On a scale of 1-10 for likelihood, how highly would you rate "Jason Whyte - International Athlete"?

No, me neither. But strangely enough, I find myself carrying that label, albeit somewhat uneasily. Y'see, there's this thing called the Microsoft UK Challengers' Trophy, which bills itself as the UK's top corporate adventure race. And I was in it, sort of, and qualified, sort of, for the international version (no sort of in that - it is definitely international. I'm going to need a passport and everything).

So, you may be wondering, what's an adventure race? If, like me, you're a reformed boy scout, I can explain it easily by saying it's a very big wide game. But it appears that the scouting movement was in deep recruiting trouble even when I were a lad, because I only ever get blank looks for that explanation. So I'll say it's like orienteering but with more complicated strategy and some other bits mixed in, like cycling, canoeing, pub quiz and GCSE woodwork.

Anyway, teams from businesses (and bits of government) all over the UK compete for this thing (which this time was held in Sheffield. In late June. It was, to say the least, wet), including Accenture. Now your typical team member is the sort of all-round sportsperson who not only knows that a 10k run is something other than a very, very small .exe file, but can complete one in less than 45 minutes. But there's this bit in the rules that says each team needs a Senior Executive to turn up for the last few stages of the contest. And, largely by virtue of no-one else being available to support the auspiciously-numbered Team 13, I was that Senior Executive.

A moment or two of seriousness, now: the Trophy is a really great event, and this year raised half a million quid for the NSPCC. And Accenture Team 13 are simply awesome; two tough refereeing calls left them well down the pack at the half-way stage, but they came back strongly in the second half, recording 4th, 12th, 4th and 2nd place finishes in the remaining stages to finish 7th overall.

I can't claim much credit for this. While they were posting their first stunning comeback result, I was in the queue to register. I just escaped the queue in time for the next phase, which turned out to be trivia and sudoku. I think I may have answered 3 questions. They graciously let me do the strategy for the next phase, so I didn't feel so useless, and the rules required me to make a short jog to collect one of the objectives. Which amply demonstrated why it was better not to use me in the final phase, which had lots of running.

Anyway 7th (out of 122) is a pretty good result, though it wouldn't ordinarily be enough to qualify for the world event. We were 4th in the mixed category, and only the top 3 qualify. But one of the qualifying women's teams wasn't high enough up to qualify, so the place went to the next best placed team. Which was us.

What does this mean for my VSO trek? I'm still trying to work it out myself. It's another incentive to train, at the very least.

Anyway, we're off to the World Challenger event this December. Perhaps having learned their lesson from Sheffield, the organisers have decided to run it from a town on the French Riviera. Which will be, as Mark Williams once said on the Fast Show, Nice.