Romping round the New Forest...

By Matt Hammerton

Romping Round the New Forest: Exploring England's woodlands on foot.

Well it’s a good start to the New Year with a 1st in the Dynamic Adventure Racing New Forest Challenge race. Two years before I competed in the 8 hour endurance race with two team mates that were far fitter than I was at the time. It was a gruelling race for me and I vowed to come back at some point and rectify the experience. This time, things were a little different, I’d managed some proper training for a start. The race format was two hours running, three hours biking and a final hour night orienteering on foot. The weather was dry and still although the Forest was wet, wet, wet. I cleared the course for each section which I was really chuffed about as navigation has never been my strong point. The course was a great chance to see some of the parts of the Forest that you wouldn’t normally go to and it was made better by everyone being so friendly – far more so that at your usual triathlon race! It’s definitely a different style of racing to half ironman involving constant thinking about eating, drinking and working out where the hell you are. Give one a go – you’ll be surprised at how much your body can do!

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