Inception

There's nearly always a copy of the Metro, a free newspaper, in the staff common room at work. As usual it contained the mix of headlines, humorous tales and a couple of puzzles. And Nemi too, I like her. But, there was also an advert for the "Transpennine Challenge, a 100km walk, with an option to run, from Manchester to Sheffield".

That piqued my interest and reminded me of my student days when I completed the Bogle Stroll twice. That was 55 miles of hard slog along urban and main roads to Chorley and back, via such highlights as Worsely, Wigan and Westhoughton. It probably passed through places  whose names didn't begin with 'W' too. I walked those events and friends that attempted to jog sections soon regretted their haste.

The Challenge is different though, it will be on the Transpennnine Trail, most of which is hard pack trail through picturesque countryside. Another difference is that there is a significant entry fee and 'target sponsorship'. I suppose the Student Union underwrote the Bogle and certainly students provided support, as I was involved in that one year. However I'm uneasy about asking friends and colleague for sponsorship for something I want to do; maybe I could just pay that myself? I acknowledge that support will be needed, I can recall the pain of the Bogle 30 years ago without difficulty.

But then, dangerously, I wondered if I could do 100km within the 15 hours allocated to runners. There are 8 stages of 12.5km and so each would need to be done in 1 hour 50 minutes including breaks. Feasible?