Last weekend Joe Hurley, Ian Hosley and Stuart Blofeld all went off to compete in riduculous events! Most people these days are familiar with Ironman triathlons, but only a few actually contemplate doing one and then even less set-off from the start line.

Joe Hurley has now done six of these events that consist of a 2.5 mile swim, a 112 mile run and then a marathon just top it all off! His sixth and most recent one was Ian's debut and it took place in the only official UK version of the Ironman series up in Bolton in Lancashire. I did e-mail to ask for a comment from the man himself, but he has so far declined to comment!

Joe was hoping to complete the course somewhere in the region of eleven hours, but his total time of 12:02 is still a crazy amount of time to be exercising and was split into 1:11 in a lake, 6:17 sat on a bike and a 4:17 pounding the roads! Overall it gave him a finish position of 275 out of 983. Ian meanwhile was learning how to approach the event and started with a 1.27 swim before spending nearly 7.30 on a bike! He clearly was feeling fresh in the end though as he completed the marathon leg of this epic effort in 3.43 and was extremely chuffed.

While Joe and Ian were off doing that, Stuart decided that running around a 10K loop for 24 hours was a much better option! He was hoping to complete over 100 miles in that time, which for those of you not too quick on the maths, means 16 10K's on the same course, back to back! With absolutely no knowledge of ultra running and complete incomprehension as to why you would do it, I don't really feel in a position to comment. However, I do offer many congratulations to Stuart on a remarkable race and urge you to read his blog, which gives far more insight than I could ever offer here. Yes, I know it's a get out!

Since writing this originally, Joe has sent across a more detailed report.......