Ant Clifford
I was born in 1978 in Plymouth, and made the most of the adventurous pursuits that featured during my time at School. Learning how to sail when I was 12, and canoeing on CCF camps. I went on trips to more mountainous areas of the uk, and ran to get fit to make the most of it. I first took up rowing when I went to university at Cambridge, and found myself enjoying that more than the study itself, unfortunately just as I was about to represent Cambridge at Nat Champs I ended up moving onto Edinburgh University instead!
At Edinburgh I continued rowing, achieving first eight level, competing at Henley Royal Regatta, and becoming president of the club in 2003. Once I left university, I looked for a similar challenge with the same emphasis on team work, and joined the TA. The mountaineering I had done in my youth came back to me, and I found myself running again to keep fit, and this progressed in 2005 to running marathons, I started with Paris, then Edinburgh, then progressed onto multistage ultramarathons. I came 7th in the 2005 Marathon of Britain, covering 175 miles in six days, and used this as training for the Marathon Des Sables, a similar event based in the Sahara. I completed that happily and ran MoB again the following year.
Now I run a couple of marathons a year, and am looking for the next challenge, at risk of wearing my feet out, I thought I could return to rowing, and hopefully with the experience of discomfort from the ultras, and being somewhat sleep deprived during TA camps, I'll be able to beat the odds, and not only complete, but be able to say with a straight face that I enjoyed it!
