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Sean Curnow and three mates made a pact to compete in this year's gruelling UAE Desert Challenge to raise money for charity. He tells Andy van Smeerdijk the one thing driving them is the fact that if they don't make it, they'll be letting people down.
- By Andy van Smeerdijk, features editor
- Published: 23:30 August 31, 2008
- Image Credit: Supplied Picture
Sean Curnow and three mates made a pact to compete in this year's gruelling UAE Desert Challenge to raise money for charity. He tells Andy van Smeerdijk the one thing driving them is the fact that if they don't make it, they'll be letting people down.
THE DREAM
In November 2007, Steve You, Paul Anselmo, Jonathan Quan and I had just finished a ride. We were on a sand-dune chatting when we agreed to do the UAE Desert Challenge together. By about 2am, we'd decided we were going to do it for charity. The Desert Challenge starts on October 26 and it's a six-day event over about 2000km where you're riding six to eight hours per day.
THE CHARITIES
We're raising funds for two charities – the Dubai Centre for Special Needs and we are also looking into distributing mosquito nets to people living on the edge of Lake Albert in Uganda. We're still looking for sponsors. Our target is Dhs500,000 and we have already raised over Dhs350,000.
MOTIVATION
If you have a goal it's much easier to discipline yourself. I've found it easy to motivate myself because I know that if I fail, I
ll be letting people down. We're realistic – we just want to finish, we just want to get over the line. Fifty per cent of the field dropped out last year.
TRAINING
None of us are professionals. We are just four ordinary
guys who like riding. We ride twice a week; we head out at 4am, are on the bikes before sunrise and ride about 140km. By the time we're finished, it's pushing 40° C. We all do gym training about six days a week:
about 75 per cent cardio, 25 per cent weights. We all participated in the DMX Baja series, which really taught me how to control my adrenaline. Halfway around the first lap, I was exhausted. It helped me understand the need to pace myself. We now all wear heart-rate monitors so we can force our bodies to relax, even after an accident.
GOING DOWN DUNES
Some of the dunes in the Empty Quarter are 300m high. When you first try going down, you look at the slipface and think, 'There's no way I'm going down'. But once you get the technique right, it's fine. It's just a matter of technique.
PROFILE
- NAME: Sean Curnow
- NATIONALITY: Australian
- DAY JOB: Senior drill engineer, oil and gas
- LIVES IN: Dubai
- RIDES WITH: UAE Charity Challenge Team
- WEBSITE: www.uaecharitychallenge.com
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