Acorn Record Breaking Attempt

a record breaking Land's End to John O'Groats endurance event

Keith Longney, a founder director of Acorn and silver medalist at this year's quadrathlon world championships, is currently attempting a record breaking Land's End to John O'Groats endurance event.

The attempt replicates the quadrathlon - a sporting event similar to the better known triathlon and including the extra discipline of kayaking - but is massively scaled up.

Keith and his team mate Peter Hart will cycle the British mainland end to end, run up each of the highest mountains in Wales, England and Scotland, Kayak one of each of the countries' largest lakes, swimming the last mile of each. They hope to complete this punishing endurance challenge non stop, in a week grabbing only a few hours of sleep each night.

Watch this space for regular updates on Keith's progress.

Day 1.

Today, Monday 4th September, Keith and Pete have cycled from Land's End to just North of Bristol and are slightly ahead of schedule. Tomorrow the going will get tougher as they tackle hillier terrain heading into Wales. They will soon be facing the stiffer challenges of lakes and mountains.

Day 2.

Today Keith and Pete had reasonable weather conditions for their ride through the Marches. They crossed into Wales at Welshpool and hit their first serious climbs as their route lead them through hilly country towards Bala.

A stiff climb over the Berwin mountains brought them to their first Kayak and swim at lake Bala. They completed the day by swimming the last mile of the lake in the dark.

Day 3.

Having grabbed a few hours sleep Keith and Pete made an very early start, heading off on their bikes towards Snowdon and their first mountain section.

The weather conditions today have been evil. Heavy rain and high winds made the run up and down Snowdon particularly hard. However both Keith and Pete are physically and mentally OK (though some might think them bonkers) and holding up to the challenge of their punishing schedule.

They are due to stop overnight somewhere North of Liverpool before heading into home territory, the Lake District, where they will face the dual challenges of kayaking and swimming Lake Windermere and the 11 mile run over Scafell Pike.

Day 4

A much improved day, weather wise. Fresh and sunny conditions have enabled Keith and Peter to make excellent time on their ride through Lancashire into Cumbria and the Lake District.

At the time of writing they are setting out on Lake Windermere and are ahead of schedule enough to consider an extended rest period, tackling Scafell Pike in daylight with an early morning start rather than being on the fell into the hours of darkness as originally planned.

Day 5

The day dawned fine and clear, the 11 mile journey from Langdale, over Scafell Pike and down to Seathwaite was completed without a hitch.

The rest of the day was spent cycling through North Cumbria and the Borders for a short overnight stop just South of Glasgow.

Day 6

After a couple of hours sleep, at 1 a.m., Keith and Pete set out on the scariest part of their journey facing the ribald abuse of home coming revellers as they took the direct route through central Glasgow.

This was to be a long and arduous day. They reached Loch Lomond and paddled for 22 miles, again swimming the last mile of the 23 mile long loch.Then they hit the road again cycling to Fort William and running over Ben Nevis, finishing in darkness at 9:30 p.m.

Day 7

They say the last mile home is the longest, but the today's 180 mile bike ride, the last leg of Keith and Peter's journey from Land's End to John O' Groats, must have seemed much longer.

Keith Longney and Peter Hart have arrived at John O'Groats and completed this most difficult journey, in so doing they have created a new endurance challenge for others to attempt