This June, I aim to take on 69 miles (111 km.) of hilly trail and road Ultramarathon (the 'ultra' bit is a synonym for 'more suffering') running from one side of England to the other (ok, admittedly at one of the narrower parts but it's still a long way to go!), following the route of Hadrian's Wall from Carlisle to Newcastle, within a 24 hour time limit.  I have never run further than 26.2 miles before, so this will be an interesting experiment.

Stupidly, I've entered the 'Expert' non-stop category rather than breaking the journey into the slightly easier two day option...but hey, you only live once!  Leaving on what will hopefully but doubtfully be a bright and pleasant June morning, I will run/jog/walk/crawl all day and, if need be, night until I reach the other side of the country.  I hope to raise as much as I can for Refuge to go towards their lifesaving work providing emergency shelter to women and children escaping domestic violence.

I have no doubt that my poor toenails will suffer, and flip-flops will be out of the question all summer to avoid scaring the public- but a bit of suffering is worth it for such a worthwhile cause.  We all live in the same society- let's do what we can to make it a safer, more equitable one where nobody need live in fear of the sound of a key turning in the front door and where domestic violence and its horrific toll (2 corpses each week on average in the UK alone) is spoken about openly and challenged directly.

Anything you could spare to help Refuge would be hugely appreciated.  Thanks for your generosity and support.