The Spine , or Spineless ??

Well, in my infinite (un)wisdom, I applied and was given a place on next Januarys' Spine race. This is as scary as you can get, within this country, I feel. It is pretty big in multi day racing terms, I am forced to believe.

My understanding is, that it is the whole of the Pennine Way in the middle of Winter. Over approx 7 days or so. With some self sufficiency. I am already not thinking too deeply about it, in the hope that what I don't know or fully understand, cannot hurt too much. A couple of mates- pretty hard themselves- have tried to warn me off and suggested something easier, like the MDS (!!!!ahem).

So in a bid to break myself in gently, I thought I would at least try and examine the route and price up better sleeping bags.

I am not entering this lightly. Just with much trepidation.