SASRA has a team participating in this year’s PARAS’10 Ultimate Endurance Race
Gavin Dickson, Scripture Reader at Colchester Garrison, will be running the TAB: completing the course in boots and carrying a 35lb (15.9kg) bergen (military backpack).
Josh Fortune, Scripture Reader in London, will be participating together with his wife, Danni. Josh last did the PARAS’10 in 2005, when qualifying to get into the Parachute Regiment. This time, he will be running it with body armour and raising funds for SASRA.
Also on Team SASRA is Andrew McMahon, Regional Manager, who has been warming up to the PARAS’10 by walking 1000 miles in six months.
PARAS’10 was founded by Warrant Officer class 1 (WO1) JJ Wilson and hosted by The Parachute Regiment in Aldershot from 1982-1993.
Gavin completing the PARAS’10 in 2023.
It is based on the ten-mile march from the Regiment’s ‘P Company Test Week’, which happens at the end of training. Recruits are assessed and scored across several events, the first of which is a ten-mile march over undulating terrain with each recruit carrying a bergen weighing 35lbs plus water and a weapon. To successfully complete the march, recruits must finish in 1 hour 50 minutes.
After the Paras left Aldershot, this event was stopped until 2008, when it was restarted at the Infantry Training Centre at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire. Its popularity resulted in the race being taken to Colchester, the home of 16 Air Assault Brigade, in 2012. Since then, PARAS’10 has been held at both Catterick and Colchester Garrisons.
This year, the Catterick PARAS’10 will be taking place on 28 September.
