Discipline and team work crucial for both self-study and a 100-kilometre hike, finds Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu advisory partner

NEXT SUNDAY MORNING, accountant Roger Best may well be relaxing with a cup of coffee and reading the paper. For months, he and three colleagues have sacrificed their weekend mornings to long training hikes of a serious nature - the aim being to beat the clock.

Next weekend will be particularly harsh. If all goes according to plan, Mr Best and the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu team will, by early next Saturday, be edging towards the finish line of Hong Kong's 100km annual Trailwalker event.

It will have been a long, strenuous day and night. They have 48 hours to complete the race, with the cut-off on Sunday morning, but aim to home in on their best time of 20 hours and 41 minutes reached seven years ago.

There are those who presume a life spent number-crunching needs spicing up via whatever means possible - even if midnight hiking is a little extreme. Mr Best begs to differ.

He stumbled into his career after glandular fever in his final year at school caused him to miss his exams. Faced with the option of redoing his sixth form year, he decided instead to become an accountant.

'I was not always going to be an accountant,' he says. 'I was going to be everything from a marine biologist to a veterinary surgeon to a biochemist.