The Long Road

Things have been a bit hectic here over the last few weeks. To be honest, not always in a good way. There are various things that have not gotten done that should have been done. However, we have some really exciting stuff coming up and things are looking quite positive into the next few months.

There is, of course, our delayed but increasingly anticipated bar on Millom Station. This has caused a bit of interest both locally and further afield. More later, but I expect some movement on this over the next week or so as Network Rail Lawyers finally "get there"

More immediately, I committed some months ago to a slightly crazy idea of walking from Keswick to Barrow. The event is a well known local challenge started many years ago by workers at the shipyard at Barrow. I have done the walk a total of three times, over 20 years ago.

My underpinning reasons for taking on the challenge are several fold. Firstly, there are various aspects of my health I am less than 100% happy with. As I approach my half century I am aware that it becomes increasingly important to keep on top of fitness if I am to have a long and active life.

A second reason is the fact that beer is often cited as a bad thing for ones health. For that matter, so is butter. Indeed, I'm sure recently there was a general nonsense claiming fruit was bad for you. It gets to the point that you can't decide what is good and what is bad.

A long, long time ago I decided to stop listening to health crackpots and just concentrate on a balanced diet and plenty of exercise. What I do include in my balanced diet is beer and butter. I also include fruit and of course vegetables.

When it comes to exercise this becomes a bigger problem. This isn't because I don't enjoy it, quite the reverse, but more that there are always more important things to do.

Hence a challenge; The Keswick to Barrow walk. My intention was that it would make me do some training and get a little bit fitter. I've done a little, but I'd have to say, not anywhere near enough.

It's tomorrow. Where did all that time go? I expect I'll finish the 40 miles, but perhaps not as fast as I'd like. An added downer is the fact that the weather forecast isn't looking great.

So, think about me and wish me luck. Even better, it's all in aid of local charities, so, if you'd like to sponsor me, please do so here. I'm supposed to raise a minimum to take part and I've not even had time to do much about that, so any contribution would be appreciated.

I expect I'll be giving a running, then walking, then hobbling commentary on twitter, so encouragement during the day would be appreciated.