Day 1 - Done!

I've just finished the 25.34 miles from Duncansby Head, John O'Groats to Ulbster. Full analysis later on after I've found the biggest pasta dish Wick has to offer.

The long (very long actually) and winding road.

We arrived in Wick at tea time after 8 hours of driving. Katy and I shared the driving so it wasn't too bad. What was bad however, was the fact that I have now seen at first hand the first 16 days of the run. The size of the task in hand has now finally sunk in. My confidence has taken a bit of a battering as a result. I now need to get back into the mind set of breaking down the 868 miles into 36 manageable chunks.

Only 1 week to go! Time for some random thoughts!

In little over one week, I'll be setting off from John O'Groats on a truly epic journey to a place called Lands End some 868 miles away (by my route).

Apart from needing to raise a little more sponsor money (and rest assured I will raise enough), everything is in place for what is without doubt the most difficult and risky challenge I have ever undertaken.

The organisation of the event has been done on a shoestring budget with plenty of £15 travelodge rooms booked, £1.99 Easyjet flights here and there for my road side supporters and 11 out of the 36 nights to be spent in a tent! Lets hope the recent torrential weather dies down a bit! Not for my sake though. It's the road side crew I'm more concerned about. I'm prepared for any weather. I've trained in extreme heat, cold, snow, wind and rain. I'm prepared for any conditions. At the start of my training I used to hate the wind and had a really negative outlook while running. Now, though, I've got the attitude where I'm disappointed with a 25mph gale and I'm almost thinking "Is that all you've got?". I know it's a cliche but "Bring it on" really does spring to mind.

I've really toughened up mentally over the last 12 months. Just as well, because in my experience of ultra distance running (4 events now!) I think that success is based on 70% physical strength and 30% mental strength.

I've gained a lot of confidence on the road in 2007 and feel well equipped, mentally, for the long journey to follow. That's just part of the story though, as the backing and encouragement I've been afforded by my colleagues at Northern Rock has been absolutely first class and has undoubtedly contributed to that 30%. Some people I've talked to reckon that by miles 600 - 700 the necessary physical/mental ingredients will be more like 50%/50%. I'm not disputing that and I've set my expectations such that I accept there will be low points on the run. After all, 868 miles is a long way to run in 36 days. It's taken me 6 months to achieve that distance alone in training!

The routine of running a marathon a day for 36 days is bound to have some adverse effect on my body and mental state. However, I aim to enjoy each and every day on this run. There are 3 days where I'll be joined by colleagues. Then there are the fancy dress days! I'm going to be running through some real beauty spots in the country. I'm sure I'll meet many characters on the way. It'll be a real adventure for me as well as my road side supporters! My missus and the bairn are supporting me for 3 of the 5 weeks. So it's going to be quite a unique family experience. All I got when I was a lad was 6 weeks in a shoebox (caravan) at Seahouses and I was grateful. I got 10 pence a week to spend in the slot machines if I was lucky! Kids these days don't know they're born! READER - "YOU WERE LUCKY....etc etc......".

Meet the support crew (Part 2)

The second of the four support crew members is none other than that cheeky wee Celtic Supporting Scotsman; Owen McMahon.

Owen, who lives very near Glasgow, will be providing 5 days of support from Bristol to Exeter. I doubt that Owen actually knows where either Bristol or Exeter are as he is famous for believing that the Spanish city of Barcelona lies north of London. Needless to say, that Owen will be relying heavily on the support car's satellite navigation system.

As I mentioned earlier, Owen is mad daft on Celtic FC and he has followed them all over Europe, albeit via cities they were not actually due to play in! His navigation skills might not be up to the highest standard but the craic should be good as he will, no doubt, attempt to explain how Celtic FC are the greatest "fitba" team in the world.

Over the years, Owen has been a very generous sponsor for the various runs I've done. He's had me singing all sorts of Celtic songs over the phone while up a mountain for extra sponsor money. I've even recited Robbie Burns and scenes from Braveheart for extra dosh. The "low" points were in 2005 where I wore a kilt for 134 miles on the C2C run and then in 2004 where I ran a naked 100 yards on the same route in a Billy Connolly style. All in the name of charity and extra sponsorship of course! This year he's offered an extra £1 for every picture of me running in a Celtic shirt. That should be interesting in Edinburgh!

Like the other members of the motley crew, Owen has taken valuable annual leave in order to provide this support. This is very much appreciated. Meanwhile, I'll be brushing up on my "och, jings, help ma boab" and all that in order to sustain a conversation with my friend from up north!

John O'Groats to Lands End (in 36 easy steps!)

The following table should be useful for those readers who would like to have some idea of where I'll be running on any given day (and how far!). Planned mileage has been verified by www.mapmyrun.com and reconciled using Microsoft Autoroute (2007). The actual mileage on the run will be verified using GPS tracking.

DAY	DATE	START	END	MILES	TOTAL
1	07/07/07	John O'Groats	Ulbster	25.3	25.3
2	08/07/07	Ulbster	Navidale	27.3	52.6
3	09/07/07	Navidale	Evelix	27.5	80.1
4	10/07/07	Evelix	Ardullie	26.7	106.8
5	11/07/07	Ardullie	Loch Moy	26.7	133.5
6	12/07/07	Loch Moy	Kingussie	27.7	161.2
7	13/07/07	Kingussie	Ebendon Bridge	26.2	187.4
8	14/07/07	Ebendon Bridge	Dalguise	26.2	213.6
9	15/07/07	Dalguise	Aberargie	24.8	238.4
10	16/07/07	Aberargie	Inverkeithing	26.4	264.8
11	17/07/07	Inverkeithing	Middleton	24.7	289.5
12	18/07/07	Middleton	Newtown St Boswells	26.2	315.7
13	19/07/07	Newtown St Boswells	Catcleugh Reservoir	24.7	340.4
14	20/07/07	Catcleugh Reservoir	Great Swinburne	23.0	363.4
15	21/07/07	Great Swinburne	Castleside	21.7	385.1
16	22/07/07	Castleside	Middleton in Teesdale	22.5	407.6
17	23/07/07	Middleton in Teesdale	Kirkby Stephen	24.1	431.7
18	24/07/07	Kirkby Stephen	Melling	24.2	455.9
19	25/07/07	Melling	Caterall	22.1	478.0
20	26/07/07	Caterall	Standish	22.7	500.7
21	27/07/07	Standish	Comberbach	23.0	523.7
22	28/07/07	Comberbach	Wybunbury	23.4	547.1
23	29/07/07	Wybunbury	Chetwynd Aston	23.5	570.6
24	30/07/07	Chetwynd Aston	Kinver	23.0	593.6
25	31/07/07	Kinver	Kempsey	23.6	617.2
26	01/08/07	Kempsey	Gloucester	23.8	641.0
27	02/08/07	Gloucester	Rudgeway	23.4	664.4
28	03/08/07	Rudgeway	Star	24.4	688.8
29	04/08/07	Star	Creech Heathfield	24.3	713.1
30	05/08/07	Creech Heathfield	Tiverton	24.6	737.7
31	06/08/07	Tiverton	Whiddon Down	24.4	762.1
32	07/08/07	Whiddon Down	Lifton Down	22.9	785.0
33	08/08/07	Lifton Down	Bodmin	23.4	808.4
34	09/08/07	Bodmin	Allet	23.1	831.5
35	10/08/07	Allet	Longrock	22.9	854.4
36	11/08/07	Longrock	Lands End	13.2	867.6
37	12/08/07	Contingency/travel Day	Contingency/travel Day	n/a	n/a

Meet the support crew (Part 1)

With just two weeks to go until I set off from John O'Groats, it's about time that I introduced the crew of folk who will be providing road side support during the 36 day run.

First up, is Keith Riley (Age 50 ish). Keith will be supporting me for 7 days from Dalguise (near Pitlochry) to Castleside (County Durham). That's a total of 171.5 miles.

Pictured to the left in a fine catalogue pose, Keith is one of the most intelligent people I know. Not surprising giving my friends! Needless to say, he's not from the North East! In fact, Keith is based in the North West and supports Burnley FC.

His knowledge of the route and and his ability to tell endless yarns will be invaluable during his time on the support rota.

Not only is Keith a very generous sponsor, he is taking unpaid time off work to support me on the big run. Of course, all of this is very much appreciated. I look forward to your support Keith. Welcome aboard!

Route plan finalised!!

It's taken the last 7 days to finalise the route for the big run. To say this was a painstaking exercise is very much an understatement. Especially so, as I've planned it on 2 different bits of software to ensure accuracy and add a degree of reconciliation into the whole process.

The total mileage for the route is 868 miles, giving an average daily run of 24.1 miles!

I've also been able to get a couple of £15 Travelodge rooms and a £1.99 flight from Bristol to Newcastle for Katy and Jack (at the end of their second support stint) ensuring that the costs are kept to the bare minimum.


The only thing left to book now is a few nights camping and there is a little matter of buying a tent! Otherwise, all accommodation and travel for the road side support crew is booked. With just over 2 weeks until the run starts, things are starting to fall into place nicely.

Checking the route again!

As well as two 6 mile runs and a good session in the gym, I've spent this week checking the route and it's mileage. This is the fifth time I've undertaken this painstaking exercise. I'm also doing a bit of fine tuning. If there is a more direct or safer route then I'm going to take it. Take a look at the image on the left. This is the elevation profile from day 4 (Evelix to Arudillie). The maximum altitude is a mere 147 ft.

I decided to move 17 of those miles from the coastal A9 to the much quieter B9176. Unfortunately the B9176 seems a tad hilly when you look at the elevation profile on the right. I now have a new altitude of 813 ft with a total net climb of nearly 2000 ft! Mind you the total net descent is greater at 2116. With 20 days of running re-checked already I hope to have the remaining 16 done by the end of the week. I'm using a combination of Autoroute 2007 and www.mapmyrun.com to ensure that the mileage is correct.

888 miles in 36 days

After many hours spent re-planning the route I'm pleased to confirm the mileage for this year's big run is 888 miles. I'm going to try and run this in just 36 days, which means I should reach Lands End (pictured) on the 11th August 2007. I'll use the 12th August as contingency should anything go wrong or my mileage is a bit out! Hopefully the 12th August will be spent driving home.

I will have to run 24.7 miles a day on average. Heaven knows what pain this will cause over the course of 36 days! I'm preparing myself for some minor injury, illness or disability. Hopefully, all that will occur will be some extremely sore legs and a few blisters!

Will 900 go into 37?

I've struggled to get road side support for 4 days of the run so I've had to formulate a plan B. I don't fancy running between Kidderminster and Bristol unsupported (day 24 - 27) so I've been thinking about moving some of Katy and Jack's support from day 33 - 42 to plug this gap. This would mean that I would have to finish the run 5 days early. Gulp! I'd be faced with the prospect of running 900 miles in 37 days. That's an average increase of 3 miles on each day of the run and I'd have no contingency whatsoever should anything go wrong!

I've spent a lot of time this week confirming the mileage for each leg of the run. This is important when all of a sudden there is far less margin for error. I will have finished this exercise next week by which time I should be in a position to say whether or not running from John O'Groats is achievable in 37 days. If you would like to see how my route planning is progressing click here.

On the plus side today, I have managed to fit into a shirt and pair of jeans last worn about 4 years ago! I was amazed when the buttons actually managed to meet the button holes. Yahooo!! If all goes to plan, one of the first jobs I'm going to have to do when I finish the big run is go clothes shopping as I suspect nothing I have will fit me! Can't wait!

Tyne versus Wear derby battle to commence early!

If running 900 miles in itself wasn't enough, I've now been challenged, by a young Mackem from work, to a race of mountainous proportions. Steven Moore, who proudly supports that team who play in red and white, reckons he can beat me over any 26.2 mile section of the Land's End to John O'Groats route. I told him today that my choice of route was the 26.2 mile course from Kincraig to Dalwhinnie. This section runs through the Cairngorm National Park in Scotland so there's plenty of hills where we can battle it out for local bragging rights!

Steven and I will be wearing our respective team's colours and he has agreed to ask his friends and family for sponsorship in aid of the hospice. It should turn out to be some battle indeed as Steven is 10 years younger and 5 stone lighter than me. Not to mention that fact that I will have run 160 miles over the previous 6 days. There's no room for excuses though! I'll be hoping to follow in the footsteps of O'Brien, Dabizas, Bellamy, Shearer, Emre, Chopra etc etc and get one over the local rivals.

Steven commented earlier today that "Derby games are never pretty and whoever wants to defend the pride of their club the most will probably be the eventual victor.". So the first Tyne v Wear derby will be 13th July this year (also my birthday!) Challenge accepted!

Just 3 months left.........not time to panic (yet)!

There are less than 3 months before the big run. It's time, just for a moment, to take a step back from all the training, organising, pestering, dreaming and planning and take stock of things.

This event has presented me with 4 main challenges; organising it, training for it, sponsoring it and running it. The organisation of the run has gone almost 100% to plan so far. I haven't managed to acquire the camper van that would have solved all of my accommodation problems in one fell swoop. I have, however, managed to get some very cheap and often free "digs" with the help, imagination and generosity of colleagues and friends. So far, I've got 24 nights of "quality" accommodation. This leaves 18 nights sleeping in a tent in both the Scottish highlands and later in Devon and Cornwall. These 18 nights coincide with support from my wife and son - Katy and Jack (and not forgetting Monkey of course!). It should be an interesting family experience to say the least! My other supporters, Keith and Owen, have put their hands into their own pockets for digs. I owe them a beer or two after the run when I start drinking again (My last beer was New Year's Eve!). Speaking of support, I have all but 4 days of the run supported. I need to finalise support for these 4 days very soon or I face the prospect of running 96 miles solo! Heaven knows how that would work out.

I'm currently giving thought to the changeover arrangements needed when one supporter finishes and another starts their duties. I do feel that I'm almost there on the organisation front.

My training for the run has gone far far better than I'd expected and my fitness is probably the least area for concern. I'm running quicker than I have for a long time and further than ever before. Apart from a sore groin lasting a couple of days and a bad back caused by carrying 2 litres of water for 51 miles there's hardly been the hint of an injury. I've said it many times before and I think it is worth emphasising again. The support and encouragement from my colleagues at Northern Rock has been key to the progress I've made in training. Again, I think a few beers are in order when I return, God willing, from the south coast in August.

I set an unprecedented and very ambitious sponsorship target of £5000 for this event. At the time of writing, I've achieved 51% of that target. In my school days, that would have been enough to get you a pass in an exam. I'm after an A+ this time round and nothing less than £5000 will do for the pain I'm about to put myself through. I've still got plenty of avenues to pursue and remain ever confident of reaching this target in aid of St Benedict's Hospice.

And finally we come to actually running the thing. How on earth is a human being supposed to run that far in 6 weeks? Especially a 16 stone one! I'm resigned to the fact that it's going to hurt like mad. I'll be prepared for the pain knowing I'm backed by so many people, pledging money, for such a great cause as St Benedict's Hospice. One thing is for sure. This is a real step into the unknown for me. It doesn't compare to anything I've ran before. I could really do with something like a "Running 900 miles for Dummies" book.

The Route (Week 6 of 6).

The end! Hopefully! Note that I have included 3 contingency days. If I don't have to use these at some point, it will be a miracle.

The Route (Week 5 of 6)

The 5th week of the run will take me through Somerset and Devon before reaching the final county of the big run - Cornwall. And boy, will I be pleased to make it to Cornwall in 1 piece!

This is the week where I'll be keeping a look out for the Beast of Bodmin. Hopefully, after running 800 miles I will have slimmed down a bit and the chances of being mistaken for said Beasty will not be that high.

The Route (Week 4 of 6)

The 4th week of the big run will see me running down the west of England. I've got 5 night's accommodation so far for this week. Luxury!

The Route (Week 3 of 6)

The 3rd week of the run, in my opinion, is the easiest. I use the word "easiest" loosely mind! As with any ultra long run, I find that you have to overcome the mental battle as well as the physical one. And with that in mind, I think there will be many plus points to be taken from this week. First of all, I will cross the half way point at approximately 10 miles past Kirby Stephen. Prior to that though, I will hopefully have had a few comfortable nights at home. I wonder how luxurious my own bed will feel after sleeping in a tent/camper van or Travelodge. Finally, on the 22nd July I will be joined by 10 or so Northern Rock staff for a day. The crack should be good as we take on a hilly 21.9 mile route from Castleside to Middleton in Teesdale.

The Route (Week 2 of 6)

This week I'm letting you see the route for the 2nd week of the run. The day I'm really dreading is the 19th July. This is the day that I have to climb over Carter Bar (338 miles) in order to reach England. Pictured is the descent from Carter Bar. I'll be pleased to see this sight, I can tell you!

Earlier highlights include the run over the Forth Road Bridge at approximately 270 miles. Incidentally, I've been trying to attract a significant one off sum of sponsorship to run over that bridge naked. There are no takers at present but I'll keep trying. So if any reader has at least £500 to spare, why not pledge it for a good cause with the potential of seeing me arrested in Scotland or at worst totally embarrassed. The bridge is 1006 metres long! I bet it would be the fastest 1006 metres I have ever ran.

Road side support during this week will be supplied by one of my colleagues, Keith. Imagine a Jag driving, train spotting, James May from Top Gear and you've pretty much got the idea of what Keith is like. He usually has many an interesting tale to tell so the crack should be good.

The Route (Week 1 of 6)

I'll be publishing details of the John O'Groats to Land's End route over the next 6 Mondays. This week details the 1st week through the highlands of Scotland.

The only place names I recognise are John O'Groats and Dalwhinnie. And I must admit I've only heard of the latter because of the Dalwhinnie whiskey I've drank in the past.

Could these be the trainers that carry me 900 miles?

After 600 miles or so, I've decided to get a new pair of trainers - Asics Gel Nimbus VIII. These should last me until June. If all goes well, these will be the trainers that I use to run from John O'Groats to Lands End.

The good thing about Asics shoes, in my experience, are the fact that they take no time at all to break in. They'll be making their debut tomorrow around what people now call the "Mark Allison Memorial 6 mile run". This is a route from Gosforth, through Fawdown, all the way around the Town Moor and back to Gosforth up the Great North Road. The 4 mile point actually goes past my birth place (the former Princess Mary's hospital). I bet my parents, back in 1971, would never imagine that I'd run past the place a few times a week while training for such an event.

The aim for tomorrow's run is to break an hour again and moreover try to get under 58:30 (This year's PB). I'll be running with the quite pacy Ian and Michael so I stand a good chance. Watch this space!

The difficult task of planning the route!

I've mapped out the entire route from John O'Groats to Lands End. It is now time to re-visit the plan and attempt to fine tune the route. This is a lengthy process and it't taken the best part of 3 hours to do the first 16 days. As I confirm the route and mileage I'll add the details to the ROUTE section on the right hand side of the home page. Please check back for details.


Once the route is finalised I'll need to find out where the nearest hospitals, camp sites, etc are. I should have quite a good knowledge of the UK after all this!