Naked running here I come!

A body double was used in the taking of this photograph

and no animals were harmed either in its production!



SO, the title has changed, the look has been altered - and I'm penning a second blog in two days which is muppetry in motion.

Gone are the ramblings of a wizened journalist, and instead I'm serving up the same literary diahorrea under the guise of running.

There's two reasons. Firstly I'm still miffed by fall-out over Toiletrollgate, so it is time to move on with something fresh. And secondly, the plan in a year's time is to begin a new running challenge.

Four years ago I ran around the British Isles in 80 races during a calendar year. The quest, which began and finished with a 2km race at 11.57pm on New Year's Eve in Milford, Derbyshire featured a pot-pourri of very different runs; from big city events such as the London Marathon and Great North Run to small races like the Tickhill Gala Run and the Spilsby Show 7.

There were fearsome sounding races such as The Terminator and The Grizzly, historic runs such as the Blaydon Races and a hill run at the Braemar Highland Games in Scotland. A bit of spice was added with bizarre challenges such as the Maldon Mud Race, Race The Train, the Santa Run, I dressed as a banana and Scooby Doo, I raced with a dog, and even won a race inside a prison!

The year-long challenge featured running races at Cape Wrath in the far north of Scotland to Land's End, events in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, and even the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

Eighty races in all during 2007 which raised a  tidy sum of money for the Hampshire Autistic Society and produced a book "Around the British Isles in 80 Races" (Authorhouse) which sold reasonably well.

So now, in Olympic year, and after a few months of chewing over the possibilities, the planning is well under way for Around the British Isles in 80 Races part 2!

The start this time will be on Friday, July 27th, 2012 in Hyde Park on the day of the Olympic Games' opening ceremony. The race is the Brooks Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5km race which is staged at 12.30pm.

I'll then head to Much Wenlock, which is the spiritual home of the Olympics in this country and where Dr William Penny Brookes, the founding father of the modern Games, is buried. He was the man who inspired Baron Pierre de Coubertin to rekindle the Games in 1896, having visited the multi-sports event which Dr Brookes had founded in the Shropshire village, and which still exist today.

After a quick visit to Dr Brookes' grave, I'll then head up the road to Oswestry on July 28th to compete in the Gyrn Gallop 7 which looks like a beast of a run involving a 1,200 foot climb and descent of a hill which was featured in the film "An Englishman Who Went Up A Hill And Came Down A Mountain" which starred Hugh Grant and Tara Fitzgerald.

That will set a template for a year of running which I am now in the process of planning. So far I've already pencilled in a variety of runs over the following 12 months, including a naked run on the Pembrokeshire coastline. How do you pin your number - surely that's the key question?!!

It's going to be a case over the next year of finding the races and the characters which will make for an interesting challenge to serve both as a fund-raiser for the Hampshire Autistic Society and also material for another book.

I've already put out feelers to a number of people for race ideas. For example, I want to run as a guide in a race for a blind runner, and I am also looking for a mentor to take me through a few fell races.

There were many races which I couldn't fit in last time which I intend to do this time, including Man v Horse at Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys, Wales, a race on the Scilly Isles, the UK Backward Running Championships, and the Rathlin Island Run on an island off the coast of Northern Ireland.

The challenge will finish with an 80th race on Saturday July 27th, 2013, with a unique event which I am trying to put together in Portsmouth.

I've got a website to build, and support sponsors to find, but I am so looking forward to the challenge. So, over the next 12 months I'll use this blog occasionally to update on the task as well as throw in the occasional appeals for help. It won't always be about running, but there's a theme!

I would love to hear from any running friends reading this who have got ideas of races worth running in because of their geography, history and type of challenge, or who know of characters worth meeting to run with and whose story would be worth telling.

Last time I met a huge variety of runners, from legends such as Ron Hill and Bruce Tulloh, to runners who have overcome adversity to enjoy the thrill of running free. I would love to meet more characters like that, so please pass the message on.

Move over Passing Shots, it's time for some Passing Shorts - and don't be clever by changing the vowels on the new blog title, it's just not funny!