Challenge Henley Competition- The Results!

Well after an intense 2 weeks of spamming everyone with links of why and how they should vote for me, the Challenge Henley Competition finally finished yesterday... and all the hard work paid off. I won! By the end of the competition, friends, family and I had managed to rack up an awesome 575 votes, winning me my free place in the Challenge Henley Triathlon. NICE!

I would like the throw a massive thanks out there to everyone that voted for me. Obviously I can't thank you all individually that would take me all year, but there were a lot of people that stood out and put a lot of effort in to get me those extra votes that sealed the deal. They were:

• Luigi Baccerini- a cycling buddy that hassled all his workmates into voting for me as well as bribing his daughter to get her friends to vote too!
• Poppy Dinsey- for putting a plee out there her extremely popular What I Wore Today blog. Chutney is on it's way!
• All my family- for putting up with me hassling them to get their friends to vote
• James Shooter- For somehow busting out 40 votes in one morning
• Everyone who posted the link on their facebook status'- especially my mates from back home including Anna, Dani, Hailey, Cal, Laura and all the Perfects!
• Dr Stewart Laing for getting all this students to vote
• Heather for earning enough votes to be able to go out on a curry with me lol
• And anyone else I've missed out... There were a lot of you!

So what have I let myself in for? On the 18th September 2011 I'll be doing Challenge Henley, which is a full distance triathlon like an Ironman, just organised by a different company. It consists of the following:

     1. 3.8k Swim (In the Thames)

     2. 180k on the Bike

     3.  42k Run (a marathon- 4 laps of this course)

Yeah it's pretty dam big, and it's gonna be tough. However I've managed to talk my mate Andrew Hailey into doing the race with me, so it will be an interesting summer of training for the both of us when I'm back from Uni... It'll be a few months of solid eating, swimming, cycling, running and sleeping. Boosh.

So once again thanks to everyone that voted. Hopefully some of you will be able to come and watch, looks like it'll be a great event. And now I don't have to spend hours on facebook trying to get votes, I can get back to some decent training... well until the weather turns Arctic again!

How to vote for me so I can race for free. Please?

OK so as many of you have already seen I'm currently in a competition for Challenge Henley and I need as many votes as possible to win a free place at the race. I'm currently lying second which is cool but third place is pretty darn close... and I don't want to come third.

Here is the dummies guide of how to vote, it takes like 1 minute so if you haven't done it already please get clicking, every vote counts at the moment- it's tight!

Step 1: Go to the Challenge UK Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Challenge-UK/145733332122037

Step 2: Click the 'Like Button' for Challenge UK

Step 3: Scroll down the Challenge UK page to find my story (Entrant 4: Ben Butler) and hit the like button for that

Job done. Easy eh? If you've voted already then thanks a million, and a big up to all those that have posted the link on their facebook page and twitter etc. to squeeze a few extra votes out. It's getting close now! If I spend as much time training as I am trying to get people to vote for me this race will be a doddle haha!

Free entry for Challenge Henley? Yes please.

Right, so basically at the start of the month I entered a competition for a free place at Challenge Henley. To enter, I had to write (in 200 words) why they should chose me to get one of a two available free places. So I did.... And I got through to the next round. NICE!

Out of more than 100 people that entered, I and four others got chosen to be in the final five, and of this five two people will win the free places. Each of the final five's 200 word letters have been posted on the Challenge UK facebook page, and on the 14th December the two with the most 'likes' get the free places for Challenge Henley on the 18th September next year.

So whats the deal? Challenge Henley is an Ironman Distance Triathlon, which involves a 2 mile swim, a 112mile bike, and a marathon to finish! There's a reason why it's called Challenge... it's solid. Anyway these events are usually £300 to enter so if I got a free entry it would be pretty cool and also a massive test. Below is a video of the German Version of Challenge Henley, it's pretty cool.



To vote for me all you have to do is go to the Challenge UK facebook page here and 'like' that and then find my bit (Entrant 4: Ben Butler) and like that as well. If you can't find my blurby bit you can also find it here. Overall it should take less than a minute, unless you get lost somewhere.

Many thanks everyone, should be an interesting couple of weeks! Time to spam everyone.