Training for the world's toughest ice race
Ice novice Teddy Keen is hoping to skate 200km in under 10 hours - in temperatures of -30C. Cue a training regime of cold baths, rollerblading and ballerina lunges
It is 6.30am and there is a strange man molesting a large log in an east London park. A dog walker comes close before awkwardly changing direction. This strange man is me. And to be fair, it was entirely consensual.
What could bring a man to such depths? Answer: the world's toughest ice race. I must somehow transform myself from average internet surfer to marathon ice skater, in three months, to race in the toughest ice race in the world: the Kuopio 200km ice marathon.
On 19 February, in as low as -30C, around 25 of the best endurance skaters in the world will line up. And me - a bloke who last skated at Gosport ice disco aged 14. Our mission is to skate non-stop for 200km in under 10 hours. A stupid idea? Definitely. A loophole allowed me to enter; a Finnish assumption that no one would attempt 200km if they didn't know what they were doing. That loophole may close as of 20 February.
The blame for all this lies squarely with Great Ormond Street children's hospital and a young man called Angus. The latter is my younger brother, and the former is the place that has saved his life and made living with Apert syndrome much easier. After one operation last year, I realised that I wanted to say thank you to the people who have helped him. It was time to raise some money. Easier said than done after years of bleeding friends and family dry through JustGiving emails - this one would have to be special. As Angus kindly put it, I would at least have to risk my life to hold my head up in Great Ormond Street. And so the idea of an unfit, bearded Englishman skating 200km took root.
Here we are two months in. As you can imagine, training for a 200km ice marathon in London has called for a bit of imagination. You'd think an ice rink would suffice, but the realities of two out-of-control, 19-inch blades travelling at pace through crowds of children are not worth thinking about. Maybe when I get more proficient I will venture back among the eight-year-old figure skaters at Lee Valley's ice centre. Maybe.
And so we return to the log. The lack of large frozen surfaces has led to a whole new world of exercise: some fairly obvious, such as rollerblading; others, state-of-the-art techniques I have stolen from YouTube. I could explain, but video does it better...
Read this incredible story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/30/training-worlds-toughest-ice-race
Crazy stuff or what??
Ice novice Teddy Keen is hoping to skate 200km in under 10 hours - in temperatures of -30C. Cue a training regime of cold baths, rollerblading and ballerina lunges
It is 6.30am and there is a strange man molesting a large log in an east London park. A dog walker comes close before awkwardly changing direction. This strange man is me. And to be fair, it was entirely consensual.
What could bring a man to such depths? Answer: the world's toughest ice race. I must somehow transform myself from average internet surfer to marathon ice skater, in three months, to race in the toughest ice race in the world: the Kuopio 200km ice marathon.
On 19 February, in as low as -30C, around 25 of the best endurance skaters in the world will line up. And me - a bloke who last skated at Gosport ice disco aged 14. Our mission is to skate non-stop for 200km in under 10 hours. A stupid idea? Definitely. A loophole allowed me to enter; a Finnish assumption that no one would attempt 200km if they didn't know what they were doing. That loophole may close as of 20 February.
The blame for all this lies squarely with Great Ormond Street children's hospital and a young man called Angus. The latter is my younger brother, and the former is the place that has saved his life and made living with Apert syndrome much easier. After one operation last year, I realised that I wanted to say thank you to the people who have helped him. It was time to raise some money. Easier said than done after years of bleeding friends and family dry through JustGiving emails - this one would have to be special. As Angus kindly put it, I would at least have to risk my life to hold my head up in Great Ormond Street. And so the idea of an unfit, bearded Englishman skating 200km took root.
Here we are two months in. As you can imagine, training for a 200km ice marathon in London has called for a bit of imagination. You'd think an ice rink would suffice, but the realities of two out-of-control, 19-inch blades travelling at pace through crowds of children are not worth thinking about. Maybe when I get more proficient I will venture back among the eight-year-old figure skaters at Lee Valley's ice centre. Maybe.
And so we return to the log. The lack of large frozen surfaces has led to a whole new world of exercise: some fairly obvious, such as rollerblading; others, state-of-the-art techniques I have stolen from YouTube. I could explain, but video does it better...
Read this incredible story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/30/training-worlds-toughest-ice-race
Crazy stuff or what??
