“So, whos idea was this exactly?”
As with most things you end up either signing up to do or just saying to yourself “yea, I could do that’ and then before you know it you’ve entered a race or started something you know you can’t pull out of because, well, because you’ve already told someone that’s what you’re going to do, so was the case with this idea.
I personally think it all started a couple of years ago when my brother and I agreed to do Triathlon X, an Iron Distance multi discipline race in the lake district, comprising of a 2.5 mile swim in Windermere followed by a 112 mile bike ride (The infamous Fred Whitton) then a full marathon to finish (to the top of Scafel Pike and back). We decided it would be a good idea to maybe do a recce of the run, just to see what was waiting for us after completing the bike ride, so we planned the day, arriving at Ambleside Youth Hostel early in the morning we set off on the recce.
We had both done a few trail races, I’d done maybe a few more trail marathons than my brother but he’s far younger and as so would always be fine, the run for me was spectacular, I’d never run over terrain like that before and I was addicted straight away. I knew that this was something that I would want to do more of, much more. My brother kind of agreed, maybe not as keen at first as I was, but just as stubborn and determined to complete anything he starts.
I’d always admired Alfred Wainwright and watched and read stories about his ‘Coast to Coast walk‘ a journey covering some 190+ miles from St Bees on the West Coast to Robin Hoods Bay on the East coast, but I’d never actually previously thought about the possibility of running it, and certainly not in 7 days. I had thought of maybe cycling it once, as I knew people that had already done so, but that’s all it was, a thought. The more I thought about the C2C and looked further into the actual route as far as running it, the more I thought it could actually be done and rather than why, thought why not.
I just needed a reason, something that once I’d decided to do it, would not let me back out. Do it to raise money for charity, I thought, if people would be willing to sponsor me then I couldn’t let them down, I would have to finish, I’d owe it to them for having faith in me. Then the idea hit me, I’d recce each of the runs over a period of seven weeks, taking a Wednesday off work each week to do one stage of the route, that way I’d know what to expect, ensure I had the correct navigation route (the last thing I wanted was to get people to sponsor me, only to get lost). So that’s what we did, I’d already agreed with myself that I needed to run this alone, however, my brother would be just as important a part of this as he would be driving me to and from the routes each week, meeting me a pre-designated check points where I would refill my drink carrier and grab any food and gels for the next bit of the run, meaning I wouldn’t need to carry everything from the start as it was going to be hard enough as it was.
So I guess that’s where we are now, all the recce’s have been done, I’m saving the last few miles into Robin Hoods Bay for the last day of the actual event (I stopped short on the last recce) wanting to save at least one bit for on my last day that I hadn’t seen, my brothers idea, one of his better one’s I have to admit.
The day by day accounts of the recce’s are really a quick overview to give you an idea of the type of landscape I’m travelling through and over during the 7 day challenge, hopefully all will go well and we’ll be feasting on the biggest portion of fish ‘n’ chips in Robin Hoods Bay on Saturday the 15th July 2017.