Back in March I made a couple of statements on my Instagram page about adventures I was planning. One was to walk the Tour de Mont Blanc this autumn with friends and the other to run a 250km ultra in the Azores next Spring. Unfortunately neither of these are going ahead; the TMB due to timing on our part and the ultra because it’s been changed and now doesn’t meet my aspirations.
I’ve been desperately searching for an alternative event, a challenge that meets certain criteria: out of my comfort zone, multi-day, a bit different from the norm. I wanted to do something abroad but nothing I could find fitted the bill. Then, last month, I unintentionally ended up joining female athlete Anna McNuff on two stages of her Barefoot Britain challenge. You can read all about the challenge here. I was inspired.
Having said that, my initial inspiration came from another tough cookie, Yvie Johnson, who, in 2016 ran from Lands End to John O’Groats and back again, yes back again (!!), raising money for mental health awareness. You can read about Yvie’s epic run here.
So what, I hear you ask, have I been inspired to do? Well those of you who follow A Moment in Time on Instagram will know. I am going to run the Wales Coast Path. All 1400km of it. Of course I am unable to replicate the feats of Yvie or Anna and just can’t take the time off work to do it all at once, but over the course of the year I plan to complete it all, in blocks.
First block is Chester to Bangor along the North Wales coast, home turf 😀👍 It’s 126km and I hope to complete this in 4 days. My original thought was to aim for February half term but I might actually try and get it done in January some time, leaving February half term for the Anglesey leg. We’ll see.
The benefit of starting in the North for me is that I can get to grips with the long running days and still be able to sleep in my own bed. It doesn’t require too much in the way of logistics. The difficult times will come when I start heading south. This is when I will start to need help in transporting my luggage, places to stay, people to come and join me on sections. Really I will be up for any kind of support that anyone can offer!! Even if it’s just filling up my water bottles on the way 🙂
I would like to try and raise some money for charity along the way but I haven’t decided which charities just yet. I will have a think about it over the next couple of months and let people know once I’ve made a plan.
If anyone has any advice or tips for this sort of undertaking, I’m all ears!! 😀
Tabitha's Adventures 