Sometime in June, my partner is away on a hen weekend. This struck me as an obvious opportunity to run further. The original plan was to do either Hadrians Wall or the Dales Way in 2 or 3 days. I decided that was a bit ambitious at my current level of fitness, so I'd keep it down to 2 days. And so I had the silly idea of 100km over 2 days. I've done something similar before: 100km in a single stretch. That was the 'Fellsman' ultra event in 2010, when I walked 100km and some stupid amount of ascent in just under 27 hours.
I'm tentatively thinking of another go at a brisker pace in 2015, and so as training I'm looking at doing some longer distances. Of course this is nothing to an ultra runner, but I'm not an ultra runner. Not yet anyway.
June's 2 day run will be 60km on the saturday, and 40km on the sunday, camping in between. To make it more difficult, I'm intending to be totally unsupported - carrying a light tent, sleeping bag, stove etc, and food for 2 days. Stopping short of pointless masochism, I'm intending to camp in a camp site rather than wild, so clean water will be available (as will a shower - while I only have myself to live with that night, washing the salt off reduces the likelihood of painful chafing on day 2). In any case, most of the wild camping possibilities in my planned area are up on the moors, where it's cold, which will mean carrying more gear. Lowland camping definitely preferred this time out.
I'm calling this a run, but it's not a run in most peoples terms. I'll be carrying several kilos of gear, climbing large hills (more on that later) and travelling for many hours, so it's much more like an ultra. If I make 6km per hour I'll be doing extremely well, maybe even overdoing it. The aim is to complete the entire distance within 20 hours of travel time.
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