Meet the Hardcore Four

Welcome to the team page. This section gives you an introduction to the people that make up the Hardcore Four:

Jo (Team leader)
Jo is team member Julie and support team member Jeff’s daughter. She is also married to support team member Stewart. Jo is good friends with Gem and Gubbs having met them both at Eastleigh Running Club two and a half years ago. Jo is also Hardcore Four’s Team Leader.

Jo is Payroll Supervisor for a group of housing associations; however, she is much more interested in her life outside of work than in it!

Jo loves being outdoors and active, and her interests include running and walking, as well as going to the gym, spinning classes, zumba, pilates and yoga. She also loves cooking, and has a particular fondness of all things made of cake or chocolate! She also loves a good old dance in a night club in her sparkly shoes, which those who have read our team blogs may have gathered!

Jo’s biggest achievements to date include completing the 25th anniversary Gosport half marathon running race, and also completing the first Shine night time walking marathon in London for Cancer Research with Julie, last year.

Jo is really looking forward to the challenge of Trailwalker, and keeping her team motivated and upbeat during the training and event itself. Gem has even given her the nickname ‘Taskmaster Jo’!

Julie

Julie is Jo’s Mum and married to one of the support crew, Jeff (who is doing his own challenge this year, cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats), so they seem to spend a lot of their spare time at the moment separately walking or cycle training.

Julie is semi-retired and a part-time Home Help to the elderly. Her interests include archaeology and she is especially interested in any historical features that we encounter on our walks, including any recently ploughed fields that may turn up some flint tools!! Julie’s achievements include walking the Inca Trail, reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro and completing the night time London marathon walk last year for Cancer Research with Jo.

Julie is excited and daunted by the challenge of Trailwalker, but really enjoying all the team training walks and fundraising progress.

Gubbs

Gubbs is Gem's husband. He spends his working life creating/customising IT systems for European legal practices.

In his spare time (when he's not training for Trailwalker), Gubbs likes to hit the gym, go for a run and play and watch football - not all at once of course!

Gubbs' greatest sporting achievement prior to Trailwalker is running the Great North Run half marathon in 2007. He is also, like Gem and Jo, a member of Eastleigh Running Club.

Gubbs is really enjoying the scenery and views around the training walks so far and he is determined that the team will complete the challenge, even it if involves giving piggy backs.

Josh

Josh is a late comer to the team, being called in as backup after Gem was no longer able to take part. He has a lot of training to catch up on with only 6 weeks until the Trailwalker event, but is eager to get started and clock up those training miles.

Josh has worked with Gubbs for the last 5 years, and spends his working life traveling throughout the country visiting clients. He is therefore used to travelling long distances although this is usually on four wheels rather than two legs.

In his spare time, Josh is a keen skier (which explains his use of the walking poles in his profile picture... ->), as well as enjoying all types of sporting activities, whether playing or watching.

Josh is really looking forward to the challenge ahead.

Gem (now in support crew as no longer able to take part)

Gem is married to Gubbs, and support team member Tracy and Peter are Gem's parents. Gem and Jo are fitness buddies doing all the yoga, spinning, zumba, gym and running together as well as training walks! (Gem: "Wow that makes us sounds so much better than we actually are!")

Gem currently works within Southampton University but has previously worked at Ordnance Survey and is hoping to keep the team on course on our training walks and during Trailwalker. (Gem: "No Pressure! Eeeek!")

The forming of Hardcore Four for Trailwalker was Gem's idea after seeing her uni house mate Dave complete the challenge in 2010.

Gem is hoping Hardcore Four can complete the Trailwalker challenge and is looking forward to the training walks over the coming months - especially the bit that involves eating Julie's flapjacks!! Walking poles and head torches at the ready!

Thanks for taking the time to read the team's profiles. For those of you also taking part in trailwalker, we’ll see you there. For those who are not – please show your support by sponsoring us here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/hardcorefour2012