Running 250km, carrying books...
Scott Lothian is raising money for Scottish Book Trust
Story
It has been more than a decade since I returned from a Racing The Planet event and told my wife never to let me run another one. But when the pain fades, the good memories remain, and so when I saw this race in Patagonia coinciding with my 40th birthday, she was powerless to stop me signing up.
I will be running this race to raise money for the Scottish Book Trust , known to many of you through the Bookbug program, which gives books to young kids all over the country. They also deliver lots of literacy programs, support budding authors and run Book Week Scotland (starts 27 November). I was fortunate to be chosen as one of their Bookfellas, a campaign to get more Scottish men reading regularly.
This is a 250km, multi-day, self-supported race across some pretty unforgiving territory. It is a part of the world I have wanted to visit for many years, and my good buddy Paul Mayles (also a Gobi March 2006 veteran) was easily persuaded to sign up too. He also has a landmark birthday a few days before we set off from San Carlos de Bariloche in mid-November.
As an additional incentive for you to sponsor me, in keeping with the theme of Bookfellas, you can choose a book for me to take with me (and carry on my back alongside all my gear for 250km!), and read a chapter or two each night to my fellow runners. Maybe you're also running and want to nominate something interesting or funny; maybe you're not running and want me to have to carry a big heavy book. Either way, anyone donating more than £20 can select from the list below:
I have deliberately not indicated the weights and dimensions of the books, to make the sadists have to work a bit harder.
Please sponsor me - it is a great cause and this is going to hurt a lot. It will be at least another decade before I do it again. Many thanks in advance.
Scott.