Trustee Ros Completes Epic Birthday Triple Challenge for Elephants

A 70th Triple Challenge

STEF Trustee – Ros Bird – has raised £1,040 to help fund the free veterinary care for sick and injured elephants in Southern Thailand.  Ros, who is the first to admit she cannot sit still, decided that she was going to acknowledge her impending 70th birthday in active style and do something meaningful to help her cross the divide into what she hopes will be an even more proactive and thriving decade.

Ros said “I have always jogged for fun and do like to enter events to help me maintain my motivation for training and my fitness.  Age is no barrier if you are determined enough.  As a STEF Trustee I feel it is important that, as well as assisting in operational and governance aspects of running the charity, I also set an example to others.  In this special year though  I decided to enter not one but three events – hence the Triple challenge.  First the Bacchus Half Marathon in September (in full fancy dress and boiling weather), the second a iconic 10k to celebrate the famous local West Sussex athlete Alfred Shrubb (who was an inspiration to all runners) and then a month later taking part in the gruelling Beachy Head Marathon, just because it was one of the hardest ones I could find in the South East.”

The three combined events involved Ros taking a total of 129,019 steps, burning 7,859 calories and going a combined distance of 173.26 kilometres (45.52 miles) that is only on the event days and doesn’t include all the miles and hours of training in between.   Ros added “I am particularly pleased that I went the distance in a respectable time on all occasions, but my proudest achievement is finishing the Beachy Head which is described as one of the toughest in the country with very very steep coastal paths and cliff top ups and downs, muddy tracks, rocky trails and 300 steps and 14 gates on the route – it was very hard but I got my medal!”.

All here at STEF would like to extend congratulations to Ros as well as wishing her a belated happy birthday or dare we say “many happy returns … for your next challenge whatever that may be”.  A BIG thank you to all her sponsors too.  Ros we look forward to hearing what you are planning next and will  behind you all the way…” 

Its not too late to sponsor Ros as her Justgiving Page  https://www.justgiving.com/page/ros70thtriplechallenge will remain open for a while and you can also see some of her photos and updates on there too.    

Photos:  Ros at start and Ros at end of Beachy Head marathon and photo of medals of all three events.