Christmas Cheer.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Chase The Rainbow!

Hopefully you are all enjoying yourselves and making the most of the holidays. I've (Neil) had an unusual one but I'll spare you the details for now!

Please spare a thought for all of our wonderful Mountain Rescue Teams. Each team is crewed by volunteers who give up their precious time to, not only, help members of the public in distress, but also to support our Emergency Services.

Even on Christmas Day when everyone else is tucking in to turkey! 

They do an amazing job, day and night, 365 days a year; all for free!

Please consider donating a few pounds to support them, if you can spare it.

You can view the websites from the links below. Most of the teams also have a Facebook page that detail their day to day actions and call outs. Please give your local team a "like", you might be very surprised at some of the things they get called out for on a daily basis.

Mountain Rescue - England & Wales.

Derbyshire/Yorkshire Peak District teams.

The Kathmandu Ultra Marathon 2015.

Here's a quick one for you. 

The Kathmandu Ultra Marathon takes place on January 3rd 2015.

It's worth looking up if you're in the area. I ran the inaugural event in 2014 and it was brilliant. Fantastic trails around The Shivapuri-Nagarjun National Park with breathtaking views of The High-Himalaya to distract you from the pain!

Richard Ball (a very nice man!) runs it through his organisation Trail Running Nepal and can be followed on

Facebook here: Trail Running Nepal

Twitter here: @TrailRunNepal

and via their website here: Trail Running Nepal

One of the views you can expect to distract you! From Chisapani. Stunning!

Sri Lanka - Swerving the curve balls on the path to The Rumble in the Jungle.

The "Rumble in the Jungle" is the latest instalment of the newly formed Yak Attack World Challenge Series.

Regular readers will be fully aware of my compulsion for the original, and highly acclaimed, "Yak Attack" race held annually in Nepal; I have competed in the last three, and to be honest it's becoming something of an obsession! :D

The Sri Lankan chapter, however, wasn't entirely on my radar. I had taken a look at it out of interest but was undecided as to whether it was my thing or not. I enjoy the brutality of extreme events, I like the challenge of mastering the demons that shadow you and, perversely, I'm also fascinated by observing the way other racers cope (or not) with the mental and physical demands that such events throw at you and the way that preconceptions can completely disintegrate over the course of a few hard days.

I just wasn't sure if it was extreme enough.

The stages certainly looked tough enough, lots of hard climbing, some great looking descents, river crossings & jungle to be negotiated, a couple of 80km+ days, and my personal nemesis - heat & humidity. I just thought that four stages wouldn't be quite enough; from personal experience the breakdown process for most people starts at around 3 - 4 days and gets interesting from there onwards.

There was also the spectre of minimal preparation; I broke my elbow and several ribs in August which would mean that I would only have a few weeks back on the bike before racing!

However with the thought of a reunion with friends from around the world, some less than subtle persuasion from Team Yak Attack (Phil Evans & Kate Hobson), and the offer of a reduced entry fee (or a reward, as Phil put it, for my support, championing, and promotion of Yak Attack over the last couple of years) finally saw me click on the entry button. Thank you for that Phil & Kate, it is much appreciated.

It was then that things started to unravel...!