Background
I grew up in Hale, a village situated near the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT from hereon). Thanks to my Dad’s Liverpudlian origins, I was fortunate enough to have a season ticket and regularly travel to Anfield for the home games. This meant passing through Norris Green, en route to the stadium, which is where another part of the TPT is. One match day, as we were heading through Norris Green, I saw a signpost for the TPT pointing towards a disused railway bridge. Little did I know that this Trail spanned from the North Sea to the Irish Sea. That was my first proper appreciation for the Trail.

How did I get into Running?
I got into running in my final year of university in 2019. I was keen to establish a proper routine and make the most of my time as a student, so I joined the Recreational Running Club, ran by an enthusiastic guy called Oliver (pun intended). Running soon became like therapy sessions for me, with the added benefit of helping me get into the best shape of my life.

It soon turned into an obsession in 2020. I would regularly do a 15-20km circuit from the family home, down the TPT or Bridgewater Canal and loop back. May 2020, when the weather was at its finest, I was running along the TPT thinking about Ross Edgley’s Great British Swim while listening to Real Gone Kid by Deacon Blue. This was when the idea initially came to me about attempting to run from coast to coast along the trail route. How hard can it be?

From obsession to addiction, I have been gearing up to do this run ever since which brings us to now, September 2023, 3 years in the making. From 9^th to 16^th September, I will be starting in Hornsea and making my way to Southport.

Day 1: Saturday 9th September – Hornsea to Brough (48.4km)
After fuelling up with two Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin meals at Beverley McDonald’s en route to Hornsea, I went from excited to nervous. My Dad dropped me of, I kissed the TPT landmark at Hornsea Beach and began at around 8:30 am.

Hull marked the halfway point and served as a crucial stop for replenishing supplies, especially on one of the hottest days of the year when I needed to hydrate continuously (29C).

Upon reaching Hull, while taking a break in the shade by the harbour, I had a nice conversation with a vegan lady named Helen. We touched on a lot subjects from the weather, to rowing and the NHS. After an hour break, I set off again in the scorching heat alongside the Humber Estuary. I had to take a break in the Shade at a B&Q with about 16km left to go. Ryan, a sales assistant, showed genuine concern when he saw me propped up against the entrance in a puddle of sweat. He provided some good insight on where to fill up on water between the B&Q and Brough.

Upon resuming my journey, I felt rejuvenated and thought, “What’s 16km? Easy.” I passed the Humber Bridge, but then, a massive bolt of lightning and the thickest storm cloud appeared on the south side of the Humber Estuary. So, I quickened my pace for the final 10km.

Arriving in Brough, thoroughly soaked from the storm, I stocked up at the Morrison’s salad bar, checked into my Airbnb, showered, ate, stretched and slept.

Day 2: Sunday 10^th September – Ellerker to Selby (41.6km)
Woke up feeling full of life, knocked out the first 10k with ease, still alongside the beautiful Humber Estuary. It felt too good to be true, so to avoid getting ahead of myself I stopped for a short break to refuel. This had the opposite effect thought and I lost all that good momentum when I resumed! Moral of the story, ride the wave of momentum as long as you can!

Got to half way, had to knock on a someone’s door in Howden Dyke for a water refill – top man. The trail started to get very overgrown at this point, which meant a lot of walking. Wasn’t risking a twisted ankle this early on. This was also when I realised that the TPT splits into a walking and cycle route when the trail is not cycle-friendly… despite 3 years of preparation, I missed this pretty significant detail. For the sake of making it to Selby, I followed the cycle route for a portion of it, until they converged again. This did include some A-Roads which was quite scary, but it was preferable to the long grass. Made it to Selby, desperate for a Dominos and a toilet. After fulfilling both of these needs, I checked in to the Airbnb, showered, stretched and slept.

Day 3: Monday 11^th September – Selby to Bentley (46.8km)
Woke up feeling very sore, I stocked up at a local Morrison’s, and the first 2km were tough with splits around 08:30 mins/km. However, I stayed positive, considering each step as progress. I eventually loosened up and enjoyed the run until Snaith which was just under halfway.

After crossing the M62, the surroundings turned very rural very quickly. A section of the foot trail disappeared into undergrowth alongside a canal, causing some anxiety after encountering a grass snake (or adder) in Blacktoft the previous day.

After conquering this, I rested for an hour in Sykehouse and got a water refill from a friendly local again. I felt rejuvenated with 21km remaining, heading straight down the New Junction Canal trail path towards Doncaster. A lingering groin issue from previous months surfaced in the later kilometres, but I reached Bentley, had some fish and chips, showered, stretched, and went to bed (praying that the groin problems would subside).

Day 4: Tuesday 12^th September – Bentley to Penistone 43.2km
Until this point, I’d been fortunate with the weather, experiencing mild showers at worst. However, I woke up around 6 am to the sound of sideways rain. I thought it could only improve from here, but I was wrong. This turned out to be the toughest day of my journey. Mentally drained by the prospect of stepping into the rain and the precarious groin situation, I began my day.

By the time I reached 3km, I was completely drenched, even my socks were squelching. Although the route alongside the River Dearne was scenic, I wasn’t in the mood to appreciate it. Hungry and not yet at the halfway point, I stopped in Brampton Business Park to devour a Subway. There, shivering, in pain and with everything in my bag soaked, I questioned why I was even putting myself through this. With 25km still ahead, it felt like an insurmountable challenge. It may as well have been 2500km. After reaching a low point, it hit me that I was the only one who could get myself out of this by taking action.

I reflected on everything I’d done to reach this point, which helped me put the 25km in perspective. As previously mentioned, I reminded myself that every step is progress and how it was pointless to waste energy and emotion on factors beyond my control, like the weather. So, I put on the Oasis live album at Knebworth and set off. I managed to achieve my fastest splits for the next 15km.

Sadly though, my groin started to pack in and was forced to walk the final 5km to Penistone. There, I picked up three convenience meals, checked in, stretched, showered, ate, stretched again, dried my belongings and finally slept.

Day 5: Wednesday 13^th September – Penistone to Denton (42.8km)
It was good waking up on knowing I’d conquered the most challenging part of the campaign. Furthermore, cognisant that I was entering Greater Manchester later in the day and soon seeing my friends and family put me in good spirits.

Originally, I had planned Day 6 as my “rest day,” but given the state of my groin, I thought it might be best to move it up a day. I attempted to run the first kilometre, but my calves were having none of it, so that confirmed my decision to make this the rest day. The long walk began!

Walking through the Peak District was beautiful. It was also quite undulating which meant it was probably for the better that today was the rest day. Reaching Gamesley in East Manchester carried real significance, as it marked the start of Manchester. Upon arriving in Denton, I inhaled two Subways, washed my clothes, stretched, and prepared for a shorter run into Altrincham, where I would spend the night at my family home.

Day 6: Thursday 14^th September – Denton to Altrincham (32.4km)
I woke up with a sense of déjà vu, reminiscent of Day 4 – it was pouring rain again. However, armed with the lessons I’d learnt from that day, I shrugged off the negativity and concentrated on taking the next step – relentless forward progress!

I reached Stockport after covering 7/8km, treating myself to another 2 Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin meals. As if on cue, the rain started to ease up as I continued on to South Manchester.

I was on a high, completely disregarding my groin and general fatigue, however, an altercation with a Pitbull and its owner around Heaton Mersey infuriated me. I must say, it’s a funny phenomenon how owners tend to look like their dogs.

Finally, reaching the promised land of Altrincham, I was greeted by my Mum, bearing a Pastel De Nata and a bin bag lining the passenger car seat to shield it from my sweat. Once home, I indulged in a hot bath, had some ratatouille (very middle class, I know), received a physiotherapy session from a good friend, stretched and slept.

Day 7: Friday 15^th September – Altrincham to Old Swan (41.6km)
I was dreading how hard it would be to get out of bed, knowing I would be in the relative comfort of the home I grew up in. Upon waking up, it was actually much easier than expected. I got a lift from my girlfriend to where I left off the TPT, who conveniently works nearby. As I embarked on my run, I was on a stretch of trail I had covered countless times over the years. Knowing that I had come all the way from Hornsea made it weirdly profound for me.

I passed through familiar places like Lymm, Thelwall, Warrington and Widnes. It felt fitting to play the Stone Roses as I ran past Spike Island. I took a lunch break at the big Tesco, indulging in an all-day breakfast at the café accompanied by a chocolate milkshake. I will always look back fondly on how much good (unhealthy) food I ate.

Continuing my journey, my pace picked up to around 6:14 min/km as I followed the Ship Canal round to the Mersey river, then inland to Speke – another personal landmark for me, as I had done my industrial placement year here at university. However, with approximately 8km left to Old Swan, my body began to stiffen up drastically. I couldn’t run more than 1km without stopping to stretch for about 10 minutes each time. So, I ended up walking for the final few kilometres to reach the overnight stop.

Day 8: Saturday 16^th September – Old Swan to Southport (35.6km – 332.4km on aggregate)
I think I managed to sleep for about 11 hours. When I woke up, I put a lot of effort into stretching to mitigate the lactic acid build up that had accumulated over the last 7 days. As I write this though, a whole week of lactic acid build up was probably not going to budge from half an hour’s worth of stretching.

The first kilometre was comical; my gait resembled a Call of Duty zombie mixed with a toddler. It might be hard to imagine, but that analogy made perfect sense to me at the time of running. I paused, stretched rigorously again, and instead of returning to the slow plod that had defined my runs until now, I sped up as hopefully longer strides may loosen me up. It felt great. Any aches and pains seemed to vanish, whether it was my groin, blisters or calves. I was smashing off the kilometres and achieving my fastest splits of the entire campaign.

I hadn’t even realised I hadn’t eaten in the morning because I was so focused on reaching the finish line so I had a quick stop in Aintree to fuel up. Passing through Formby, the end still felt distant. When I reached the sandy outskirts of Southport, that final 5km seemed to stretch on forever too. By coincidence, my girlfriend, who was going to pick me up at the end, drove past me on the stretch of road into Southport. Just as I reached the penultimate kilometre, I received a phone call: “You can’t get to the landmark; the road is closed to the public.” I lost my head. “What?! I have to kiss the landmark otherwise, what’s the point?!” There was a classic car event going on, which had resulted in the closure of all surrounding roads. I had to get creative – I snuck past some people in high-visibility jackets and ran along an empty road to reach the landmark. In a way, it felt like I was racing to the monument on a cordoned-off road just for me.

When I finally got there, I collapsed onto the landmark and kissed it. An onlooker laughed and jokingly asked, “Why are you kissing it? Have you run it or something?” Little did he know! I asked him to take a photo and then walked to the Marine Drive roundabout to meet my girlfriend. She had made me my own medal and brought a bottle of Sherry to celebrate. It felt good.

Once back in Altrincham, I met up with friends who were doing a pub crawl in Didsbury. After about three pints, I already felt drunk. We had a curry in the evening with the family, then slept like a baby.

Key Takeaways
Looking back, this whole campaign taught me 3 things:
🧠 Attitude is 90% of the battle, 100% of the time… When I was thinking negatively during my runs, this had an impact on how my body was feeling and my subsequent progress was stifled. The reverse was also true though, as I felt my absolute best when I was thinking positively, flying through the kilometres. The impact of a positive mindset towards any body of work has a profound effect on your ability to deliver on it.
📈 Focus on steps and seldom the end goal… It’s very easy to feel daunted or demotivated by seeing how far you’ve got to go to reach your goals. Breaking them down into bitesize, actionable steps makes reaching them feasible.
🤔 Reflect often… There were times I was at rock bottom where it felt meaningless to continue. Only you can pull yourself out of these situations and an effective way to combat this is by taking stock of what you’ve achieved in the past. It then makes the immediate task in front of you look easy.