The Challenge!!

I have been running for a number of years. While not lighting the running world on fire I do enjoy it and the challenge to push and see what I can do is what I find fun. Having run several ultra-marathons and a couple of distance increasing challenges I was on the look out for something else. This is where the Run Peaks idea was thought up. I would like to say it was the brainchild of a drunken night in the pub but potentially more worryingly this was completely unrelated to an alcohol fuelled night.

Trying to come up with an idea for a challenge I Googled how many miles of footpaths there are in the Peak District, https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/learning-about/news/mediacentrefacts

The answer: 1600 miles of public rights of way (footpaths, bridleways and tracks). Thinking about that distance it would be manageable to cover that distance in a year and probably less but then there is the day job that I have to do in order to afford running shoes.

So to the idea/challenge. There is no real end date but the challenge is to run all the miles of public rights of way in the Peak District. Sounds simple really, 1600 miles. But when I thought about it more it is going to be over 1600 miles covered in this challenge and that is without the inevitable times I will get lost. I can imagine that footpaths won’t always join up and there maybe several out and back runs where the footpath runs to the edge of the peaks.

I will start a dedicated Strava account for this challenge and will post up my runs here. I am not going to be going for a time frame for a run or to complete the challenge as I want to be able to enjoy the view and the experience so if there is a nice cafe chances are I will stop to have a cuppa.

So armed with the OS Maps (OL1 and OL24) I am going to start planning some runs.