At the end of November I will be participating in the 2008 Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge. Jacinta Worland, previous Ironman distance professional athlete and fellow Telstra employee will be my team mate in the Ambassadors Cup. Richard Palmer, Philip Barrett, Mark Comer and Keith Mearns also from Telstra will participate as a corporate team of four.

The team (with Keith as a new addition) are the defending champions of the Van Diemen Cup. Having placed second overall last year, they have first place overall on their minds!

The Challenge was inspired by the Australian Formula One driver with a dream to create an event that combined his love of keeping fit in the great outdoors, with raising funds for Australian charity organisations. This year the funds raised from the event will go towards The Leukaemia Foundation and Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal.

The Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge is an adventure race held in one of the world’s best adventure playgrounds - Tasmania. The main event which takes in over 350km of terrain; trekking, kayaking, mountain biking and a couple of mystery challenges just for good measure, is the adventure race of a lifetime.

We are all in training mode at the moment and I look forward to sharing our progress as we prepare for the big event.

Soon building works will commence at the Melbourne Hope School located in the south east of Tianjin city, thanks to the generous contributions of our supporters and the riders. Currently there are 486 students in grades 1 – 6 at the school and they are very excited that over the coming months six grade 1 -3 classrooms will be built. The Project Hope Charity ride was a fantastic adventure, however the riders and I are really excited about seeing the funds raised from the ride benefitting the children of China. We will continue to keep you updated on the progress of the buildings and the other schools we are supporting.