Time has marched on and in three weeks time we (Chris and I) will begin our trek along the Pennine Way. Two hundred and sixty eight very hilly miles, carrying backpacks including tents, sleeping bags, food and water.

We’ve already booked most of the campsites and intend to cover roughly 15 miles a day, although a few days are longer out of necessity. There will be two wild camps, a lot of camping at proper sites and a few stays in YHAs with a nice hotel at the end in Kirk Yetholm as a ‘treat’. We are really looking forward to it. On balance we feel ready although we’ve definitely done a lot less hiking with weight recently than previously before similar types of adventures. We’ve done a lot of fitness stuff in general though so hopefully it translates across and we will survive!

Some of the recent planning has involved weighing rucksacks and getting that necessary balance between packing the things you need to keep you safe and with a degree of comfort and leaving out the things you’d don’t absolutely need in favour of less weight to carry. It’s a set of scales with happy hiker on one side and happy camper on the other. It’s a very individual thing. I tend to want to be a happy hiker so have a really stripped back kit although I will be carrying a larger bag than usual. This will be handy for picking up additional food and drinks en route.

Once we reach Kirk Yetholm at the end of the Spine we will then walk the last section of Cuthbert’s Way for a few days. There was an option to get a bus to the coast/ train station from Kirk Yetholm, but it felt right to extend the hike and have a few more days out there ‘loving life’. We will walk for 3 days to the coast and then across the sands at low tide to Holy Island where we are stopping for one night at a hotel. This is the most expensive part of the whole trip as apparently you pay a premium for staying on the island, but it will be a lovely stay after weeks of relative ‘roughing it’. From there we have a one day hike to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, where we will finish, taking a train from there back home the following day.

It should take 3 weeks overall. It’s ironically perfect training for me running the Spine Sprint in January, although I won’t be facing any snow or sub zero temperatures. Certainly not unless there is a major shift in the weather!

I’d like to take it a little easier immediately before all of this to recharge my batteries, but unfortunately my first Spine Sprint ‘reccy’ just happens to be the week before we walk the Way. Not ideal timing but I’m going to be doing it anyway as I want to meet all the other women doing the same race as me. A number of women who have previously run the Spine and in one case someone who outright won it have put together a WhatsApp group to support women who have signed up or want to sign up to the spine races. They are there to give advice and encouragement and bring us all together to lean on each other. This is being done because not enough women run Ultras and in this case specifically the Spine Race. There are more than there used to be, but unfortunately there still seems to be a big gap between the number of men versus women coming forwards to have a go. This is despite women faring really well in long distance races and in some cases winning outright. It could be an issue of confidence, who knows? Either way; having this group to encourage everyone is great and I’m looking forward to meeting some like minded people in two weeks time for our reccy. I’m hoping we can all discuss some of the things we are nervous about (in my case my limited winter running experience) and come away with some good advice and feeling a little. more confident.

On a recent hiking trip with backpack