On 14 June 2021, Hazlewoods challenged employees to beat a Severn Freewheelers motorbike and the kilometres it travelled in 21 days, in our Beat the Bike Challenge. The aim was for teams to have some fun working together, whilst raising awareness of the work Severn Freewheelers, our charity of the year, undertake every day.
The local charity comprises volunteer motorcycle riders, who provide a free out-of-hours courier service for hospitals in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, North Wiltshire, and Herefordshire, carrying medical essentials such as blood, samples and x-rays. We have been raising money for them throughout the year through various initiatives and events, to buy them a new motorbike.
The Beat the Bike Challenge saw 69 employees form 13 teams, with some very apt names – 'We’re Wheelie Tyre’d', 'Braking Bad' and 'All the gear, no idea' to name just a few. With the help of the GoJoe fitness app, each team was encouraged to walk, run, cycle or swim, with the amount of kilometres travelled converted into points.
We celebrated some outstanding achievements during the course of the three weeks.
Simon Worsley, Partner, rose to the challenge and cycled 320km in just one weekend. He explains: "A 15-hour day from 4.30am and a pretty tough one physically and mentally, particularly with 3,500 metres of climbing. A double century ride is one goal that’s now ticked off the bucket list, but I wouldn’t ever do it again!"
In our second week, Michael Callebaut, Senior Manager, set himself a target to run 100km. Michael exceeded this and covered 150km.
Finally, Suzanne Headington, Partner, finished off our final week by challenging herself to swim 15km. She did not stop at this and swam nearly 22km, whilst training for the Chillswim Ullswater 7 miles End to End challenge.
Suzanne said: “This challenge actually came at a great time in preparation for my Ullswater swim as it really motivated me to train. I can now have a couple of weeks of easy training before the big event on 17 July! I feel like I am prepared - just need the weather to be kind.... rain or sun is fine, just not too much wind!"
There could only be one winning team however, and with a grand total of 1,263km, '6Wheelers and a Dog' took first place. Overall, the Severn Freewheelers motorbike racked up 5,842km during the three weeks and for just one bike, this in itself is incredible. We are immensely proud of all the volunteer riders at Severn Freewheelers.
But did we beat the bike? Hazlewoods collectively managed to travel 8,580km in the 21 days! To put this into perspective, it is about as long as the Great Wall of China, 19 times as long as The Grand Canyon and 25,000 times as tall as The Empire State Building.
Our teams managed to raise over £650 for Severn Freewheelers during the three weeks and donations are still coming in, adding to our current running total of just over £9,000 for the new motorbike. If you would like to support our fundraising efforts, you can donate here.