It was not enough for James Cracknell to be the highest placing Brit ever at the Marathon des Sables, (made slightly harder as he also had a broken toe)! We have been following James' exploits since he retired from competitive rowing - he has been training on the Wattbike and working with resident Wattbike Physiologist and legend Eddie Fletcher, so we were not overly surprised to hear that he has a new challenge!
Starting this Thursday, July 15th on the west coast of Southern Californian (in Santa Monica) James is taking on America. He is racing non-stop across the US to the Statue of Liberty in what may be his 'toughest challenge yet'! - which lets face it would mean that he expects it to be pretty tough!
He has chosen four Olympic disciplines to complete the challenge as follows:
- Cycle 350 miles from Santa Monica to Death Valley National Park in Nevada
- Run 80 miles through Death Valley
- Cycle 2,500 miles from Death Valley to Toledo, Ohio on the western tip of Lake Eerie
- Row 250 miles the length of Lake Erie from Toledo to Buffalo, New York
- Cycle 500 miles From Buffalo to New York City
- Swim 15 miles to the Statue of Liberty
James will be followed every step of the way by the Discovery TV documentary film crew (if they can keep up), and he hopes to complete the challenge in 16 days. To help him along the way he will have the support of multi-endurance sport and survival expert, Bernie Shrosbree and the backing of Merida Bicycles. We spoke to James about it when he popped into the office a few weeks ago, and then on Thursday when we caught up with Bernie for a coffee - both were very upbeat about the event and were looking forward to the challenge (and also suggested that Matthew Pinsent may put in an appearance at Lake Eerie and row some the distance alongside James, we will report back on that one!)
For us normal people the scale of the challenge is quite mind-boggling, and James is well-aware that he will need to call on all his reserves of energy and motivation to keep going which is why he would like as many people as possible to support him. If you'd like to send James any messages he can be contacted at
