In the beginning there was the word and the word was...Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge

So, what's this blog all about?

In a nutshell, this: Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge - a 350km race across the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi via mountain bikes, kayaks, big climbs, huge desert hikes, swims and more...

This is my story:
My name's Matt. I'm a journalist and, after about five years of living in Spain, I've lived in Dubai, UAE, for the past 12 months.
In schoool, I was the kid that most other kids hated - I swam competetively at a national level, school tennis captain, football team, basketball team, athletics...then came university where, like most, shots on the footie pitch were replaced by shots at the bar. This started a bit of a decline that lasted the best part of a decade.
Not wanting to end up like the fat bloke who sits at the end of the bar, about 12 months ago I began a fairly dedicated fitness routine...
A couple of weeks ago, Jeff sent me the link to the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge and said 'you want to be part of a media team?' I said yes. I'm quite possibly an idiot. With one month to go, my feelings alter between 'wow, what an experience' to 'we're gonna die out there'.

Most looking forward to: feeling like Lawrence of Arabia and the sense of stillness during the two-day desert march through the world's biggest desert.

Least looking forward to: climbing. I'm extremely scared of heights. Gulp!