So its January, its cold, its grey, its raining most of the time, and these are the reasons why I want to do a 24 hour run outside!

So on Saturday the 25th of January I will be celebrating Burns Night by running about (mainly) in  the dark cold to raise awarenss for the Tartan Army Children’s Charity.    I will set off at 9am from Balmullo,  a small village in Fife, around  7 miles from  St Andrews and head east for the Fife Coastal Path.

But I won’t be alone, initially I was going to do this run solo, but after discussing the safety aspects of being out in the dark with no sleep for so long I am very happy to have Chris Turner (@Kwistaffa) join me for this mini adventure from the start. Chris who is no stranger to road cycling, will take on a new adventure of his own, jumping on a mountain bike and (slowly) riding a large section of the trail with me from 9am until about 3 or 4pm. We will follow the coastal trail all the way down to Leven where another great man Alistair Hunter (@allyhunter) will join the support crew. From here the boys will take it in turns cycling with me into the darkness and the small hours of the morning  while the other is enjoying the comfort of a support car.

The plan is to get down to North Queensferry, cross the forth road bridge back towards Edinburgh, get on the canal towpath, run around a lot and await daylight returning before we triumphantly collapse at 9am Sunday morning.

I have no idea what mileage I will cover, the terrain and spending 16-17 hours in the dark will obviously reduce the miles I could run indoors on a treadmill. But it’s not about how many miles will be covered its purely for “fun”.  However this will be the longest I have ran both in terms of mileage and time, previously I have ran 40 and 47 miles so this will be quite a jump in distance.

I have also been running in constant pain for the last 2-3 months and have just been told that my hips are not properly aligned. My silly little left hip is rotated 2-3 millimeters backwards and this is causing problems with the sciatic nerve in my ride side affecting my lower back, hip, upper and lower leg, so again mileage is not the main concern, finishing is.

Should probably have some haggis and a nip en route, it will be Burns Night after all......

Some hae meat and canna eat,

And some wad eat that want it;

But we hae meat, and we can eat,

And sae let the Lord be thankitt

Follow our progress on twitter #24hourhaggirun and on the TACC faceebook page.