Dangerous inspiration…

There are some dangerously inspiring
headlines on the cover of this month’s Outdoor Fitness magazine. Headlines like
‘Leave it all Behind’, and ‘Chase your Dreams’ ignite something deep within me
and suddenly I’m frantically flicking through in search of my next adventure.

I’m an impulse-driven, endorphin-hunting
kind of person. I’ve got a pretty short attention span and constantly have 100 things on the go
at any one time. I’m always hungry for my next challenge, sometimes before I’ve
even finished the goal I’m currently working towards.

In April I ran a PB at Brighton Marathon,
and in nine weeks I’ve got another marathon at Fort William, so I really should
be concentrating on that. But I find it hard not to plan my next adventure when
every month a catalogue of exciting outdoor escapades lands on my doormat
enticing me to flick through and sign up.

I’m 30 next year and I’m on the hunt for
my ‘oh-my-God-I’m-getting-old-I-better-do-something-amazing’ experience. I’m
not talking a big party or family get together here, I want an all-out,
give-it-all-you-got endurance feat, a limit-pushing, fear-facing dive into the
unknown.

On the hit list of potentials so far (but
each requiring different levels of money, time, commitment to training and
varying levels of tolerance/cooperation from my long-suffering husband:

  1. Climb Mount
    Kilimanjaro
  2. RunKilimanjaro Marathon
  3. Run an ultra marathon
    (probably a ‘baby’ one, like 33 miles or so to start with – any suggestions near the South East?)
  4. Cycle from John
    O’Groats to Lands End
  5. Cycle the west coast
    of Scotland 
  6. Walk the West Highland Way
  7. Three Peaks Challenge (knees permitting)

And now with this issue of Outdoor Fitness
I’m going to have to add another million things to my to do list:

The seven day Transalp mountain bike race
covering over 620km and nearly 20,000 metres of ascent; or maybe Britain’s
longest and most challenging sportive road ride that starts this Summer –
riding the entire country’s coastline in 64 days.

Maybe not one for next year but maybe in a few, if I can improve my swimming to allow
me to do more than one length without stopping for a break – maybe the
formidable half iron-distance Ben Nevis Braveheart Triathlon! Ending with a
half marathon all the way to the summit of Britain’s highest mountain, and back
down for the finish line in Fort William. 

I climbed Ben Nevis a couple of years ago – it took us hours and the descent was the most painful experience my knees have ever had to endure. All three and a bit hours of it. So yeah, maybe that’s one for a few years when I’ve learnt to swim properly and got my knees to a comfortable fell-running state. 

Half way up Ben Nevis in 2013

I also really wanna go to New Zealand and run, walk or cycle the length of the country from the bottom of the South Island to the top of the North, but that might be another one for a few years when we’ve got some dollar to do it. 

Ooh! And I should do a Tough Mudder at some point. Maybe that’s more achievable for now. Or maybe ‘just’ a skydive?

The problem I have, (apart from convincing
the hubs to use most of our holiday allowance up to join or support me in some
knackering sufferfest of a fitness feat), is I want to do it all, right now,
but I don’t have the money, or time to train for everything, and with only 20
days holiday a year, I have to pick my battles wisely.

So instead, I’m bookmarking everything and
building my bucket list with gusto.

It’s just a case of which to save up and do
first?? 

For now though, I’ll just go and do parkrun and then spend the day on the mountain bike trails!

My subscription to Outdoor Fitness is provided for free by the lovely people at magazine.co.uk as part of being in their blogger network. All impulses and daydreams are my own 🙂

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What’s on your bucket list?  

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