Marathon Challenge 2025 Report
Isabella Topley (Cambridge University Scout and Guide Club)
Friday 5th of December 2025
Marathon Challenge is CUSAGCs annual incident hike for Explorers, Rangers, Leaders and all other over 14s in Scouting and Guiding. This year we had our first SSAGO team enter from our friends at UEA SSAGO. Teams are challenged to visit as many of the given 26 grid references in 9 hours as possible, the further out they go the more points they get. There are also some manned points with bonus points to give out for completing their challenge and penalties for tardiness.
Marathon Challenge 2025 was based in West Wickham Village Hall I South East Cambridgeshire. There were the usual 26 checkpoints distributed within a 5km radius of the hall, and teams were challenged to visit as many of them as they could in 9 hours.
Most checkpoints were traffic cones with orienteering stamps and a glow stick for extra fun at night, but 4 were also manned by CUSAGCers and other scouting/guiding/SSAGO volunteers with a challenge for teams to complete. At base G, teams were tasked with creating the best shelter for a small rubber duck that they could, to protect it from the rain. Memories were put to the test at base H where participants were tasked with playing Kim’s game, a memory game involving remembering many random objects. Mini trebuchets were built and fired on West Wratting Recreation ground as participants were challenged to launch a small rubber duck as far as they could. Finally, at base R in Balsham Scout Hut, participants had their first aid knowledge and skills tested in a mock scenario.
The rest of the volunteers spent the day in HQ at West Wickham Village Hall where there was a lot of phoning groups to check where they were and radioing bases for their scores; which involved more recitations of Shakespeare than we would’ve expected! There was also the annual chaos bulk cooking chilli for nearly 100 people and writing jokes to send out to the volunteers on bases to share with their dinner.
This year we had 13 teams take part, including explorers, rangers, leaders and SSAGO members and all successfully braved the damp weather to visit many checkpoints. Teams walked the long distances between the cones and checkpoints but no group managed to reach all 26, though we calculated that this year this would quite literally involve walking a marathon! The most checkpoints visited was an impressive 20, and all teams returned back to HQ in time to receive a nice warm dinner. We also successfully ate all of it with no food waste, which was a bonus.
We were finally ready to announce the winners and award trophies. Congratulations to Woodsmoke Explorers for winning the event overall and winning the explorers trophy! Congratulations also to 28th Cambridge leaders for coming second and winning the adults trophy, and to 1st Ely Rangers for winning the rangers trophy. Well done to all teams who took part – Marathon is designed to be a challenge and everyone put in great effort this year! We hope you all had a great time taking part too.
We would like to thank all volunteers whose hard work before and during the event made it all possible; Derrick (for providing the radio system); 26th Cambridge for the minibus hire; West Wickham Village Hall for the hall hire; West Wratting Parish Council for letting us use their recreation ground; all the local landowners for putting up with the noise and tents; and last but not least all the participants for your energy and enthusiasm which makes the event worth running. Hopefully see you all again next year for another successful Marathon!
Isabella and Filip
Marathon Challenge Organisers 2025