We are always interested to hear from people of are taking on an outdoor related challenge to raise money for their favourite cause. We were recently contacted by tri-athlete Carl Loftus, of Warrington Tri Club, who is planning to do a bit of adventure running…
Running The Standstone Trail
The sandstone trail in Cheshire stretches from Whitchurch to Frodsham and takes in 34 miles of stunning scenery including Beeston Castle, Rawhead, Delamere and finally the Mersey view at Frodsham. And I’m going to run it all in one day!
Warrington Triathlon Club
The reason behind this is to raise money for a new junior section of Warrington Triathlon Club. The club started in 2004 and has steadily grown over the years, with club members representing Great Britain in the world championships for the last four years, we’ve also had regional champions and recently one of the club’s coaches was voted North West coach of the year. Last year we held our first open race, The Northwich Aquathlon. This was primarily a junior race, catering for ages 7 to adults. With almost one hundred competitors the event was considered a great success, and it was this enthusiasm from the participants that convinced us that the club should have our own junior section.
To get things off to a good start for the junior club we will need some financial backing and in order to do this Warrington Tri Club are going to be holding a few fund raising events. One of these will be my attempt to run the length of the sandstone trail. Having completed the Sandstone trail race a number of times, which, at 17 miles is only half of the distance, I have always fancied having a go at doing the whole thing. The incentive to raise money for the junior club is just the push that I’ll need.
I came to the triathlon club in 2006 with a background in running and have done some landmark races including the London Marathon twice. Although this is a road race I have always been attracted to the off road side of things and have often found myself scrambling up hills or wallowing in mud on a rainy Saturday afternoon. I have been building up for this race by entering a few long fell races including the Windgather fell race, and the Winter Hill race, but none of them are as long as this!
Due to the race being so long I will probably have other club members running with me for sections along the way and hopefully they will bring extra supplies to keep me going throughout. I hope to complete the full length of the trail in around six hours but this is really an estimate, as I have never run this far before. The weather will probably play a big part in the run too as I will be attempting it at the end of February 2010. So mud and rain will probably play a large part in the post event discussions and whether people are going to be running it with me.
Can you help?
Running the 34 mile off-road Sandstone Trail is certainly going to be tough challenge! If you are interested in sponsoring or supporting Carl in his fund raising efforts, please contact him at Warrington Tri Club: warringtontri@yahoo.co.uk
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