As I turn 50, I decided to do something unique to celebrate. I’m going to run 50 kilometers in one go! Now, you know me, I’ve run before. I’ve even completed three marathons (4 if you include the one I dropped out of half-way through due to an injury). After each one, I promise myself I’ll never run again. Instead, I focus on cycling until I decide to lace up my shoes again.

So, I had this idea a few weeks back that my wife and I could run an 50k Ultra marathon, but guess what? My wife had other plans! She had already booked an ultra 50k to run with her friend to celebrate her 50th birthday. Can you believe it? She didn’t even ask me first because she thought I wouldn’t want to run anything close to that distance after all the complaining I did after the last marathon. Well, guess what? That backfired on her! Now she’s doing two ultra 50ks - one with me and one with her friend later in the year.

I’ve signed up for the Peak District Challenge, which is happening over the weekend of June 28th and 29th. The 52km run is described as “a scenic & tough Northern Loop of the Peak District,” and it includes 1250m of climbing (and I’m sure there’s some descending too!).

So, that means I have just over 6 months to prepare for this run! I’m thinking this micro.blog will help me and, hopefully others, understand what it takes to complete a run of this length. I should also mention that I’m a complete beginner at anything beyond marathon distance, and even my marathon times are pretty bad - I’m not exactly built to be a runner!