Stephen and Viv
Retired couple Stephen, 61, and Viv, 65, are on a quest to prove that wisdom, perspective and maturity is the winning formula. With a newfound zest for life, and in pursuit of a thrilling adventure, they are grabbing hold of life with both hands.
Why did you want to take part in the series?
We've weighed literally everything... It got down to the point where we were weighed each pair of knickers.
Stephen: Just the sense of adventure and the fun, just the opportunity. We’d watched the series on TV, and we just thought we wanted to have a go.
Have you got a strategy going into the race?
Viv: No, we’ve talked about it, but I don’t think we have. I think we’ll just do our best.
Stephen: Yes, I think we’ve just got to do what we can, as fast as we can, as cheap as we can. We’ve talked about it and we can’t make any plans till we know how we’re going to get going or anything else. I think there are strengths that we bring, and there are weaknesses that we have so add that all together and it becomes a strategy I suppose.
Viv: One strategy we could do is that whoever of the other couples look like they know where they’re going or what they're doing, we’ll run after them!
How have you prepared for the trip?
Viv: When we got our rucksacks, we started going for walks with them and we started just wearing them as much as we could actually. I’ve never possessed a rucksack.
Stephen: We’ve been gardening in them basically. We borrowed my daughter’s rucksack and then stuffed it full of towels and we were wearing it round the house to see how we got on with it, that was sort of maximum preparation. We tried to get a little bit fitter, but the reality is we’re lazy like everyone else, I guess.
Viv: We realised it was going to be heavy walking around with the backpacks so we laid out on the bed everything we thought we’d need, tried to get it all in and it wouldn’t fit. Then we decided we’d have to eliminate stuff, so we did so on the basis of weight. We had scales and we weighed everything.
Stephen: We’ve weighed literally everything. It got down to the point where we were weighing each individual pair of knickers or each pair of underpants to see which style is lighter. Cutting labels out of things. We recognise that because we’re on the mature side, we’re not going to be hunky, fit and athletic so we want to reduce whatever we can have an input into and try and make it work to our benefit.
