Week at the Knees is a week long set of marathons around various lakes in Milton Keynes.

The courses are typically multiple laps of Willen, Caldecotte and Furzton lakes, switching the direction on alternate days for some variety and competitors can enter a single, multiple or all 7 marathons.

I entered day 5 which was around Furzton Lake. The registration process was dead simple. I even emailed them to change the day I entered and got an email back within minutes saying this was no problem. The events are restricted to 35 runners in the week and about 50 runners at the weekend.

Registration and start process was very simple and navigating the course couldn't have been easier... basically keep the lake on your left at all times... and don't fall in. 

Furzton lake is pretty small, approx 1.5 miles around so my race involved a short out and back along the lake followed by 17 full laps.

I was worried I may lose count and more importantly may lose the will to live after 17 laps but it was actually far more pleasant than I expected. I lost track of laps after about the first 5 but once I was able to count down the laps from 6 to go then it was easy to stay motivated. You passed the start / finish line each lap which had a marshall ticking you off each time you passed. They gave me a count down with 3 laps left and even rang a bell for my final lap which gave me a nice motivational boost.

The aid station at the start / finish was minimal as you would expect for such a small event with just some bottled water and a few snacks, however you could bring whatever you liked and leave it there and it was easy to identify what was yours on each lap. The beauty of having 17 x 1.5 mile laps is that you have a very regular feed station.

They have a unique medal for each day and for those completing all 7 days, an additonal medal. Whats nice is that the medals all fit together to form a circle and a cool 'super medal' for those completing all 7.

If you're looking for a cheap, well organised, small and friendly event then you wont go far wrong with Week at the Knees. And if you want to tick off multiple marathons early in the year then this is a great way to get your numbers up!