Chris and I signed up to complete the Rat Race 'The Wall' challenge last year during lockdown. At the time, we'd still not reached the end of 'Couch to 5k' but after encouragement from a friend who's done the event before and will be way off ahead of us running the route, we signed up. So on 19th June at 6.30am (and anyone who knows me well knows I don't like being out of bed before 7.30am...) we'll be lining up in Carlisle to embark on 112km following the route of Hadrian's Wall to Newcastle. In 26 hours.... So we thought, we should make this a sponsored event for a charity we're passionate about!

The past year has been a huge step up (!) from reaching 5km running non-stop on 3rd July, to 30km walked around Llyn Brenig in September, and moving up to our 35km, 42km and 55km training run/walks in Feb, March and April. The journey so far has been challenging but fantastic and we're really looking forward (albeit with some butterflies!) to seeing what we can do come race day. Sadly I have ended up with a foot injury, and Chris' knees have given him considerable grief over the last year, but we're giving it our all. Although it means we can't run the 15-20km of the distance we'd planned, and it'll likely get a little closer to those pitstop cut offs than we'd ideally like, we're confident we can reach Newcastle in around 25 hours.

We felt like although this is challenging ourselves to do something way beyond anything we could have imagined doing before the pandemic, it would be a fantastic way to also raise awareness of the amazing work the BMC does. Their work to retain access to our wild and natural places, maintaining and conserving special spaces, educating about safety in the outdoors and action against climate impacts is so crucial to enable current and future generations to continue being able to enjoy our beautiful mountains, fells, moors and more. We'd therefore love it if you could support our endeavour to complete 112km in 26 hours with a donation to the BMC.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page and for any donation you're able to make.

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