The team at Managementors love to keep active and are frequently taking part in challenges that push their boundaries. Earlier this year one of our Programme Directors, Ed Durkin, took part in The Great Lakeland 3 Day – a 75km run event in the Lake District with 3000m of elevation and it sounds like it was plenty! Ed has reflected on his decision to participate and how he got on:
“I have spent the last few years dipping my toe into the world of triathlon and, as a true operational performance consultant, I have probably spent more time furiously analysing my training and my split times (time for each leg of the triathlon; swim, bike and run) rather than actually training and racing. This was not all wasted however – I have come to the conclusion that of the three disciplines, running stands out. I enjoy it the most, it’s the most accessible wherever I am and it is my strongest discipline.
So, again, sticking to my consulting guns, there’s no point in collecting data and doing analysis if it doesn’t drive action or decision making…
… this year I have started to challenge myself and enter some run-only events, along with my ever evolving mind-set of ‘if it doesn’t scare me, I won’t prioritise it’.
It was a really tough, but really enjoyable weekend. There was plenty of everything, pain and joy, rain and sun, ration meals and beer, running and walking. A great combination of things that resulted in my signing up for next year to take on a more advanced course! Watch this space.”
One of our Consultants, Elliott Fletcher, also recently completed a half Ironman (70.3) which consisted of a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run across various stunning locations in Nice, France. Here’s what Elliott had to say about the challenge:
“Well that was way harder than expected…
I was originally planning on achieving a time of sub 7 hours and if it went as smoothly as the Dorney Triathlon 2 weeks prior, then that might have happened.
After a really good swim with minimal drowning I went onto the bike feeling confident but, on the bike ride, the Col de Vence happened! It’s a 5.5-mile stretch of continuous ascent which knocked the life out of me and many other athletes who dropped out at this point. I eventually finished the ride with only 10 minutes left to the cut-off time before I had to start the run and I was honestly ready to throw in the towel. Luckily your name is printed on the bottom of your bib number so every 50m or so I had a volunteer screaming at me to carry on and feeding me many, many bananas. After a long run/walk/crawl I finished the course in 8h25 and can quite happily say I won’t be doing that course again! I finished 1500 out of 2700 that started.”
We’re looking forward to seeing what other adventures and triumphs the team experience this year!
