Two Royal Irish Regiment (R IRISH) soldiers, Corporal Ray and Lance Corporal Glenn from the Northern Ireland Garrison Support Unit, warmed up for St Patrick’s Day by completing the mammoth challenge of a 50-kilometre ultra-distance marathon and deadlifting 65 tonnes – the weight of a Challenger 2 main battle tank – and all for SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity.
Admittedly, the deadlift was not done in one go, but was split between Cpl Ray and L/Cpl Glenn, both lifting a total of 32.5 tonnes over 50 sets of 10 reps each of a 65kg deadlift bar, while the 50km marathon was completed over 50 rounds of a one-kilometre loop.
The challenge by the two R IRISH soldiers took around 15 hours.
Cpl Ray (28 years’ service) and L/Cpl Glenn (18 years’ service) picked SSAFA – the UK’s oldest tri-service charity – to support and have set themselves a target of £1,000, which has now broken the £800 mark.
Explaining more, the pair said:
“We chose SSAFA because of the huge impact the charity has on service personnel, their families, and our veterans’ community, especially throughout Northern Ireland. The money raised could go to provide ‘chatty benches’ for all Northern Ireland’s camps, or help multiple spouses learn to drive so they can remain mobile when their service person is deployed.”
A SSAFA spokesperson in Northern Ireland added:
“Hats off to these two great soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment for their amazing challenge and the money raised for SSAFA so far. We focus solely on those serving within Northern Ireland, and so all the money raised will go a long way towards helping local service personnel and their families, so on behalf of them, thank you.”
To help Cpl Ray and L/Cpl Glenn smash their £1,000 target, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/rayandglennschallenge and to learn more SSAFA, visit ssafa.org.uk/northern-ireland.
