To be honest it does go very quiet here in the office over Winter so keeping motivated to prepare for those busy weekends in Spring is all important.

Last week we did recce’s for two of Marie Curie’s adventure races (Whole Hog’s) ie Brecon Beacons and Cornbury park. Both of these venues look like being excelent race venues with a great find at the Brecon race of a 200 metre long tunnel!! Lets just say we are quite excited about that (we dont get out much). Cornbury is also an excelent venue with plenty of good challenges to look forward to! see their website for more details: http://www.mariecurie.org.uk/en-gb/events/adrenaline-experiences/

We also managed a recce of the RNLI’s South Wales cycle ride which involved Stuart cycling 50 miles in the pouring rain and strong winds!! Luckily his camera stayed dry so it was all worthwhile. For more details: http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/west/events

I was in Consiton (Lake District) preparing for two multi event challenges which will involve walking up the Old Man of Coniston,  canoeing a few miles around lake Coniston and finally an exciting cycle around Grizedale! What a playground the Lake District is!!   

Finally, I had some time planning the new 55 mile Ultra race we are putting on in Sheffield during the Summer. This week I get to run it (though not all in one go) so that we can get a GPS plot of the route! Hopefully well have the permission for what looks like being a great race soon!

So, if you were wondering – now you know!

Firstly, as part of a Festival of Running taking place at Whirlow Hall Farm, Sheffield on the 25th and 26th August 2012. Eight Point Two are putting on (in conjunction  with Accelerate) a 12 mile and 55 mile trail race. The course is currently being approved and when we have the green light we will let you know.

The 55 mile Ultra which we are going to call (something like) the Ultra Tour de la Peak District will have both individuals and relay options on the 55 mile course! Watch this space for details.

Secondly, as well as the 5 races we are putting on for Marie Curie in May we have just had the go ahead for a new race on behalf of the Ronald Mc Donald Housing Charity to put on a new race on the 20th May 2012. The race will be held in and around the grounds of Alton Towers. For those of you who remember we put on a race here about 4 years ago and its a tough course being suprisingly hilly. Again, watch this space for details!

January is always a quite time in the adventure events market so we tend to take a well earned break over Christmas and the New Year holidays. 2011 was a busy time for us and we were lucky enough to run some of our best events ever!

2012 is already shaping up to be a very busy year with May and June all getting close to being full already. Races and cycle rides seem to be the growth areas with Marie Curie expanding their exclusive Whole Hog race programme from 1 event in 2011 to 5 races (all in May) in 2012. Take a look at their web site for more details but the 5 races are well spread out around the country so there is something for everyone. The usual mix of mayhem, mud and hills will be at every venue!

The RNLI have also expanded their cycling programme with us too. We now have 3 new exclusive events (5 in total)with them linking RNLI lifeboat stations around the UK. Whitby, South Wales and a 3 day Coast to Coast are all new events as well as an exclusive abseil off the Humber Bridge. Again, check out their website for more details.

We also have a number of events with other charities and businesses: Heres a short list of events coming up in the next few months- if you want more details take a look at the website of the company/charity involved:

Key 103 -  Trafford Centre abseil

Walsall Stop Smoking Society – Walsall abseil

Red Cross – Leasowe Lighthouse abseil

Hewlett Packard – National 3 Peaks

MAG – Lake District tri Challenge

Young Achievers – Yorkshire 3 Peaks

Yorkshire Cancer Centre – Yorkshire 3 Peaks

Marie Curie 5 Peaks Challenge – Lake District

Marie Curie – Yorkshire 3 Peaks

We also have our own open events which you may also be interested in. Take a look at our open events calendar on the website www.eightpointtwo.co.uk for details of cycle rides, walks, races and abseils.

Fianlly, once again we would like to wish you all a Happy New Year!

It was a great event and a nice way to finish off the year! Well done to all those who took part.

With just over a 100 teams competing it was always going to be a busy day but after the success of the individuals day we were confident of another good day. The course followed pretty much the same route as the individuals race but also included a team challenge which involved dragging concrete posts around a short-circuit!

The race started well with the competitors making good times around the earlier section of the route. Unfortunately, unbeknown to us, somebody had tampered with an early section of the route which caused some of the leading teams to go off route! However, the mistake was soon rectified but the course tampering resulted in some strong teams losing much time and their rightful places in the race! We were obviously hugely disappointed about this and are still trying to get to the bottom of who might have removed the vital signs and tape. Needless to say it was very disappointing for the faster teams!

However, the race continued and the hole was plugged soon after it had been made meaning that the majority of teams were soon following the course as it was laid out. There were a number of good times made yesterday including another sub hour result from the leading all mens team! Another excellent time! It was a great effort from all of those teams that took part – especially those of you who did the extra loop. Big thanks once again to the Fitness Unit who sponsored the event. Thanks Guys!! Until next year!

Results are below and pictures are available at : http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3035436

The last few km took in the zip slide and then the cross country route over the hay bails and back to the finish!

It was an excelent fast race with Sam O’Neil and Alastair Wright both being the first to break the hour barrier!

Pictures available at http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3035436

A choice of 12km or 6km (aprox) trail routes will help get your New Year’s resoultions off to a flying (!!) start. All details are now on the website under the calendar section. £14 per person and you get to choose between a box of mince pies and a bag of salad for your gift (depending on whether you aim to start the year on a healthy note, or not!).

heres the link to the website: http://www.eightpointtwo.co.uk/event_details.asp?ID=128

This year the graduates opted for the Yorkshire Three Peaks and incorporated a number of team challenges along the route! All the teams managed to get around the walk in under 12 hours which was an achievment in itself but they also managed to crack some testing puzzles and finish some fun team challenges along the way!

Well done to you all. A great effort!

The last of our Summer events were held this weekend wth our open Ben Nevis walk and our open abseil at Walsall art gallery. We havent had the report back from Ben Nevis as yet but from what I could see on the weather forecast the weather looked pretty damp and un pleasant!

At the other end of the country our open abseil at walsall went very well with a number of local and national charities taking place.

Its just  4 weeeknds off before the November race season starts with the Suffolk Whole Hog so if you havent booked - you should! Its not long until we descend down to Suffolk to put together East Anglias Toughest race!!