The Last Hoorah!

First, a big apology, I wanted to get this out to you all yesterday but we had such a fun packed day there wasn’t time.

The day kicked off at 5:30am with preparations for the 10 and 5K Fun Run. Miss Motivator, Emma, along with her assistants Sarah W (PM) and Tabby led a rousing warm up. At 6:00am (or there abouts) our runners ran off, some at pace, some all tied together (an inspired move Charlie 1!) and some taking the more leisurely approach. Mark our country director led the way out of field base in a fetching impersonation of one of the 118 118 men.

Lou (PM) draws Susan (PM) an exceptional mustache

Emma as Miss Motivator with her warm-up team

Alex isn't quite sure what to make of Mark's outfit 

Team Charlie 1 all tied together 

But it was Shaq and Oli who soon took the lead, effortlessly putting distance between themselves and the rest of the group. John and I (Fletch) were in the recovery vehicle, driven by Big Manju, checking up on the runners and getting some action snaps.  We even caught some of more causal runners having a chai break on the way – naughty!

Mark leading the way 

Shaq and Oli making it look too easy 

PMs Jen and Lindsay 

Roxy from Echo 4 

The chai stop 

Rohith 

Lauren and Tabby are the first 5K ladies back

Struan tries to fly instead of run 

Mark 

Ganesh and Rohith 

Oli was the first back from the 10K achieving a time of 47 minutes and 15 seconds; Sarah Elliott (PM) was the first female back finishing with a time of 54 minutes and 5 seconds. Jacob was the first one back from the 5K with a time of 23 minutes and 59 seconds and Tabby and Lauren completed the 5K taking joint first place with a time of 33 minutes and 19 seconds. Prasath and Ram brought up the rear, even finding the time to locate a bunch of flowers for PM Cat, finishing with a time of 1 hour and 50 minutes. The overall winners of the 10K though were Echo 3, who as a group achieved the lowest time.

If you haven’t had a chance yet to sponsor all these great efforts the site is still up and running and the link can be found at the right hand side of Raleigh India’s blog page.

Sarah E is the first 10K lady back to field base. 

Oli are first male back from 10K 

Shaq at the finish line

Prasath and Ram

The next challenge of the day was set by DPM Jen – Raleigh India’s very own crystal maze. The alpha groups had to face numerous challenges including the Spiders Web, Nuclear Waste, Magic Carpet and The Mind Field Matrix. The winners of the Crystal Maze were Charlie 1 who storm to the led with an exception performance on the Spiders Web.

After the day of activity it was time for everyone to get ready for the final party. First up, which is always popular, was dinner. The drivers, Big Manju and Prasanth, had been slaving over a hot BBQ all day making delicious barbecued chicken Masala, alongside the BBQ a variety of vegetarian curry and chapatti.  Lindsay (PM) had also been in the kitchen all day making many delicious Banoffee Pies and an assortment of non-alcoholic cocktails.

The highlight of the evening was the fashion Show – the groups had designed outfits for the following categories; Work Wear, Evening Wear, Ethnic Dress and the Animal Kingdom. The evening was led by our super-star PM Susan, with judges Donks, Lindsay, Catherine and Jen giving each outfit a score.  The groups were supported by a team of backstage dressers and John and Mark provided back and front of house support. There were some truly inventive outfits – with Jason even using our new field base chicken as an accessory. Tango 5 was the overall winner of the evening, Devon and Manpreet won the judges over with their inventive costumes, props and dance moves on the red catwalk.

 Here are some of the outfits the groups were modelling.

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Dwayne in his animal outfit

Ben and Emma wearing Work Wear chic

Katia - part of the back stage team 

Shaq and Charlie

Devon owning the catwalk 

Ben and Emma in Evening Wear

Jason and Roxy 

Manpreet 

Nick and Jade

Ben and Emma as elephants 

Vandy and Dwayne

Jason and Roxy in Echo 4's animal wear design 

Susan questioning Lou and Dwayne on their outfits 

Tom giving field base chicken some well needed attention 

After the hilarity of the Fashion Show we moved onto the expedition slideshow (put together expertly by Chrissie) and the Awards Ceremony.  The categories and winners were as follows; The Because I’m Worth It Awards went to Vandana, The Lemming Award went to Doug, The Funkiest Feet Awards (a tough category to call) went to Yazmin, Masterchef went to Shirda, The Packing it Away Award went to Shaq, Comedy Value went to Devon, The Outstanding Females was a jointly awarded to Emma and Lauren and finally the Outstanding Male went to Shirda.

Sarah and Eleri cheering their winning team Tango 5 

Shrida wins Most Outstanding Male Venturer and Masterchef

Yazmin's wins Funkiest Feet

Devon win a golden Ganesha for his comical genius on expedition 

Shaq wins the Packing it Away Award

Emma and Lauren win Most Outstanding Female Venturer

Jen get a well deserved bunch of flowers for all her hard work on expedition

The night ended with a speech from Mark congratulating out exceptional venturers and PMs for another successful Raleigh expedition.  All the venturers out here have achieved amazing things and are all brilliant individuals in their own way. We are really going to miss them here at Raleigh India and it is going to be a sad farewell later on today. The groups are leaving at 1pm for their various destinations and we will make sure you can see their farewell tomorrow.