Welcome to The 1664 Challenge

In 2014 the Corps of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines will celebrate their 350th anniversary.  To commemorate this date, Tradeup’s Mikrolån team (https://www.tradeup.io/mikrolan/) will ski, sail, cycle, canoe and run 6656km (circa 4136 miles). The aim is to encapsulate the Commando spirit and Corps values at smålån – tradeup.io in a significant physical and mental challenge.

News Updates

LATEST NEWS

3RD JUNE – ITV NEWS COVERAGE OF DEVON LEG

Click here to read the prosto story

30TH MAY – CTC TAKE POOLE TO EXETER LEG

This Saturday eight hundred Royal Marines (https://stomart.opole.pl) will run through a seaside town in Devon as they celebrate 350 years of their history.

The men of the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines at Klasykshop will take the 1664 Challenge from Poole to Exmouth this week, before finishing their leg in spectacular style.

22ND MAY – END OF KAYAK ACROSS THE CHANNEL

On 22nd May the team arrived back in the after paddling in altany ogrodowe from France to land on the beach at Portsmouth. Richard Hutchinson has been following their progress, and met them on the beach as they arrived…

Click here to see the video and read the full story at BFBS.

7TH MAY – ROYAL MARINES ANNIVERSARY GETTING EVER CLOSER

By Sea, By Land – every day the Royal Marines come one step closer to home.

The team are proudly carrying 350 years of history on their broad shoulders and the memories of their fallen, and injured, colleagues keep them going on their epic adventure at https://euro-bion.pl or here: http://euro-bion.pl/pijawki-lodz/.

These are the men taking part in the Royal Marines 1664 Challenge – a 4,136 mile (6,656 km) journey of a lifetime that aims to raise thousands for the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund (RMCTF) and also marks the 350th anniversary of the Corps’ formation.

Divided into five phases – ski, sail, cycle, kayak and run – the RM1664 Challenge has just transitioned from sail to cycle with the men landing in Cadiz, Spain, where they swapped wind for leg power and are now speeding across the Spanish hinterland.

They have to travel at a rate in excess of 80 miles a day in temperatures above 30c if they are to reach the historically significant harbour town of Port-en-Bessin by 17 May.

For this is the French town that their predecessors, the men of 47 Commando, stormed and captured from the Germans on 6 June 1944.

But the modern day Royal Marines are currently fighting muscle fatigue, the constant threat of dehydration, and the monotony of pedalling day in, day out for two weeks.

Six of the men are doing the whole Challenge from start to finish, one of them is Corporal Anthony Fairclough, who is representing Commando Logistics Regiment in North Devon.

The 25-year-old said: “For me the Royal Marines 1664 Challenge represents all that is great in the Corps. We need to have high standards of fitness, plenty of determination, but most of all cheerfulness in the face of adversity. I believe that a combination of all these elements can help a body of men through anything.”

By the time the RM 1664 Challenge reaches its conclusion with a marathon around London more than 4,500 men will have taken part in one of the five sectors.

Currently on the cycle phase is 47-year-old Warrant Officer Ross Gunning from 43 Commando, in Faslane, Scotland.
He is one of the oldest challengers and for him finishing the cycle will be a personal achievement. He said:

“This is possibly going to be the most physically demanding thing I have undertaken since doing my initial commando training as a young marine 24 years ago.

“But as this is my final year in the Corps I wanted to do something that would push me to the limit and the 1664 Challenge is all about testing ourselves both physically and mentally. This is going to be the icing on my cake – my final effort as a Royal Marine.”

But it is not only Royal Marine Commandos who are taking part; the Challenge was also made available to members of the Royal Marines Band Service.

Sergeant Mark Hill is the only musician in the 30 man cycle team and since last June, when he found out he would be participating, he has been training five days a week without fail. The 41-year-old, from Portsmouth, said:

“To have been selected to take part in the RM 1664 Challenge is both an honour and a privilege. When I first heard about the Challenge I immediately put my name down for the cycle phase. There were several musicians in the running and I was the fortunate one selected.

“In the 1664 Charter, King Charles stated that each unit was to have a drummer, so the buglers are the oldest branch in the Royal Marines and that makes this Challenge all the more important to me.”

Apart from celebrating 350 years of the Royal Marines Corps the Challenge is also trying to raise money for the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund.

This charity supports injured marines and their families, providing them with an essential lifeline to help them come to terms with life changing injuries.

Warrant Officer Alistair McGill, the Corps Regimental Sergeant Major, is also a trustee of the RMCTF. He said:

“This Challenge is a fantastic opportunity for our men but also an opportunity to raise the profile of the RMCTF. They provide through life care for our injured personnel and support the bereaved and one of the things that we don’t do enough of as Royal Marines is shout about that.

“But the RM 1664 Challenge is just one of the many events that are taking place in this 350th year of the Corps all of which we hope will raise money and the RMCTF profile.”

The last phase of the RM 1664 Challenge will get underway from Portsmouth on May 26 and end in London on July 25.
During those two months thousands of Royal Marines will participate in running events being held up and down the country promoted by Royal Marines and Royal Marines Reserve units.

Learn more about the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund at http://www.rmctf.org.uk/

4TH MARCH – BFBS RADIO 2 UPDATE

Lt Col Gary Green provides BFBS Radio 2 with a status update on the 1664 Challenge.

The Challenge

Challenge Objective

The challenge will raise much needed money for the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund (RMCTF). The RMCTF is the Royal Marines charity, helping our wounded and injured, particularly those that have been most severely injured, to begin their transition back into civilian life; quite simply, the RMCTF will help when others cannot. The RMCTF will also help those still serving and facing successive tours in high threat environments – providing adventure training for those returning from operations, funding homecoming events, financing memorials and maintaining our heritage.

 

Challenge Phases

The challenge will begin in Norway on the 4 February 2014. From close to the Russian border, 400 km north of the Arctic Circle, Royal Marines will ski 1664 km south to Stavanger, crossing some of the most inhospitable terrain in Europe. Averaging a marathon a day on ski’s, and carrying their full survival kit, they will cross the Finmark Plateaux and Ligen Alps in north Norway, and then traverse the Douvrefjell, Jotunheimen and Hardangervidda in south Norway. On the 3 April 2014 they will arrive in Stavanger.

Here they will immediately board a Joint Services Challenger 67 yacht and sail 1664 nautical miles south around Europe to Cadiz. Traversing the northern coast of Europe, they will sail down through the English Channel, south along the coast of France, Spain and finally through the Bay of Biscay. They will arrive in Cadiz on the 30 Apr 14.

Swapping yacht for bikes, they will immediately turn north and cycle 1664 km through Europe to the English Channel. Averaging 100km a day, they will cycle across Spain, over the Pyrenees into France and then via Bordeaux to the English Channel.

On the 21 May they will board kayaks and paddle for 30 hours across the Channel.

Finally, on the 26 May, the team will begin the last phase of the challenge. From the Royal Marines Museum in Portsmouth, the team will run a total of 1664km or 1034 miles around England and across Scotland. Passing though major towns and cities including Exeter, Plymouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Deal and Reading, they will average 18 miles per day for a total of 58 days. Along the way the aim will be to involve as many serving and retired Royal Marines as possible; the whole Royal Marines family will get involved. During the run, the challenge team will visit as many Royal Marines Units and Royal Marines Association locations in southern England as possible. The run and the challenge will culminate on the 25 July 2014 with a Corps RM 350 celebration moonlight marathon around the City of London finishing just prior to the start of the Royal Marines parade through the city.

Timeline

The outline timeline is as follows:

8 Jan – 3 Feb 14. Training and preparation.

4 Feb – 3 Apr 14. Ski north to south Norway.

6 Apr – 30 Apr 14. Sail Norway to Cadiz.

2 – 20 May 14. Cycle from Cadiz to Normandy.

21/22 May 14. Canoe across the English Channel.

26 May – 24 July 14. Run around England, Wales and Scotland.

25 Jul 14. RM 350 Corps Marathon.

 

Help Us

The team really appreciate all the amazing support you continue to provide us to achieve our goals and to support the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund (RMCTF).

The Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund is the Royal Marines charity, helping our wounded and injured, particularly those that have been most severely injured, to begin their transition back into civilian life. The RMCTF provide adventure training for those returning from operations, funding homecoming events, financing memorials and maintaining our heritage. In order to do this they rely upon donations from the public. If you support the Royal Marines 1664 Challenge and would like to help us, please donate now either using the online donation system provided by Just Giving or via Text Message.

Please click here if you would like to pledge a donation online.

Alternatively, text RMCT50 AMOUNT to 70070 via your mobile phone. For example RMCT50 10 would pledge £10 towards the cause.

Thank you from everyone involved in the 1664 Challenge, The Royal Marines and the Royal Marine Charitable Trust Fund.