Mini Challenges
As someone who thrives on being active and outdoors I am constantly looking for something that tests me. I spend a lot of my time completing smaller challenges and races that typically can be done over a day or weekend. These don’t require the same level of planning as the bigger projects and is a great way to experience and explore in between big expeditions and adventures.
Below is a sample of what I’ve been up to recently.
Please check out Future Challenges to see what other ‘Mini Challenges’ I’m up to this year.
Endurancelife Dartmoor Mountain Marathon (DMM) - 24-25 July 2010
Located on Dartmoor this was a two day mountain marathon with competitors navigating over tough terrain to visit check points whilst carrying enough equipment to remain self sufficient.
I competed in the Medium Score category. Six hours on day 1 and 5 hours on day 2.
Welsh 3000s - Snowdonia - 10 July 2010
24 hour mountain challenge
The Welsh 3000s is an endurance challenge involving summiting 15 of the mountains over 3000ft in Wales within 24 hours. The total distance covered will be approximately 30 miles with lots of demanding ascents and descents.
The challenge is made tougher with no previous knowledge of the Snowdonia area as navigation can be problematic.
The challenge takes part on the following groups of mountains in the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales; Snowdon Massif, the Glyderau and the Carneddau. The area is extremely rocky and in places severely exposed, most notably Crib Goch.
Attempt aborted July 2010. Re-run summer 2011.
Brutal Run Series - January - March 2011
3 10km races / 3 dates / 3 venues
According to the race organisers, “each will require mental toughness and and raw grit. These gruelling events will be muddy, gritty and downright knackering.”
Race 1: Longmoor, 3 January 2011 - COMPLETED
Race 2: Windmill Hill, 26 February 2011 - COMPLETED
Race 3: Frith Hill, 19 March 2011 - COMPLETED
Indoor-Rowing Marathons
In preparation for the Atlantic Ocean Rowing Race I completed a number of indoor rowing marathons (42,195m) and half marathons (21,097m). These were invaluable training sessions as they were physically demanding and monotonous and were a great mental test.
My benchmark time was sub 3 hours (2.08 minutes/500m split) for the marathon distance and sub 85 minutes (1.55 minutes/500m split) for the half marathon.
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