Update from Emma, AKA Steve's Wife

Hi there, Steve has asked me to do an update, not really sure why but here goes...
Only a couple of weeks to go, and I think Steve has realised how much organising this is going to take. He's quite happy with the running bit, it's the logistics that he leaves to the last minute. Jane came round yesterday and did her best to sort him out.
Jane: 'have you got someone to help on each leg?'
Steve: 'I think most of them'
Jane: 'do they know which leg they are doing'
Steve: 'Probably not'
Jane: 'do you think you should tell them?
Steve:  'OK I'll try'
I don't know what we would do without Jane. Steve now has a to do list which I think he is working through, he asked my advice on setting up a twitter account yesterday which is a good start although not very helpful as I am hardly an expert. I have to somehow work out what food he needs to take, where and when I can meet him (bearing in mind I will be looking after 3 children who won't appreciate being dragged out of bed at 3am), how I am going to wash 24 sets of smelly running gear, how I will manage all this around getting the children to school, going to work (I work 5 days a week for the Lake District National Park, I can take some days leave, but not the full week), helping out at our eldest child's residential, looking after various people who may or may not be staying with us at the time and trying to coordinate who has to be where when. Meanwhile the house is descending into complete chaos, Hannah says she would like to live in a new house 'without dirty bits in it' mmm, maybe it's time to stop writing and get on with some other stuff.....

Getting sorted

It is only four weeks to the start of my Wainwrights run and there is still a lot to sort out. It is going to be busy.

I was talking at the Keswick Mountain Festival on Saturday. The audience donated £60 to the MS charities I am collecting money for - thanks very much I really appreciate it. I have put £30 on both my Samson centre Just giving page (http://www.justgiving.com/Steve-Birkinshaw) and the MS Society Just giving page (http://www.justgiving.com/Steve-Birkinshaw1). I had the chance to have a chat with Joss Naylor after he gave his second talk of the weekend. It is great that he is so encouraging.

The Open Tracking website which will  have live updates whilst I am out is now live (http://steveb.opentracking.co.uk/). This will update every 3 minutes whilst i am out so anyone can follow my progress. It will be great for anyone wanting to know how i am getting on or for my supporters/pacers to catch up with me. There will also be a tracker in the support campervan which will be really useful.

 I have had loads of great offers of support from people willing to give up their time to help me (and even taking days off work to do it). I really appreciate this. If anyone else wants to help the best thing to do is email me on s.j.birkinshaw@ncl.ac.uk or if you just turn up and run with me that would be great.

History of Wainwright Runs

I have just seen my last post was over three weeks ago and I was going to try and blog every week. Oh well I will try and do better from now on!

Below is a brief history lesson on people who have attempted to run the Wainwrigths as quickly as possible. If anyone knows of any other attempts then it would be great if you could let me know.

Chris Bland - 1981
Chris attempted a Wainwright book a day for seven days. On each day he started and finished at a church – raising money for  a church roof in Borrowdale. Here is a list of how many Wainwrights he made each day compared with the number in the book.

Eastern fells 35/35 completed

Far eastern fells 27/36 completed

Central Fells 27/27 peaks completed

Southern Fells 17/30 completed

Northern Fells 24/24 completed

North Western Fells  29/29 completed

Western Fells 33/33 completed

He obviously failed to complete them all but it was a great attempt.

Alan Heaton - 1985

Alan started and finished in Keswick and did a round of all 214 in the order best suited to a continuous circuit. i.e he ignored which book they came from.

Total time 9 days 16 hours

Including visit to Keswick hospital for some antibiotics for inflamed foot.

Joss Naylor M.B.E - 1987

Joss started and finished in Keswick and like Alan he ignored which book they came from. But his route was slightly different to Alan's.

Total time 7 days 1 hours

Joss had a heatwave for the first 5 days and suffered badly from swollen feet, hands and mouth

I do not know of anyone how has attempted this since Joss did it 27 years ago. So it is about time someone had another go! I am following Alan and Joss' way of doing it by ignoring which book the Wainwrights came from. I am also changing the route, as Joss did, but following tradition by starting at finishing in Keswick.

I have had a busy few weeks.One highlight was helping two famous Americans (Scott Jurek and Rickey Gates) on their Bob Graham round. They showed great style by just turning up and doing it with a small group of supporters after a hard weeks training. They succeeded and we had a great evening on the fourth leg. The picture below shows dusk on Pillar with the moon rising over Great Gable.

Another highlight was helping out at the Berghaus Trail Running team event at Helvellyn Youth Hostel (https://www.facebook.com/trailrunningteam). We had a couple of really good runs and it was great being there and seeing the enthusiasm of everyone and how much they were enjoying running in the Lake District. It makes me appreciate how lucky I am to live here.

I have also set up pages to two MS charities I am raising money for.