ADVENTURE racer Keith Byrne knows he will get about five hours sleep in about five days when he competes for the North Face team in the Terra Incognita race in Croatia.

Coping with sleep deprivation is one of the key aspects of adventure racing, in which endurance athletes race against each other over hundreds of miles, pushing themselves mentally and physically to new limits.

Keith, the manager at the North Face head office in Kendal and says: "The clock start when the guns goes and it's the first to the finish line.

"You know that you will fall sleep maybe when your walking, biking or paddling and it's up to the team to manage that fatigue.

"When someone needs to sleep we will stop and we will curl up in twos in a foil blanket and sleep for a maximum of an hour.

"It doesn't sound that much, but it's amazing how the body can recover over such a short period of time.

"You know there are going to be high and lows, and after a while the mind starts to play tricks and you begin to hallucinate, and it's interesting how the team dynamic works to get people through and help each other."

His Lake District base has been a major asset for Keith's training for the events which started back in 2000.

"I've got the best job in the world, representing the company in taking part in something which I'm totally passionate about.

"Adventure racing is about endurance and using ultra- light-weight products and I suppose we are guinea-pigs testing the produce out in the field.

"It's good to be able to say that you've got out from behind the desk and can reassure people that what we are selling can live up to expectations because we know it can from personal experience."

The North Face team's biggest success came when winning Europe's toughest adventure race the 'Adrenalin Rush' held in Scotland, which qualifies them to represent the United Kingdom at the World Cup in Newfoundland Canada in August.

They are going well so far this year and a victory in an invitation race in Utah in the United States means they are expected to feature prominently in the Croatia event which will take place on islands in the Adriatic.