What The Hell Have We Done?
Anyone who knows jellybean knows that when it comes to a physical challenge – sometimes even a reckless endeavour – we love to step up to the plate. Whether it’s climbing mountains, long distance cycling, running, golf, competitive baking, or simply having five fully grown humans stand on your shoulders in the freezing cold and rain as they try to scale a treacherously wet and slippery wall (my back’s not been the same since Tough Mudder), we’ve taken it on with aplomb and raised cash for some amazing causes into the bargain.
When it comes to causes there are few more amazing or worthy than Hospitality Action (HA). You don’t need me to remind you of the difficulties of the past year – everyone has a personal experience – but as we know, the hospitality industry has been especially hard hit. Through lockdowns, stop-start restarts, tiers and now the much vaunted al fresco restart, this is an industry that has had to roll with the punches, and those punches have come in consistent flurries.
HA has been there throughout supporting individuals who work or have worked in the sector and as long- time supporters and partners of the charity, jellybean is stepping up to support them as part of their To Hell and Back Challenge.
Over the course of just 8 days (June 10th-18th 2021) seventeen of us – under the guise of team ‘It’s Bean Emotional’ will be making a virtual 535-mile round trip from jellybean HQ to The Bean Inn in Cornwall, running, cycling or walking our way on a virtual foodie tour via The Crazy Bean Café in Leatherhead, The Bean and Bar in Winchester, The Duck and Bean in Tiverton and our final destination, The Bean Inn in St Ives, before turning around – aghast at the overcrowding and with restorative pasties in hand – to run back to Surrey.
My contribution? I’ll be trying to shed those ill-gotten lockdown pounds by running 100 miles in just 8 days. Will my 40-year-old knees be up to the task? Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Or is this simply a ruse to be able to eat more carbs? Whatever the weather it’ll be fun watching a portly puce man in crisis and that’s the main thing. All I ask is that you throw figurative, not literal, coins at me as a I lollop past.
As you can see from the 100% genuine image, training has begun in earnest. As a team we’ve committed to raising at least £2,500 for HA. You can follow our progress on our collected social media and if you want to get involved and donate visit: umbali.org/challenge/its-bean-emotional
Thank you.