only, starting on Monday 3rd July. Our friend, Challenge Rich, will become a self employed Penny Farthing racer, in his quest to break a 131 year old world record.
Yes that’s right, the still standing world record for racing a Penny Farthing from Lands End to John O’ Groats was set in 1886, by George Pilkington Mills.
Challenge Rich is aiming to dip under 5 days, smashing the current record of 5 days, 1 hour & 45 minutes. But, to do this, he has to cover nearly 900 miles, averaging around 185 miles every day on a Penny Farthing!
Obviously, Rich is not doing this for his own vanity (well maybe just a little bit!). He’s doing it for a very worthy cause ‘Children in Need’. And the target, is not to raise just a few hundred or a few thousand pounds, it’s to raise a massive £10,000.
But Challenge Rich really needs your help! And, we need 10,000 people to donate £1 each, please visit his Just Giving Page here.
For the last few months, Richard has been practising hard, in the driving rain, howling wind and baking sunshine. Racking up the miles, all over Lancashire, Cheshire and even Cumbria. We’ve been watching his progress on Facebook & Twitter. And witnessed when he rocked up in Kendal, after what seemed a leisurely mornings ride to him, it was truly amazing to us. And we still wish he was riding a printer!
This week Challenge Rich has taken a bit of time out, to visit a number of schools to educate the children about his challenge, and demonstrate how to ride a Penny Farthing.
Rich tells me ‘I was amazed how many of them had never seen a Penny Farthing before, and probably thought I was some kind of superhero’. Challenge Rich also told me ‘now the children understand about the challenge and that its Children in Need who will benefit from the £10,000 pounds we raise, they, their friends and family will hopefully all provide their support over the 5 day challenge’.
Challenge Rich is really grateful to St Thomas primary school in Blackburn, East Ward primary school in Bury) and St Marie’s primary school in Standish, for letting him share his story with the school children.
Rich embarrasses us. All we do, is provide our customers with money saving office solutions, such as photocopiers, small business and classroom managed printer solutions and cloud based telecoms.
We are not superhero’s like Richard Smith. But, we are really proud that he has chosen us as one of his sponsors.
Its great that other businesses think Challenge Rich is a superhero too. And our great thanks goes out to Paul Whitfield Business Coaching, Cooltech Air Conditioning, Carrs Pasties, Warwick Steel, Pestokill and Forrester Electrical for lending their financial support in the way of sponsorship.
Challenge Rich is really keen on people getting involved, they can do this in a number of ways. Come and join him on part of the route, follow his progress live or simply donate a £1 on his just giving page. Get involved, an event like this only happens every 131 years!
