CE Pro June 2022 - 4

From the Editor
by Arlen Schweiger
The Amazing Race to Raise Funds
for Charity
TALK ABOUT GOING the extra mile to aid a
worthy cause - how about 150+ extra miles,
in a span of six days?
That's what Chris Pinder accomplished this
spring when he competed in the Marathon
Des Sables to raise funds for Together For
Cinema, the UK-based charitable organization
that works with manufacturing sponsors
and integrators to design and install theater
rooms in children's hospices.
" Marathon " hardly describes what's known
" One day in
the desert
is nowhere near
as hard as what
some of these
families and
these children
are facing whilst
they're in a
hospice. "
-HDANYWHERE's
Chris Pinder, on
raising funds
for Together For
Cinema
Arlen Schweiger is
executive editor of
CE Pro. He can be
reached at
arlen.schweiger@
emeraldx.com and
@ArlenSchweiger
as " the world's toughest footrace, " which
took place in late March and early April.
Staged in the Sahara Desert in Morocco,
participants run the equivalent of roughly six
marathons - 250 kilometers, or about 155
miles - over six days in grueling heat and
sometimes sandstorm conditions, carrying
food, water and bivouac tents with them.
If that sounds crazy enough, consider that
Pinder, managing director of AV signal distribution
provider HDANYWHERE as well as
distributor OneAV, was far from an extreme
athlete when he targeted the Marathon Des
Sables to promote Together For Cinema.
" I wouldn't have described myself as an
athlete until about a year ago, " says Pinder, 36.
" I played soccer and I was just a goalkeeper, so I
never did much running in all my years of soccer. "
Pinder got involved in Together For Cinema
with HDANYWHERE donating cables and
video matrix products for the theater installations,
of which the organization has now
completed more than 30 since it was started
by founder Ian Morrish.
" It was a perfect combination of passion for
what we do professionally and a really undeniably
worthy cause - it's children, it's their
families, the amazing volunteers who care for
them, " Pinder says.
He wanted to do a challenge that would make
people " have a double-take when they saw it,
that I was doing such a ridiculous challenge. "
Early on, his hopes could have easily been
4 | CE Pro June 2022
dashed. Pinder says he started training about
10 months beforehand, when he visited a UK
ultra-running legend/coach, Rory Coleman.
" The first time I met Rory he said, 'What's
your marathon time?' and I told him I'd never
run a marathon. He was like, 'OK, what's your
half-marathon time?' and I said I don't have
one. He said, 'Are you for real? People train
for three years to do this race.' "
Coleman told Pinder that unless he could
finish six marathons in six days before a
Christmas deadline, there was no point in
heading to the Sahara. Pinder was not only
undeterred, but even more determined. With
Coleman's guidance, he began running 100
miles a week.
Morrish, wanting to assist Pinder, was also
somewhat naïve about the race. " I thought
well I'll just go with him to Morocco and go
from hotel to hotel and every evening we can
share a drink. I thought I should be there to
spur him on ... I had absolutely no idea what
he was getting into. "
Instead, as a show of support Morrish cycled
a marathon's worth of miles daily during the
race period. " I said to him, 'Just get home safe.' "
Not only did Pinder return safely to a joyous
airport reunion with his wife and daughters, but
he finished the event in 34 hours, 43 minutes,
29 seconds, good for an incredible 158th place
out of 1,000+ competitors. Donations netted a
whopping £46,220, or roughly $57,000.
A simple message from one of his daughters
to " do well, Daddy, " fueled Pinder as he
repeated it to himself throughout.
" It's a brutal race, but that's why people do
it. It makes you appreciate what you have in
our day-to-day life, " Pinder says. " One day in
the desert is nowhere near as hard as what
some of these families and these children are
facing whilst they're in a hospice - if you're
in a hospice we all know what that means. It's
far more tough than what I faced, and I had
that on my mind as well. "
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CE Pro June 2022

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