Local extreme sports enthusiast

Spare a thought this weekend for local extreme sports enthusiast Monique Hollinshead. She is competing in the first Triple Ironman event to be held in the UK. It involves swimming 7.2 miles, cycling 336 miles and running 78 miles – all in a weekend!

This is how Monique describes this weekend's programme: "I will be starting the swim at 6.00am on Saturday (456 lengths of a 25 metre pool) – luckily there are volunteers who count the lengths for you! I hope to be on the bike by 11.00am (24 laps of 14 miles), then with an hour's rest taken sometime during the night, I will be out on the run by 11.00am on Sunday morning (63 x 1.24 mile laps) and hoping to finish by 6.00 am on Monday morning. I will be sleeping all of Monday!"

Wow – how's that for a weekend's exercise!

HookedMonique explains how she became hooked on this extreme sport: "I first heard about the deca Ironman when reading Runners World in 1997 when a man called Eric Seedhouse recounted his completion of 10 times the distance of a normal Ironman. At the time I had only just started running and doing a triathlon of any distance seemed out of reach. However I kept the article.

"I was living in Morley near Leeds and had joined a running club. The club had a lot or runners who competed in ultra (longer than marathon) events and I fell into their way of training and racing. In 2000 I went to Morocco to take part in the Marathon Des Sables – a 145 mile run in stages over a week through the Sahara where you carried all your food, bedding etc.

"Strangely, although I suffered a bit from heat stroke, it didn't put me off. In fact, I got keener to manage not just my physical fitness but psychological strength which plays a big part in making yourself keep going when all you want to do is lie down and sleep!

"In 2002, prompted by a friend, I entered a triathlon although I couldn't swim front crawl (the preferred stroke). Apart from lessons at school where I got my "junior swimmer" – 25 metre swim, climb out of the pool unaided – I hadn't had any formal swim practice. I went for some adult swim lessons and slowly picked it up.

"Once I had completed my first triathlon (a sprint distance in Derby) I was totally hooked, and this led to entering, in 2004, Ironman Austria along with two other people. From this beginning, a whole community of devotees to Ironman has formed – we have our own "team kit", a distinctive yellow and black skull and crossbones design which makes us easy to spot.

"This year will be tough as the double can be completed without sleep – it took me under 28 hours last year. The triple is likely to take around 46 hours and so at some point I will have to choose when to rest.

Support"These events are tough but would be nigh on impossible without support and so Dave my partner does all my support crewing, making up drinks and meals and generally keeping me going.

"This weekend's Triple Ironman is taking place at Lichfield. The link below the photos will take you to the site of the team who put the event together, there is a competitor list, course description, and the results will also be on here."

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