The Fellsman is one of the highlights of the fell running calendar. Organised by Keighley District Scouting Association, it’s a 97km (60 mile), 3500m (11000ft) non stop race across the central Yorkshire Dales. Starting at Ingleton, it climbs Ingleborough, Whernside, Crag Hill and everything else taller than a mole hill until you stumble through the door of Threshfield school begging for a fry up and some tea. 

I did the Fellsman once before in 2010. It took 26 hours and 50 minutes and I hallucinated cats through the night section. Hallucinations from exhaustion and sleep deprivation are pretty common in long distance races - we call them 'sleep monsters'.

It turns out I’m not the only one who saw cats that year, the friend I completed it with that year also saw cats. Other friends who completed it in earlier years also saw cats. There’s just something about the Fellsman and hallucinatory cats.

Three or four years ago, I got the idea that someone should look after all these imaginary kitties roaming the high moors. That was when I decided to do it again, and ask for sponsorship in aid of my local rescue: Yorkshire Cat Rescue at Haworth. I adopted my cat Dumpling from there in 2017. YCR are a no kill shelter who do fantastic work caring for and rehoming stray and abandoned cats. Dumpling, incidentally, is so called not because he's fat, but because he was dumped in their car park in a box. He still hates getting in the cat box, poor thing.

So, 26h 50m in 2010. I’ve done a lot of miles and a few ultras in the intervening decade, and I reckon I can beat that time by a good size margin.

So I propose to donate 25 quid for every hour I beat my previous time by.

My most optimistic target time is 17 hours: roughly 10 hours quicker than 2010. That gives me my default amount - if for any reason I don’t start or finish the event (like injury, always a risk with ultra running), I'll donate the maximum I could have expected to achieve, which is 250 pounds. If anyone would like to donate additional amounts to support me in this masochistic lunacy, I'd be very grateful.