St Albans businessman's monster challenge

SCALING the shores of Scotland s Loch Ness proved to be a monstrous challenge for a St Albans man on a fundraising mission. Paul Harris, 54, of New Greens Avenue, an IT manager for First Capital Connect (FCC), and three of his colleagues each took on two

SCALING the shores of Scotland's Loch Ness proved to be a monstrous challenge for a St Albans man on a fundraising mission.

Paul Harris, 54, of New Greens Avenue, an IT manager for First Capital Connect (FCC), and three of his colleagues each took on two gruelling legs of a 120km team relay duathlon (running and cycling) for the First Monster Challenge last month.

Competing against over 200 other teams, The Capital Knights - comprising Paul, Aaron Slaney, Nigel Mitchell and Lee Webb - each ran 10km and pedalled 20km on the day, completing the challenge in just over nine hours.

But despite a strong start, Paul said that his cycling leg of the course was a disaster: "My bike chain got locked in the gears and I only managed to free it after a 45 minute struggle - only for my rear tyre to blow out another kilometre along! I had to walk 7km back to the start of the stage to collect a replacement bicycle."

The Capital Knights suffered another blow when Aaron, who works in the Harpenden station ticket office, fell off his bike while cycling downhill at 35mph. But, although battered and bruised, Aaron struggled on and eventually came home in 240th place.

Sir Moir Lockhead ,Chief Executive of organisers FirstGroup, the UK's largest bus and rail company, said that he was proud of the valiant attempt: "The Capital Knights deserve special credit travelling all the way to Inverness from Hertfordshire and I'm pleased that they rasied over �300 for our charity partner, Save The Children.