How fast james thurlow

Having organised nearly 50 events in the UK in some of the most challenging environments he is one of the most experienced lunatics in this field. If you look carefully you will also find him on a bike across the country experiencing what other organisers can pull out of the bag. A tight northerner with a perfectly normal, single speed and turbo training habit. When not out cycling or sitting on the road to nowhere he is to be found tiring himself out in whatever way he can, maybe even working as an electrician or on events.

Having never undertaken such a challenge or adventure like this before, I wasn't sure of what to expect, but the whole process ran seamlessly - a testament to the crew and all that went on behind the scenes. They became just as much part of the team, especially in the evenings when we sat and shared our stories from the day. Did you get your training and preparation right? I trained for 6 months prior to the trip. My main focus was to complete the course and to enjoy it as I went, rather than to worry about how fast I got round.

I really was starting from scratch so I enlisted the help of a triathlete coach who guided me through swimming, cycling and running and showed me how to train for endurance. I had never been opening water swimming, let alone owned a wetsuit, yet I found myself thriving in the new experiences of training and getting fitter. Open water swimming has been a revelation and I love the sense of freedom it gives you.

Preparing for the event also involved getting a kit list together. Although this can seem like a never ending collection, I broke the list down into what I would need for each day and made sure I was covered for all weathers.

It is not essential to have your own wetsuit but I am glad I did as it was great for practice. Bikes and kayaks are provided out there. What was the most challenging moment on the course? The mountain bike was due to be my most challenging discipline - a 63km leg, the first half of which was uphill. And I had only invested in a bike five months prior to the trip in an effort to get some training in.

I was cycling with Mark and going uphill for three hours without a break was not only a test of our physical ability, but a real test of mental fortitude. Still, each pedal stroke got us closer to the top of Mt Werner…. Was there a particularly special moment? In that moment we were surrounded by a herd of deer. Just us, two bikes and the wildlife atop the mountain peak, with trees and mountains as far as the eye could see. Of-course we still had to get all the way back down. And it was fair to say after six gruelling hours in the saddle, cycling through what felt like three different seasons in a day and a torrential rain storm for the last 15km, I was quite emotional when I crossed the finish line.

This amateur cyclist had done it in her own time! And crossing the finish line at the finish of the event too I really was overcome - after six months spent preparing mentally and physically, this was the reality of completing the race and overcoming the challenge. My teammates welcomed me over the line with open arms and huge grins on their faces.

For a moment in time we had all removed ourselves from our usual lives and embraced a transformative wilderness experience. A collective group of strangers at the start of the week, we were now friends and teammates who had made it through together. Finally, swimming across Whitefish Lake, I found myself physically having to stop to absorb the moment. I was in the middle of the pack and I could see orange swim hats bobbing in front of me and behind.

IGO Montana was underway and it all seemed slightly surreal. What did you learn? An enthusiastic attitude and a willingness to try will get you just as far!

It is all about positive, mental attitude. As participants we all had different levels of fitness across a range of ages, but there we were at the finish line having all completed the four days start to finish. Cycling will always be my nemesis, there is only so much peddling my legs want to do.

There were categories for mixed teams of four Expedition and unusually for Pairs Adventure class. Davies and Davies no relation competed as a pair - taking 60 hours and 43 minutes to cover the course.

They placed first of the two finishing pairs in the Adventure category. The team is sponsored by Endurancelife and also by Montane and 2XU , who assist in equipment and clothing. See more about the Basque Expedition Race. It also enabled us to practice working as a pair and to determine our roles.

Tom mentioned the Basque race soon after Expedition Africa in May. We knew that we might struggle to find a female member from our squad to race with us due to work commitments , so I suggested we enter as a pair - the organisers offer this option, which is not usual in multi-day adventure races — and we jumped at the opportunity. Neither of us had participated in the Basque Expedition Race before, nor even raced in Spain. However, our friend Adam Rose had — and he did warn us that there would be some steep and technical terrain What was the race like?

Navigation is key to success in the race: paths exist in some areas but not in others and so calculated risks - going in a straight line between checkpoints — were advantageous in some places but not elsewhere. It rained in the second half of the race and given our experience in Expedition Africa where we lost seven hours due to a broken rear mech we were wary of the same happening again, so we were deliberately cautious going through the mud.

The race started at on the Friday evening which meant that we had approximately three hours of sunlight and heat before it got dark. Planning Fourteen orienteering maps were handed to us approximately two hours before the race and they included over checkpoints! Two methods were used to confirm that we visited them; some required photographic evidence and others required the use of SportIdent dibbers.

We decided to carry 2 x ml bottles for each leg and not to carry more capacity. I was so desperate at one point that I even used a muddy puddle to fill a bottle; I treated this water of course. One night we spent over thirty minutes in a village trying to find water. Each house seemed to have very angry guard dogs, which were barking loudly — one had several dogs barking and biting one another, which resulted in lots of yelps of pain!

Luckily we found a water source on the outskirts of that village before ascending to the next checkpoint. Were there differences in racing as a pair? Racing in a pair instead of a traditional mixed team of four over this length of time is different. The likelihood of something going wrong is higher in a team of four e. However when things go wrong, it helps to have more people and potentially a wider base of skills to deal with it.

One of the challenges in a team of four is to ensure that everybody feels that they have a role in the team. It is very easy for two or three people to have something to do e. This is generally not a problem in a pair. How were the race organisation and logistics? The race organisation was excellent. The maps were excellent quality both for their accuracy and their durability tough waterproof paper.

We learned after the race that Urtzi Iglesias Race Director had personally spent several days in the areas where the participants were likely to be and he updated the maps himself. The checkpoint descriptions were accurate and the SportIdent checkpoints were located accurately too; this a sign of a good Race Director and team.

Cristina is the other side of the organisational team and was instrumental before and during the event. What was the most challenging aspect of the event?

Tom and I had done very little time on a SUP board before the race; mine was limited to 20 minutes during the summer! We both struggled to keep the boards going in a straight line on the first section of the SUP leg albeit Tom was better than I due to his misspent youth on a snowboard! I decided to go on my knees after about 2km into 7km leg as I was far more stable and able to keep in a straight line and thus move forward faster. Even he said that the section in the Basque Expedition race was technically challenging.

It included a traverse along the top of a knife edge ridgeline for several hundred metres, with a vertical drop either side! And the best moment? We had travelled several kilometres and descended several hundred metres since the previous checkpoint where I had used it too! So our best moment in the race came a while later, when we bumped into another team and asked if we could photograph their description booklet. Luckily they obliged!

How did you get on? We started out pretty well and were yo-yoing with other top teams fours and pairs on the Leg 1 trek as we all made different route choices with different degrees of success. This leg was anticipated to last around 12 hours for the fastest team, so we were delighted to do it in a couple of hours less than that - and to find ourselves in the top five at the first transition. As the race progressed, the teams spread out and we saw very little of them except during the transitions.

The muddy terrain was a challenge, particularly following the rainfall in the second half of the race and after our experience in Expedition Africa we were deliberately cautious. Even so, the mud stuck to our tyres and drivetrains, making some sections of the MTB legs unrideable. We ended up having to carry the now heavy bikes, even down some shallow descents.

Even after the muddy sections the issues continued. We were reluctant to use our drinking water if we had any to clean the drivetrain because of the lack of suitable re-supply, so Tom even tried peeing on my chain once to clean it! Later we found a big water trough and dunked the bikes and removed as much mud and weight as possible before the next climb. There were two other very good pairs in the race and for a while all three of us were in contention for podium positions.

Then one of the teams retired, so we ended up head-to-head with the third team, exchanging first place in the Pairs category through the second half of the race.

But finally we managed to pull ahead, gaining a four hour lead by the end of the race. We believe this happened for two reasons: first we had a very good quality sleep 2 hours, our only sleep during race on the second night in a small timber shed; and second our navigation was probably better. A Life of Adventure would love to keep you posted with stories ideas and tips about Sign up and we'll send occasional inspiring, pithy and hopefully funny messages about how to find adventure and the people involved.

We promise not to bombard you and will never sell your email address on. The kilometre multi-day event was their first full-length adventure race — prior to that they had raced only single day races - so it was a big undertaking and of course it took them for the first time into new domains such as sleep deprivation and multi-day planning.

Below, team Captain David Naylor talks about their race. About the illustrations : Diane Shearer, a member of Team Sleepy Dragons, is an artist who specialises in landscapes and the outdoors.

She has drawn a number of pictures inspired by the race and the Namaqua area on the west coast of South Africa where the race was held, and we are pleased to illustrate this article with them. See more about Diane Shearer and her work. And see more about Expedition Africa. What was Expedition Africa like? David Naylor: ExpAfrica was our first long-distance adventure race. The race taught us so much. Namaqualand had been going through a drought just before we started the race, however on the very first day inclement weather rolled in.

During the week of the race the area experienced more rain than in the previous 3 years. And we dodged all of it! It was a beautiful race, with wonderful people at the transitions, keeping the spirits up and the fires warm. The legs were long and so we often went many hours without seeing another soul. At the end of the event, after a good sleep, we were already excited to do the next race. We wanted to improve upon what we had learned. Finishing the race was a moment in itself - the vibe at the finish line was awesome.

Random Thought Adventure racing isn't only about the good and beautiful moments, but also about pushing yourself through tough times. Did you get your Training and Planning right? The fourth leg - the first and longest cycle - spanned nine , maps. Once we had plotted our route, we had to cut up the map as it wouldn't all fix in the map sleeve. So, during this leg we had to periodically stop and fish out another section of the map.

That was a first! Training - More training, lots more training, over longer distances! What team Strategies did you use? Pacing - We had been warned about setting a pace that was too fast, so we did the opposite and went too slowly. Next time we will focus more on setting a good sustainable pace. We will also cut down on the number of rests we have. There is no need for a 5 minute break every 45 minutes.

Food - Make sure you take a variety of food. You will get tired of anything after a while. Our navigator had packed too many cashew nuts and ended up a cashew nut merchant, desperately trading them for anything that wasn't cashew nuts. We set off and soon found ourselves in beach-quality sand, on the top of Gifberg Pass.

Alas, someone was negligent and failed to include the ocean. So, through soft sand, comical moments of falling over, and sheer pain, we came to the end of Gifberg. Hike a Bike - Despite avoiding the hike-a-bike mud nightmare see below we did end up hiking our bikes over fences and up a hill at one point in the middle of the night, as our navigator took us on a scenic "shortcut". The end is magical - As we cycled down the last pass, we could see the fields of Namaqualand, and a road cutting straight across those fields into the horizon.

That straight road was our route home, and what a beautiful sight it was. After 6 days, hours of racing, less than 20 hours of sleep, the end was in sight. There were so many memorable moments, but here are a couple:.

Never have I seen such a long train — there were packs of locomotives at the front, middle and back. The train passed us in the darkness, with nothing else to keep us company except the rattle of the bikes on the dirt road and the clinking of the wires above the train tracks.

A Party at the top of Hel's Pass - It happened that our navigator had his 30th birthday during the race, on a day when we had a major route decision to take. Both options involved an equivalent amount of elevation. We chose the long way around, and luckily that was the right option for us — it turned out that rain had flooded the plains on Option A, turning the route into a multi-kilometer hike-a-bike slog through mud.

And that was before the real hike-a-bike section up the narrow pass. Taking Option B — and unknowingly dodging the mud — we had mostly dry tracks up Hel's Pass. And so, on the 3rd morning we found ourselves at the top of Devil's Pass with a little cake, a candle and a mini bottle of Amarula to celebrate our navigator's 30th.

What a sweet moment! At the Finish - Getting back to our lodge on the evening we finished and turning on a cellphone for the first time in a week - and seeing a flood of over messages on the Sleepy Dragon Whatsapp group discussing our progress throughout the race and messages of congratulations - made us realise that although we felt very alone at stages of the course, our trusty dot-watchers had been with us all the way. Tip Top Tips - What did you learn?

Normally we include Tip Top Tips elsewhere, but as this is the view of a team on their first major race, we decided to include them here. After walking for miles over quartz rocks and cycling for 36 hours at as stretch, were learned some key lessons - wear double socks for long treks and carry spare socks to allow yourselves to have some time with dry feet say after sleeping.

On long cycle rides wear double cycling pants. The race course took them from the coast around Dooringbaai, inland on the Olifants River and then south to Sneeukop in the Cederberg mountains and then via Gifberg to the finish. Team Ertips has been winning races in various incarnations for more than 20 years, since the days of the original adventure race, the Raid Gauloises.

They covered the course of the ARC in just over 56 hours, five hours faster than their nearest rivals, Team Intersport from Slovenia.

Sam Hubert, captain of Team Ertips, tells us about their race. First a bit of Form Sam Hubert: I have been captain of the ERTIPS Team for 13 years and I have competed with all three other team members over the years, but this was the first time that the four of us have entered an adventure race of this length together.

David and I are the most experienced racers in the team and we have competed in six world championships together, as well as in many other adventure races. The ARC was a proper adventure race. Also, as it turned out, our two sea kayak legs took place at night and the navigation was challenging. What makes ARC special? You had to be a real mountain goat to get through the hiking legs.

We suspected this before the race — and we even found some similar rocky terrain in which to train. It was definitely worth it! During Leg 7 particularly, you really had to get your navigation absolutely spot on — it was necessary to strike out away from the paths. In fact this turned out to be a key point in the race, and it enabled us to build up a lead on the other teams. Was the course a success? For many years my winters have often featured regularly attending a running club.

I can hear all my T1 friends yawn no seriously read on ; Who owns the data? Since that time diabetes has become an integral part of my life - with injections and blood testing five times a day. For his suffer-fest at The World Champs — destroying the soles of his feet and relying on Duct tape to replace them Alex Pilkington for his suffer-fest at The World Champs — destroying the soles of his feet and relying on Duct tape to replace them.

You can see the full list of nominees and awards on the Adventure Racing Ball Facebook page , along with a photo gallery of the weekend and the awards by Eddie pap AR azzi Winthorpe.