I'm in Magazines! Outdoor Fitness

When we were at Kielder marathon, back in October, they gave away copies of Outdoor Fitness magazine. We managed to snarfle a copy the day before the race and were having a flick through as we sat and looked at the beautiful lake and enjoyed a coffee. If I'm honest, I was reading The Times Magazine, it was Saturday after all, and BB was reading Outdoor Fitness. Suddenly, he leaned forward and passed me the mag and said 'D'you recognise anyone on that page?' I, of course, was expecting to see a friend of ours, or a famous runner or athlete, or something like that. So, I was gobsmacked to see that it was BB and myself and BB's brother-in-law in a race that we did some four years ago.

I've circled us in red, there's bro-in-law leaning back. Me in the middle with one hand in the water, and BB with his arms in the water. The advert is promotinga race called 'Cannock Chase Calling'. The photo below isn't actually in Cannock Chase. The race we did was down at Weaver's Down and is part of the military training area, called Longmoor camp near Hampshire. I can say though, that if you are after a challenge it was the most difficult or should I say tiring race I have ever done. We had to run first, to the kayaks, the 'surprise' when we got there, was that they made us kayak without a paddle (kind), then we had to run back to our bikes, do 2 laps of the most horrendous bike course I have ever experienced in my whole life. I think I fell off about 5 times... and then I think we had to run about 5K, all topped of with an assault course, in which BB and BIL had to drag me over one of those tall A-frame climbing thingies, and we had to scramble under a net on the floor. Enough said?

If you fancy doing an extreme race challenge I would definitely recommend this. To say, it was a challenge is an understatement. It was excellent though.

We also ended up taking out a subscription to Outdoor Fitness magazine and I have to say it's a really good read and a break from Runner's World and the triathlon magazines that I'm used to of late...

Coming next: Me (well, the back of me in Runner's World Magazine (Feb 2012 issue) at the 'On Track On Target' training day  in Birmingham where I was lucky enough to be one of the shortlisted 40 out of some 1600 applicants to attend the training day with the chance of gaining one of five coveted VIP places in the 2012 Paris Marathon.