FORMER international road cyclist Roddy Riddle will be spending most of his time this winter inside giant walk-in freezers.
When he is not acclimatising himself to the sub-zero temperatures of meat hangars and warehouse chillers, he will be hitting the snow-covered slopes of the Cairngorms - all in the name of diabetes awareness.
Yet all of this, ironically, is just a warm-up for the real challenge ahead: a four-day 'Ice Ultra' marathon across the Arctic in aid of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Mr Riddle, who competed at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, will set off on the 230km (142 mile) race across the frozen landscapes of Swedish Lapland and the Arctic in February next year, where he will endure temperatures of -30°C.
The 45-year-old from Inverness, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2009 after losing three stone in just six weeks, wants to raise awareness of the disease and prove to other sufferers that it does not have to stand in the way of anything they want to achieve.
It comes after he successfully completed the gruelling six-day Marathon de Sables across the Sahara last year, which saw him raise £26,000 for charity by completing the 251km (155 mile) race in scorching temperatures of up to 50°C.
However, the father-of-three expects next year's ice marathon to be even tougher than his Sahara experience.
He said: "This is going to be so much tougher. I don't like the cold. So it's going to be really important for me to have my clothing just right. If you are running in -30C with -10C clothing on, you'll end up with frostbite."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article