It all started back in the mid-60s, when a bunch of Scouts with an unseemly amount of zeal decided it would be fun to try walking 50 miles around Banbury... in December. The days are short in December. It's cold, and often wet. And farmers get tipped off if the route is going to cross their land, and make a special point of ploughing it (this probably isn't true, but it feels true when you're walking).  | | It's not all downhill from here, sadly... |
And yet every year - except 2001, thanks to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease - about 300 people have a go at the Tour de Trigs night hike round Banbury. This year's course was actually 52 miles long (plus an extra two miles for a schoolboy team who missed a checkpoint, and got sent back). Walkers left Blessed George Napier School and climbed straight up Crouch Hill, before heading north through Hanwell, Farnborough and up to Bishop's Itchington in Warwickshire. Then they headed west to Compton Verney and south through Tysoe, Brailles, over the dreaded Brailles Hill to Cherington, and on to Hook Norton and Shutford, passing close to Broughton Castle. The survivors trudged up Crouch Hill again, and back to base. Many walkers are locals, though this year two flew in from America. They won a trophy - for the fastest team living more than 30 miles from Banbury.  | | Half an hour before starting isn't enough to plot the route. |
This year a team of men from Oxford, Kevin Mayo, Mark Edwards and Jeremy Hope, raced against three women from the Midlands to become the fastest finishers. At one point in the night the women forced the men to run for five miles, before making a navigational error separated the two teams. The women finished in just under 16 hours. A short time later, they were told they would be disqualified for breaking strict rules on kit during the walk. They were thought to be the only team disqualified in the event's 38 years. This year, 106 walkers completed the full distance within 24 hours - 42% of those who started. The percentage is usually lower. More amazing still, though, is the fact that dozens of volunteers stay up all night to run the event, many of them spending many hours standing on bitterly cold hilltops. They're the real heroes of the Tour de Trigs. Visit the Tour de Trigs website here.
You can also read impressive personal accounts of the 1997 and 1999 walks - on the Oxford and Cambridge university websites, curiously enough.  | Click here to see 360-degree pictures of the 2003 Tour de Trigs |
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