In Search Of The Hardest 100Km In Britain

Simon Warren kicks off a quest to try and find the toughest ton, and CW needs your help to make him suffer

The evening before I set off on this ride I watched the documentary, Free Solo. It follows Alex Honnold’s utterly remarkable, astonishing and unbelievable free solo climb (that’s without aids or protection) of the 3,000 foot El Capitan rock face in Yosemite, California. As the titles rolled I looked at my palms and they were dripping with sweat from just sitting on the sofa, it is that intense. I was moved to look in the mirror and ask, “Am I pushing myself far enough? Am I making use of the gifts I have been given?” If you do the same and look into the depths of the eyes staring back at you, the answer is likely to be NO.

Now, I’m not suggesting we all take up free soloing, which frankly is only for the insanely gifted, or complete idiots, but that what we do need to do sometimes is push our boundaries. Take ourselves out of our comfort zone in whatever we choose to do in life, whether it be gaining knowledge, breaking records or maybe riding as many steep hills as hard as we can in one 100km ride.