Who are we?

We are Team Tarahumara – also known as Chloë Tyler, Richard Howarth, Daniel Shirley,  and Haley Bowcock – and we are taking part in Trailwalker 2012, to raise money for Oxfam and the Gurkhas Welfare Trust.

Tarahumara Chloë: “I work for Oxfam as an International Auditor* and am currently helping to audit the drought response in the Horn of East Africa and getting to see all the great work Oxfam delivers with the money it raises, which really spurs me on to raise as much as I can to help. I especially love running but enjoy any form of exercise, and am looking forward to the challenge of Trailwalker, which is like nothing I've ever done before. I love crafting, including making cards which came in handy when working out fundraising ideas, and already we have had a great success selling some of these. When I find some spare time I enjoy cooking, and have this theory of turning the world vegan by inviting various people round for dinner; it hasn't worked yet though so maybe my skills are not quite up to scratch!”

 

Tarahumara Richard: “I've worked in the social enterprise sector for many years, previously at the enivronmental resource centre MERCi in Manchester, and more recently making biodiesel from used cooking oil with Goldenfuels, Oxford's biodiesel co-operative. I'm now an assistant accounant for Oxfam,* helping staff and processing expenses, and sending salaries overseas. I quite like the odd bit of camping and walking (which is rather fortunate), but it's very many years since I walked the West Highland Way – from north of Glasgow to the foot of Ben Nevis in the highlands. Although further in distance than Trailwalker, we took several days over it! I've never attempted anything quite like Trailwalker...”

Tarahumara Daniel: “Outside of work (in the Finance team in Oxfam*) I’m a keen runner with a weakness for cake... I started running three years ago with a woeful time on a nice flat 10k. Prior to this unprecedented donning of sports footwear I was a fully paid up member of the couch potato club. But since those first plodding steps, I’ve been accepting and proposing all kinds of challenges – the Great North Run, the London Marathon and the Thunder Run 24 hour race, for starters. I’m a bit of a sad case when it comes to logging runs, comparing race performance and planning training plans (look out fellow Tarahumarans!), and as far as physical challenges go, far too competitive for my own good.”

Tarahumara Haley: “I love all things food – making it, eating it, waxing-lyrical about it, and very fortunately, I get to work in it. I’m a food policy/greenie/social justice-loving type, working on food security issues at Oxfam.* I also love all things music; I’m sure my Tarahumara crew is going to love it when I start belting out tunes to power us through the last 10k... I do bit of running, and have done charity races before, though nothing on this scale, so feeling excited and daunted by the challenge in equal measure. The fact that we get to do it through some pretty amazing countryside is sweetening the deal somewhat.”

  *We’re of course writing/competing/etc here in our own capacities.