Hitting the Wall 2018 – Calling all runners (and runner-walkers)

In approximately 128 A.D, the Roman Emperor Hadrian decided that northern Britain was missing something.  He decided it needed a wall….much like modern-day Mexico.  Spanning 84 miles from the east to west coast, it was not only designed to keep the marauding Scots out but also to be something nice to run along.  1890 years later, Mr Loughton and Mr Dieppe have decided that this latter feature makes it a very attractive proposition for a slightly insane charity event.

In the May half-term break, they will be attempting to run (and probably sometimes walk) the entire length of the wall from Newcastle to Bowness-on-Solway in three days.  They would like to invite Winterfold parents who fancy themselves as long-distance warriors to join them.  At this stage, they would just like to get an idea of possible numbers to help with logistics.  There will be  an informal get-together over the coming weeks to talk through the challenge, so any expression of interest at this stage is just that – no commitment is necessary.

There will be a support team in place to ferry equipment to each night base.  Participants will either be able to camp or take advantage of other accommodation options along the route.

The proposed dates are Sunday the 27^th of May to Tuesday the 29^th, with travelling either side.

When Principal Armstrong Mthembu visited Winterfold from Ncemaneni Primary in October, staff were shocked to hear that a large number of pupils at the school have a 15–20K round-journey to school each day by foot.  As if this isn’t bad enough, many of these children aged between 6 and 15 don’t own a pair of shoes.  The aim of the Hitting the Wall Challenge is to raise money to buy and transport as many pairs of suitable shoes as possible to Ncemaneni.

If you would like to take part, please email Mr Dieppe on dieppes@winterfoldhouse.co.uk by Friday 19^th January 2018 with an indication of your level of fitness/unfitness using the indicators below; you can chose more than one. Depending on how many and who they get on board, it may be possible to have a number of different groups running with different daily time targets.

• I eat miles for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• I have run a marathon recently.
• I have run a marathon, but when Snickers were still called Marathons.
• I can manage a 10K every now and again.
• I have experience of long-distance trekking.
• The last time I ran was for a bus.