This July on the weekend of 30th - 31st will see the running of the Montane Lakeland 50 and 100 mile Long Distance Trail races. I will be trying to complete the 50 mile course along with other extreme atheletic types and atheletic wannabes (put me in the latter). The route, taking in 3100m of ascent, starts from the Dalemain Estate at the Northern tip of Ullswater near Stainton. From there we head roughly South and down the Western shore of Haweswater before turning West through Ambleside and up Great Langdale before heading South again to the finish in Coniston. There are 6 checkpoints to hit on the route and food is available at these manned checkpoints.

Starting at 12:00 on Saturday you have 24hrs to complete the course. Three of the six checkpoints have cut off times that you must beat to carry on running the course. The winners will be, believe it or not, under 8hrs (yes eight hours!). To be honest I am just hoping to complete under 20hrs in one piece with out too many injuries and without losing my mind. You can carry a GPS for navigation and you are provided with mapping and a road book describing routes between the checkpoints.

Training has started well, well sort off, well kind off, well .........its not going well. At the moment I have a plan to lose a stone and build up the mileage so I will be in some sort of serviceable state come the race day. Obviously the pressure of everyday life and Rioja and The Walking Dead on tv is a hard balance to strike. I will post again on my training exploits which is soon to include a run from Weymouth along the coastal path to where I live in Poole.

Training update Sunday 17th:

Had a crack at a coastal route around Kimmeridge and Worth Matravers. 27Km in 3hrs 22mins. Face like a beetroot at the end, very dehydrated. Spent the whole afternoon and evening with a headache nursing sun burn, but fairly pleased with the time. Being realistic, I dont feel I could keep the pace for another 53km you definately start to experience big sugar crashes and the energy gels and munchies only slightly stop it. I am going to have to re-think the food intake.