Years of dreaming.

More than 12 months of planning.

An intense 5 months of training and preparation.

It’s almost upon me – the toughest physical and mental challenge that I’ve ever contemplated. It is of course CoastPathRun, our 1,014 km trail running odyssey along the UK’s longest national trail, the South West Coast Path, which kicks off on June 17th.

This weekend represents The Final Push in our training. Tom, my UK-based running partner (who I still haven’t met in person!) is doing a 12-hour enduro run around a 10 mile circuit near his home in Devon. His goal is to complete as many laps as possible and hopefully his efforts will raise some cash for his nominated cause, Mind, the equivalent of our Mental Health Foundation (my chosen cause) in the UK.

I’ll be out there clocking up the miles too. Already this year I’ve run close to 2,000 kms in training for this mission, including several runs of 12+ hours and I’ve done a few 2-3 day blocks of successive long runs to accustom my body to the idea of being dragged out of bed for another long day even though it’s already exhausted and begging for time off. Now it’s time for one last big effort before starting the taper and packing the bags.

The target is to run at least 150 kms of trails in 3 days (Fri – Sun) but beyond that I have no fixed idea just yet of where I will run. No doubt the Waitakeres will feature at some stage but I’m liking the fact that I’ll just get up each morning and make a call based on what I feel like doing that day. This spontaneous approach will hopefully make it more of an adventure and keep me fresh and motivated. I’ll report back with a blog next week.

To follow the progress of CoastPathRun – regular updates, photos, videos and live GPS tracking – check out our Facebook Page and give it a ‘Like’.

To make a donation to one of our chosen causes please check out our fundraising pages – Mal for Mental Health Foundation (NZ) or Tom for Mind (UK)

THANKS, Mal