Earlier this year I received a message out of the blue asking if I wanted to join a team heading to Lesotho for a 5-day, non-stop adventure race. The fact that I’d never heard of the country made me all the more curious to join the team. So despite the facts that a) it was just two weeks away, b) I’d not raced with the team of 4 before, and c) I’d done very little long distance training recently, I said yes. What did I have to lose?
In case you are wondering, Lesotho (le-soo-too) is a small enclave inside South Africa, known as “The Kingdom in the Sky”. The whole country is higher than the highest point in the UK.
Things didn’t quite go to plan, I was ill in the days leading up to the race, but made the decision to start the 5-day, continuous race and see how it unfolded. As the race progressed we got into a good rhythm, I felt a bit better and we found ourselves towards the front of the race.
Rather than write about the whole event, I took a Go Pro with me and documented the experience from the perspective of a racer. You can watch the 12-minute film on Youtube here:
Later in the year I took part in another similar race in Scotland. Keep an eye out for another short video of that in the coming months.
—Ian Furlong
