It has been a while.....

I've not posted on my blog in a fair few years. TBH I had almost forgotten about it until something popped up in my inbox.

Where do I start?

Perhaps this summer......

I am now up to 124 Marathons or Ultras.....The majority are ultras, I would have to go back and look at the spreadsheet but It is likely to be over 100 ultras as I haven't run marathon distance for about 4 or 5 years now. 

This summer was a plan in the making. Something that was hatched in the mind about 15 years ago, even before I broke my leg and was told I would never run again. I had a plan for my 50th birthday. To run the Alfred Wainwright route of 192 miles across the country, from West to East, across the Lake District, Westmoreland Hills, Pennines, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and Cleveland Hills all 27,000 ft of ascent and 192 miles (plus the added miles to my hotels and back to the trail each day) in 7 days

I was literally shitting this for about a year and leading up to the summer was not able to sleep every night. Busy family life had meant only 3 ultras the previous year and only 1 50km ultra race leading up to the big run. That said, I have spent far more time on the trail 'exploring' and doing things like running down to the coast and having a personal challenge than spending £150 on a 50k on trail that I have run 100 times.

A few days back from Egypt where I ran every day and we were ready. Father in law's 90th birthday, a few days in Liverpool and then a train up to St Bees for a B&B and a pub dinner on my own and then waking up in the morning with 192 miles to run........

So it all sounded so simple.......ONLY 192 miles to run but what about the logistics and the food and injury????

I left my amazing wife and kids at Liverpool Lime St and then got the train up to St Bees. 3 hours in and the most drunk mysogenistic skinhead sits opposite downing can after can after can of booze as his partner gets increasingly uncomfortable....."WTF are you doing coming to my town" he states...... I didn't entertain, other than to look down at my single can of Journey Juice (Stella) and say "My can is bigger than your can"

With this he exploded, shouted and then got onto his phone as his mate had invited him to a buffet at a social club. (class)

I got off the trail and as the line was closed due to a landslide, had to get a rail replacement minibus for an hour until I got to St Bees.

I got to my digs, walked down to the beach where the C2C started, picked up my pebbles ( more of that later), had an ice cream and then headed back into the village. Food was awful. A crap pub selling nothing but sausage and chips. Bed and breakfast was superb though.

Then I got up in the morning, had a half mile warm up down to the beach and off across the country......

What adventure awaits????