Strive Challenge 2016

The triathlon stage

Honestly, my first thoughts were, this should be a piece of cake. The team doing the whole event had already hiked and cycled from The Matterhorn to the southern tip of Italy, over 25 days of hard work,  surely they wouldn’t make it too hard on themselves on the final stage! .. I was wrong.

If you tried to pick a harder, more vertical path from sea level to the top of Mount Etna you would struggle, the mountain bike stages were brutally technical  with mammoth climbs and the sea swim was punishing, mainly because I made the rookie error of not wearing the wetsuit. My runners physique left me with mild hyperthermia, although my son Connor smashed it.

However, the most striking thing of all were the people involved. Not one negative person among the 85 participants, it was a humbling experience listening to stories of  guys that had never been off road on a mountain bike, tackling these challenging routes and just getting the job done with a smile.

    
And of course, to complete this latest challenge with my son by my side all the way was the icing on the cake. I have to concede he now has the edge on his old man!

 

Some more photos of the whole event are here to view if you are interested, there are quite a few high profile participants. https://www.instagram.com/strivechallenge/