On the 17th of June, I'll be attempting the Isle of Man Parish Walk for the first time. This is an annual event that takes place over an 85-mile course, visiting each of the Isle of Man's seventeen parishes, with a time limit of 24 hours. The people who complete the full course are by and large race walkers, many of them quite serious athletes - the rest of the field is made up of more ordinary people, from all sorts of backgrounds, who've set themselves the challenge of reaching a certain point.
The Parish is also a fundraising event, with each entrant using sponsorship to raise money for a charity of his or her choice. Mine will be Combat Stress, which offers support and treatment to serving and former members of the British armed forces who experience mental health problems associated with their service. They've been in existence since 1919, at which point they were years, if not decades, ahead of their time, and they've helped thousands of men and women with problems that can still be very difficult to talk about. I'll say more about the charity as I go along.
My personal challenge, born of a combination of naïvety, blind ambition and a long history of not knowing what's good for me, is to make it as far as Ballaugh. That's forty-two miles, to be completed in just under twelve hours. At the moment I think I might be mad, but I've drafted a training plan that should get me there if I can stay clear of injury.
I've just completed my first week's training, so I'll write about that in a second post at some point over the next few days. Thanks for reading, and welcome to the madness.
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