A word from the token desert dame...

My fellow team mates have already wowed you with their back-stories — tales of sporting prowess and untimely injury, followed by gritty determination and slow slogs back to fitness.

Sadly, I do not have a similarly noble account to share.

I was not a sporty youngster. Truth be told, from my teens I spent more PE lessons hiding behind the science block smoking cigarettes than I did actually exercising.

Over the next decade or so, I have moved on (slightly) from this aversion to sporting activities: I have tried and enjoyed parachuting, various bungee jumps, trekking across the Namib desert and scuba diving in the Red Sea.

But my experience regarding real tests of physical endurance has been fairly limited, until just a few months ago, when I signed up to do the Annapurna Sanctuary trek in Nepal, climbing to Annapurna Base Camp and back.

Over the course of this 10-day trek, our group not only enjoyed stunning scenery and views of the glorious Annapurna range from the giddy height of 4130m; we were also lucky enough to experience four days of full-blown monsoon rain, totally out of season.

But, to my surprise, I found myself enjoying the challenge — and feeling (somewhat unjustifiably, given the number of amateur climbers and people over 60 who complete this trail every year) incredibly proud of myself for making it to Base Camp.

So admittedly, my participation in the Challenge is only be a minor role — I'm only taking part in the team desert orienteering event, which is really very little compared to the daily strain most entrants will be facing.

But in addition to the honour of competing alongside some amazing athletes in a truly impressive international sporting event, it will hopefully prove an opportunity to surprise my inner lazy exercise-shy smoker once again.

Most looking forward to: Views of unspoiled, uninterrupted desert dunes

Least looking forward to: Having to climb the unspoiled, uninterrupted desert dunes