This time last year, we were set to go. Mt. Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe and Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa. Rich, a friend since we were both 10, and I have enjoyed hill-walking, fell-running and climbing in the lakes in Scotland for several years, and we fancied something a little bit higher.

A few months before we were to leave for Russia he phoned me and explained that he had been to the doctor for a regular check-up and found that he had been diagnosed with a heart murmur caused by a bicuspid aortic valve with a severe leak. While his condition is found amongst 1-2% of the population and he is currently symptom-less, the advice of his cardiologist was to abandon plans of any high-altitude mountaineering, delivering a severe blow to his future on the world’s biggest hills. I was quite upset for my friend of many years, as I knew full well that eventually correcting the problem would involve open-heart surgery and a long period of recovery.

Rich has always been a formidable endurance athlete, running countless marathons, competing in various middle to long distance triathlons and representing his county’s (Hampshire) badminton team, where he was known to whittle his opponents down with a series of never-ending rallies! He has been a real source of inspiration the entire time that I’ve known him and has helped me to push myself beyond my expectations. He is able to reduce seemingly impossible feats of endurance to a matter of training, adaptation and mental strength.

In a true display of grit and resolve, Rich refuses to let his condition slow him down, at least while he is symptom-less, and is constantly dreaming up ways to get himself knackered! This year he will compete in the Barcelona marathon (1st March), the Lanzarote Ironman (23rd May) and the Lakeland 100 (31st of July), a gruelling 100 mile ‘round’ of the Lake District. He is also training to swim across the English Channel.

I will be honoured to join him in the 100 mile event (hoping for a sub-24hr time) as well as the Barcelona marathon. We have also tried to enter the legendary Marathon des Sables for the past few years with no success due to the events’ limited entries, so we are currently looking to enter less popular desert runs.

On top of all of the above, Rich has devised a relay-run, for 10 competitors, starting at Land’s End, the extreme South-westward point of Great Britain and finishing in John o’ Groats, the extreme Northern point. Commencing on the 13th of June 2009, the runners will take shifts to run either 2 or 4 hours per day (2 running 4 hrs and 8 running 2 hrs = 24hrs) for as many days as it takes to finish.

This challenge is not only mentally and physically demanding, but it also presents huge logistical difficulties. To make the runners easier to manage they will be split up into teams of 3-4, who will be self-sufficient. Each team will be responsible for being at designated changeover points, where the ‘baton’ will be passed, at the correct time.

The 888 mile run is expected to take the best part of 7 days, which means that Rich and I will be running over a marathon a day for 7 days and the rest of the team will be running over a half-marathon a day. The members of the team will all be running for different causes and as a team we hope to raise money for various charities, including the British Heart Foundation.

We are currently setting up a website to provide information about the event, including details of the runners, charities we are supporting, training runs etc. Please visit www.letsjog.co.uk for more information or if you would like to get involved in future events.