Wenlock Olympic Walk article at work

Someone in work wrote this about me, very kind indeed.

Daniel Weston is 52-mile Olympian Games ChampionThe first modern Olympics were held in Athens in 1896. Few people realise that the International Olympic Committee was founded by Pierre de Coubertin after he visited the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, which had been holding its own version of the Olympian Games since 1850.

This year, on Saturday 20 July, the Wenlock Olympian Games drew to a climax with a 52-mile race. In the absence of a running track - there isn’t anywhere flat enough around Much Wenlock - the solution is race up and down the Shropshire hills. Most people would restrict their association with a 52-mile race to merely spectating.

The less sane amongst us might decide to get their maps out and orienteer their way round the course in the way it was intended, as a long-distance hiking route. Commercial underwriter Daniel Weston however, ran it! Not only did he run it. He won the event in a time of 10 hours 25 minutes, and that was after he sportingly waited at the last checkpoint for over twenty minutes, allowing his nearest competitor to catch up, so they could run the last fifteen miles together!This was no ordinary race.

It was 52 miles up and down the Shropshire hills, on the hottest day of the year so far, using a map and compass to orienteer around the course and find various check points on the way. The four checkpoints are worth stopping for - they offer cups of tea, cake and flapjack, as well as having gallons of water on hand to top up racers’ water bottles. Not that Daniel wasted too much time snacking on flapjack!Less than half of those who entered completed the course at all.

Daniel ran a fantastic time and became the 2013, 52-Mile Wenlock Olympian Games Champion.Congratulations to Daniel!