8 May 2009

With less than three weeks to go before he embarks on his ambitious cross-country run from Land’s End to John O’Groats as part of the Be Number 1 LEJOG project, endurance athlete Kevin Carr admits to feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves about a feat that has never been attempted before, never mind completed.

“I can hardly wait to get going,” says Carr, who is planning to cover the 1,100 or so miles in 21 days. “But just thinking about the enormity of the task almost sends bolts of fear through me. I have been trying to visualise everything that the run will entail and I have to confess that one of the things I have visualised more than once is meeting the rest of the participating athletes at the finish in John O’Groats and having a beer or two!”

Beer, however, has most certainly not been part of Carr’s agenda in recent weeks, during which time he has stepped up his training programme markedly in preparation for his audacious attempt to write his name into the history books.

“Training has been getting tougher and tougher for the past six weeks, and I will have another few days of hard training before tapering down for the fortnight before the off. I won’t stop training, just reduce it.

“One of the things I have been doing is ‘extra-load’ training, in preparation for carrying up to four kilos in LEJOG, although that load will obviously become lighter as each day progresses. Rather than just running for say, 10 or 15 miles, I have been running with a backpack and increasing the weight gradually. So I am now running at the same speed as before, but with six kilos of weight on my back. I have been doing some strength training as well, so I should be in good shape when I am on the start line.”

The 28-year-old, who departs from Land’s End on 26 May, is hoping to cover an average of 55 miles a day, the equivalent of more than two marathons.

“The days will not be exact. The longest day will be 70 miles, when I’ll be mostly going along a flat canal path, while others, like when I am running up and down hills and mountains, will be shorter in terms of miles covered, though not in terms of the time I am running. Each day’s running will last for a total of about 16 hours, with three rest breaks totalling two hours included in that figure. I will then need to have two big dinners when I finish each day before getting about six hours sleep.

“The run will include some of the most fantastic countryside in Scotland and England, and I am particularly looking forward to the Scottish Highlands, which is proper fell running. But the spectacular views will come at a cost, because going off road increases the length of the run by more than 200 miles. I will occasionally have to do some road sections to get between footpaths, but I estimate that 84 per cent of my running will be off road.

“The biggest cost of going off road, though, will be the hills - not just one or two big ones, but hundreds of them. Along the South West Coast Path, for instance, you drop to sea level before climbing hundreds of feet and then dropping back down again. It’s incredibly taxing on the whole body. As an example, Land’s End to Devon is only a small fraction of the overall run, but it includes more climbing than getting to the top of Everest!”

Carr will certainly deserve his “beer or two” when he reaches John O’Groats.