Charity Miles Challenge

Albion Environmental reached its 20^th anniversary in 2022, and as part of our celebrations, we decided to run a team fitness challenge throughout the month of August to raise funds for local Ayrshire charity, Whiteleys Retreat.

Many people familiar with the company will know our director Alasdair Meldrum, who started the business from his spare room in 2002. Over the past 20 years, Alasdair has expanded the business taking on his first official employee in 2005, and now operating with a team of 12. Alongside building the business, Alasdair has always been a keen runner and has taken part in some extreme endurance races over the years. So, when deciding to complete a charity challenge, running was the obvious option.

The next step was to choose the team target and plan the challenge. Conveniently, Alasdair’s next big event was the Dragon’s Back Race, where he was running 236 miles over 6 days at the beginning of September. So that was the goal set, the team were to run, walk or cycle a collective 230 miles each week in August, to get a taste of the distance Alasdair would be covering. The team got their running shoes on and hit the target week after week, bringing children and dogs along to join in the fun, and even getting their miles in while on holiday!

The goal was to reach 920 miles by the end of August, aiming to cover an average of 230 miles each week. By the 31^st August, the team had run, walked or cycled 1155 miles! Now, with the staff challenge complete, it was time for Alasdair to take on the Dragon\’s Back Race!

After 6 gruelling days, covering extreme terrain and some tough weather conditions, Alasdair made it from Conwy Castle to Cardiff Castle! He covered 236 miles and 57,000ft of elevation over the 6 days, and completed to Dragon’s Back Race! Alasdair talks all about his race experience in his own blog, for those keen to find out more.

The Albion team worked together, with some friendly competition, to reach the target miles and raise some money for Whiteley’s Retreat, and we couldn’t have done it without the support and kind donations from our clients, friends, and family!

A huge thank you to everyone who has donated to a wonderful charity and given the team support and encouragement. The fundraising page is open until the end of September, if you would still like to donate.