Madness has descendedon me again and I have signed up to take part in the BeyondMarathon Apocalypse50 Ultra Marathon event on 14th May. At least this one will start in daylight!

The 3rd edition in 2016 brings the winds of change to the valley. This year a 50 mile distance is offered, as well as marathon distance. The difficulty has been notched up substantially. At registration you receive a passport. You will then follow the paths of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. To complete the course, you must:

• Make Conquest
• Fight Famine
• Go to War
• Escape Death

Just like in 2014 and 2015, each of these was a loop on part of the course. In 2016 Apocalypse participants will take on all four horsemen (two horsemen if you are doing the Marathon). Each apocalyptic loop starts and ends at the central HQ in Church Stretton, Shopshire. This has enabled the cruel race directors to take full advantage of the extreme nature of the hills surrounding the valley, and explore hills that no previous Apocalypse participant has seen. As a result, there is 10,000ft (you read that right) of ascent and 10,000ft of descent across the four Apocalyptic loops.

We have added a further interesting twist to proceedings in 2016. Participants do not have to follow the course in traditional fashion, of mile 1 to 50.

Instead, when the horn blows you can go in any one of four directions to face each of the four distinct loops. Each loop is of a slightly varying distance, and varying difficulty, but of them are filled with ascent, more ascent, and pain (but the views are really nice, so everything is fine! ).

Thank you for all your support previously and thank you in advance for any much needed donations.

I am raising money again for the University of Sheffield who do amazing work in researching the causes and potential cures for Motor Neurone Disease through their SITraN facility. This is a disease close to my heart after watching my Dad battle it over many months but with your donations we give them a chance of creating a cure in the future.

Information on SITraN

SITraN the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience is a world class Research Institute based at the University of Sheffield, dedicated to advancing the understanding of the causes of motor neuron injury and translating this knowledge into curative therapies for patients with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and Dementia. The establishment of SITraN in Sheffield offers the opportunity for a co-ordinated approach to the development and clinical trialling of new therapies based on rational targets of proven preclinical effectiveness for patients.