Mongol 100 2020 Blog
What this blog is all about
Hello ...
I’ve decided to write a blog about my preparations, training, arrangements and thoughts on the Rat Race Mongol 100 Challenge - 100 miles across a frozen lake in the depths of Outer Mongolia.
I’ve decided to write a blog about my preparations, training, arrangements and thoughts on the Rat Race Mongol 100 Challenge - 100 miles across a frozen lake in the depths of Outer Mongolia.
As someone who has never undertaken such a multi day adventure event like this before, I’ve been keen to read blogs, articles and learn from the experience of others and so hopefully this blog will add to the body of information out there for future use by others who take on this challenge.
What is the Rat Race Mongol 100 Challenge?
In a remote corner of North-Western Mongolia lies Lake Khovsgol: one of 17 ancient lakes in the world over 2 million years-old and which contains the world’s purest fresh water.
The shores are lined with ancient stands of forest found south of the Artic, home to native wolves. It is described as serene, hostile, stunning, and intimidating.
In winter, the ice freezes across its entire near-100-mile length to a depth of over a metre thick. This is the setting for the Mongol 100 Challenge. The objective is to traverse the entirety of the lake from north to south, by any means: foot, skate or bike.
I've decided to skate across the lake which will take 4 days to complete. Camping overnight in mongolian gers or yurts; a portable round tent, there's no mod cons, wifi or phone signal on the lake. Temperatures could fall to -40 °C.
I've decided to skate across the lake which will take 4 days to complete. Camping overnight in mongolian gers or yurts; a portable round tent, there's no mod cons, wifi or phone signal on the lake. Temperatures could fall to -40 °C.
Photographs from Rat Race Adventure Sports
About me
I’m 53 (as I write this), live near Falkirk in Central Scotland, married with two grown up daughters and work for a pharmaceutical company as a Market Access Manager.
I consider myself reasonably fit; I run regularly, take part in a tough weekly circuit conditioning class and have the benefit of a Personal Trainer each week to keep me fit and train for specific events and goals.
When it comes to previous events and races, I’ve taken part in many obstacle course races (OCR), CaniCross races (with your dog) 5 and 10 Km races, half marathons and a marathon.
Some of the bigger adventure and obstacle course races (OCR) include:
- Man v Mountain - a 22 mile run up Mount Snowden, Wales
- The Mighty Deerstalker - a 10 mile mountain adventure run at night
- Spartan Beast - 13 mile OCR
- Total Warrior - 12Km OCR
- Tough Mudder - 10 mile OCR
- The Original Tough Guy - winter extreme OCR (when it used to be run in January)
- MacTuff - a 10 mile winter extreme OCR
What will the blog cover?
From now until the end of the challenge, I plan to cover these topics:
- Training
- Travel arrangements
- Kit
- Costs
- My experience over the 4 days on the ice
