Only 3 weeks to go, managed to complete a 50km run with our 8kg rucksack on Sunday, so our training is still on track. Although sometimes dragging myself out of bed can be difficult I am never disappointed with the beauty of Lake 32. Although by mile 10 I am normally only seeing stars! In fact, we must of both looked like we were struggling the other day whilst training as a member of staff in a rescue boat brought us a can of coke and a chocolate bar! Oh well at least we were not kayaking during storm Franklin. However, we were hiking, I know stupid ah! But apparently Lesotho is windy, and we needed to train for the conditions. So, we packed our rucksacks with our mandatory equipment, food and extra clothing as the forecast was rain, wind and more rain. We saw fallen trees, windswept trampolines and blown down

Oooooh what to do on my birthday; go out for a meal, drink champagne, relax in the sun, or kayak 49km around a lake! Ok so you know what I wanted to do, kayak around a lake 34 times to represent my 49 years. My thinking was that kayaking is my weakest discipline in comparison to cycling and hiking therefore, I would be proud of my achievement which was a present from me to me 😊.  The day started well, no rain yippee as the forecast was terrible but what is this a sniffle, I have not had a cold for a good 2 years what is going on! Maybe it is a sign (if I believed in such things) that I should be chilling on my birthday and not attempting to kayak the longest distance I had every done. Nonetheless, I would not be deterred, a challenge albeit to myself is

Firstly, I cannot express the massive admiration I feel for adventure racers although I have always respected what they achieve, after experiencing what it actually feels like to keep going throughout the night with no sleep and to keep going when you can hardly keep your eyes open, huge respect. Let us hope I do not get too gushy when I see my heroes on the start line at the adventure racing world championship in October! Right, what did we learn this time around; you will be glad to know lots. Moreover, it is not all bad as we definitely learnt from our past mistakes and put them to practice this time. To start with I did not wear neoprene socks and chose to take Mr Adam Rose advice and my own experience whilst playing squash and wear two thin pairs of socks to avoid friction thus, blisters. More importantly Anton

I have always been an outdoorsy person and growing up I was mistaken for a boy on many occasions; perhaps it was because I ways always halfway up a tree or tearing around the village on my bike. Perhaps another reason why I am an outdoorsy person is because my dad was always late, so it was easier to cycle or walk to the hockey match or my friends house to ensure I was there on time! We also lived on a hill so cycling up a hill was the norm and still is. I am a country girl at heart and still live in the beautiful Cotswolds and get great pleasure out of walking our four dogs each morning in the woods and roaming hills.  As I have mentioned cycling up hill is a way of life so when I started mountain biking, I was not phased by the hills