Words By: Jennifer Price

Stretching from Bowness-on-Solway, near Carlisle, to Wallsend in Newcastle, the route took me through beautiful countryside between the North Pennines and Kielder Forest, past the remnants of the incredible Roman fortification, Hadrian’s wall.

This was a great distraction as the brutal route climbed a total of 4500ft and the weather was atrocious, with constant penetrating rain for 11 hours straight on the second day. 84 miles of trail running in 23 hours, carrying a tent and supplies resulted in my feet and body taking a real battering and (bar the tendinitis I received after challenge 4) this is definitely the most broken I have been so far. I did, however, meet two other veterans on route, a Marine and a Parachute Regiment soldier, which gave me lots of motivation to continue!