January 12th - 14th 2018 Training Weekend at Brathay Lake District

Once the dust had settled from being accepted into the team for 2018 10 in 10 I began to digest the size of the challenge, I mean how the hell do you train for 10 Marathons in 10 Days, 262 hilly miles...

I'd spent a lot of the summer of 2017 cycling, in fact I really enjoy cycling, I had a new bike this year a Ribble R872 which I love, as well as taking on some awesome cycling challenges, Coast to Coast in a day as well as the epic Wales in a Day in July. I remember during some dark moments on Wales in a Day which is almost 200 miles thinking, can't believe I'm in the 10 in 10 next year! I had a lot of time to think on that ride.

As part of the 10 in 10 programme we are all expected to attend a training weekend in the lakes in January, this is a chance to meet the support teams, including Aly Knowles who'd delivered my news, meet the other 19 runners, and get a feel of what to expect in May, oh yes, and run the Windermere Marathon route we'll be running in May 2018 10 times over.....

When the weekend came around I was a bag of nerves, 10 days all inclusive in Fuerteventura after Chester Marathon in October and a particularly good Christmas and New Year had put a large beer shaped dent in my training plan. I had arranged to meet another 10 in 10 runner at Manchester Piccadilly to offer a lift, Diane Morris, it was nice to have some company for the drive and discuss the road ahead!

We got to Brathay just in time for lunch, great food by the way, so we certainly are not going to go hungry in May. As I looked around the dining room I could see some faces I recognised from my research, other runners taking on the challenge , along with a couple of faces which felt like celebrities to me, Rich Rex, Aly Knowles, Chris Eaton , all previous 10 in 10 runners!! After lunch we checked into our rooms and received our bag of goodies from event sponsors Asics, had a couple of hours to chill out, make a call home etc. The evening was spent meeting other runners and support team ,bit of team building and a relativity early night, Marathon in the morning! before bed I did my first video blog. (Will upload them on here going forward as well as Facebook)

Next morning we were up early, breakfast and out on the road running the route, despite carrying a few extra Christmas pounds I actually got round well. I had a plan to run a slower pace today than I  normally would during a marathon, this was to practice how I would approach day 1 in May. Chris Heaton had provided some good advice around taking it easy on day one, as if you over cook it that could be the end and can't be recovered. I set off running with  other runners Jonathan, Richard and Paul and we had a good pace, probably about 10  - 20 seconds per mile quicker than I planned to run, so I dropped out of the group about 5 miles in and settled into my own pace. I held a steady pace throughout and finished in 3:34 which was still a touch quicker than planned but felt good.

It was surprisingly cold when I finished, so I quickly went to my room to get showered , warmed up and some warm clothes, I then waited at the finish for the remaining runners to finish with a brew and one of the pies Paul had brought along, with a protein shake as well of course. Felt good to get the route done and under my belt.

The Sunday started with a nice cooked breakfast and hearing some more from Brathay , as well as people who have been helped by the charity in various ways, hearing people say thank you for doing what we were doing was quite humbling really, and made me realise this challenge, as huge as it is about so much more than just me. Brathay may not be one of the bigger charities we are used to hearing about , but their impact is as big as anyone's. There are some horrible stories in the news these days, about exploitation of children and young people, the authorities struggle unfortunately to act until something like that has happened, the work Brathay do seeks to support those youngsters , give them the improved self-worth they deserve and stop those stories from happening in the first instance. A lot of this is done from their bases across Greater Manchester, Yorkshire and of course the beautiful Lake District . #Brathay