The Battle Commence! July 31, 2013 Every time you see someone doing a great and worthwhile expedition or adventure, one must understand the amount of work that goes into it. Doing the adventure IS the fun bit. Hours upon hours of dedication to planning, foreseeing, adjusting, reinventing, failing, starting again until one feels relatively happy that you will achieve what your setting out to do. There are times when it appears that all will be well, then there are times when it all seems completely inadequate. It is here in limbo where I find myself again. Hours of research, planning and readjusting now seems inadequate, damn! The only reason to continue or even starting again is the outmatching urge to attempt something that hasn't been done before.     With this expedition we are completely reliant on the weather. If we have very favorable weather we could achieve this expedition in a relative good clean time frame. If on the other hand we have rough waters this expedition could potentially take much longer to complete. I will soon set up a dedicated page just for this expedition where I will post all the latest updates. Keep looking and keep dreaming! Posted by Ettienne De Beer. Posted In : Expeditions

New Expedition

A New Expedition was Born!

July 2, 2013

So finally, my book is out and available in full colour on Amazon:

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Through-Blisters-Saddle-Sores-ebook/dp/B00DIJZN84/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1372758356&sr=1-1&keywords=through+blisters+and+saddle+sores

and 10% of ALL sales will be donated to The Haven Breast Cancer Support Centres Charity to help raise funds.

Also as my training for the fell record commenced a New Expedition popped it's head up! What can one do...turn it down? I don't think so!  Embrace ALL that life presents, planned or not.

I cannot give away too much information on this New Expedition as I don't want to spoil the surprise. What I can say is that it WILL BE EVEN WILDER THAN MY AROUND THE UK EXPEDITION, MORE CHALLENGING THAN ANYTHING I'VE DONE SO FAR AND SOMETHING THAT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON THIS SCALE!!!

It involves water is my clue, so keep guessing until more information becomes available!

For those who use Linkedin, join my group formed to unite Adventurers, it is a platform where you can share stories, information, ideas and build long lasting friendships with like minded people!




    

See you in the group!!! Adventurers & Authors:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/ADVENTURES-adventures-adventures-What-is-5078431.S.254383253

Book Release

Book Release

June 19, 2013

"Through Blisters and Saddle Sores"  
Available from Amazon Kindle on the 21 June 2013, £1.99

In order to keep raising funds for the Haven Breast Cancer Support Centres, 10% of ALL sales will be donated to the charity.

This book takes you through our journey from the beginning to the very end and everything in between. It shows the highs and low's, the up's and down's the good and the bad that one can find in any long and worthwhile quest.

It is based on very personal experience and hides NO flaws or weaknesses found in my character. On the other hand it also brings to life the changes that happened to me during this expedition and how those weakness became less and flaws became strengths.

This is a very real book. Tricia had very real cancer. We had very realhard times. We took on a very real challenge. However, in the end we overcame, we conquered, we did not surrender to what seemed impossible, we persevered, we held tight and we kept pushing forward.

Everything worthwhile is born through struggle.

There is no greater secret to success than what is written in our DNA. Survival and the quest to live have been the pressing force of mankind since the beginning of time. In this book you will see just a glimpse of that and the results that can be achieved.


  

Posted by Ettienne De Beer. Posted In : Book 

My 5 1/2 hour plod!

June 7, 2013

The sun is out, and the distant glimmer of the fells urging me to wonder their grandeur, so I must!

In my preparation for my next challenge my road seems paved with blood blisters, numb quads and wavering energy levels. Yesterday was my fourth run in the mountains and I thought it would be getting easier...how wrong I was!!!

I started at the base of Wetherlam wanting to push in a more northern direction exploring some fells that are new to me. With this heat it was hard to get going but I made it up Wetherlam (2502 ft) then up Prison band to the cairn of Swirl How (2630 ft)

   

I then turned right and in a couple of minutes I was standing on the top of Great Carrs (2575 ft). Leaving the cairn I took a tiny footpath east and it wasn't long before I was standing on Grey Friar (2536 ft). I remember thinking to myself, wow 1hr, 25 mins in this heat was not too bad completing 4 of the Fells I would eventually do on my record attempt.

It is not that I'm going for any speed records so I only focused on keeping moving forward no matter how slow. I now wanted to move north towards areas I didn't know. I also limit my use of a map - probably not always the best idea - I figured that I'd learn the mountains fairly fast if I had to remember where I am.

The next fell I wanted to topple was Crinkle Crags but first I had to run down Grey Friar and this was where I got lost- again! The combination of not knowing the area and lack of willing to use my map cost me an hours detour run which would later near kill me.

                                                                                     

After finally making it to the right track my next hurdle was Little Stand (2385 ft) before I could see Crinkle Crags towering in the background. From the foot of Little Stand to the tallest of the Crinkles took me 54 minutes and by now I was running the mountains for 3 hr 21 minutes in the heat.

My energy dropped to zero as I made it to the tallest cairn of Crinkle Crags (2816 ft). It was as if my body said: OK, so you made it to where you wanted to now I want to rest.

Read the full story on my Current blog @ http://www.ettiennedebeer.com/current-blog.php

See more on my website http://www.ettiennedebeer.com/ and keep up to date with other events as well.

The Long awaited book!

Within the next few days my book "Through Blisters and Saddle Sores"  will be made available on Amazon Kindle in  Ebook format.

                                                     This book will explain EVERYTHING!

What prompted me do take on my 4200 mile run and cycle around the complete coastline of the United Kingdom within 49 days.

How I went about gear, food and much, much more!
ALL my highs and lows and EVERY lesson learnt!

To keep updated more regularly see my new blog page @ http://www.ettiennedebeer.com/current-blog.php
and have a look at my new adventures and challenges
PLUS
Support other very worthy adventures on my http://www.ettiennedebeer.com/news-and-sponsors.php

  

Please note that I am currently using http://www.ettiennedebeer.com/current-blog.php as my new blog and will keep all my up to date adventures and challenges on this site.

Please feel free to have a look on my site and also to contact me for any reason on my contact-us page.

Thank you for looking and hope to see you soon somewhere doing something totally cool and out of this world.
  

It's all about what you put into something!

The more I do my research on the challenges that I've set myself the more I become acutely aware of the training, determination and believe that is required to complete these events: I have put up another website to give more light on my upcoming events, visit:  http://www.ettiennedebeer.com/.

First of all I want to congratulate my little brother who were married yesterday! May you both have a very long and happy life together!

Finishing off at work last night around 22:30 pm something popped into my head. Can I run through the night? To complete my fell record attempt I would be required to run 24 hours non stop, I was wondering if I could, at the drop of a hat make it through the night.

I cycled the 4.2 miles home as fast as I could in the rain and wind, had some salmon that Tricia had prepared for dinner. I packed my food and drink bag for the run and made my way to a suitable start point.

It was a mad attempt to try something like this on the spur of the moment but I felt good. As the time passed away under the quarter moon and spells of pouring rain I kept thinking of what I'd have to endure on the fells. I chose to run through parks and areas that would challenge me as much as there was challenges around running in London. I would negotiate muddy banks, dart between pools of murky water and stepping over sinister hidden roots.

I really enjoyed this adventure in my back yard, so to speak. However by mile 18 my body was starting to freeze up and by mile 21.5 I called it a day-or night.

I was disappointed for not making it through the night and thought how on earth am I going to make it through 24 hours of mountain running if I could only manage about 4 hours and 2800 ft of ascent.

Before I'd beaten myself up too much I had to remind myself of why I only could handle this tonight.

• I haven't had a run in over three weeks due to a stomach virus.                                                       
• I did leg strength training earlier in the week and my legs were still sore and fatigued.
• I cycled to work (4.2 m), completed 8.5 hours of lifting and shifting weights on the gym floor then cycled home (4.2 m) before I took on this run.

With that said, I felt better. I had a quick wash down and jumped into bed. Knowing that it was possible if I'd train more regularly and seriously my mood improved and now I'm sitting working on my training program.

I have decided on regular runs during the week with one all night run included. With completing my one all night run a week for a suitable time, I would progress to include one 12 hour run a week and then finally progress to one 24 hour run a week. 

Now that that is decided, back to work on planning, training and finishing my book.