Your April challenge is based on the Pennine Way, our third National Trail.  The full trail runs from Kirk Yetholm just inside the Scottish border down to Edale in the Peak District through the Northumberland National Park and the Yorkshire Dales.

It crosses old Roman roads, peat bogs, moors and mountain tops.  It's remote and exposed to the elements for much of its length as you explore some of England's grandest and most dramatic landscapes.

Of all the National Trails, the Pennine Way is the oldest, created back in 1965 - April 24th in fact, so its birthday falls during your challenge.  Tom Stephenson is credited for the passing of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act in 1949 and then the inauguration of the Pennine Way 16 years later.  It's easy to take for granted our access to these trails and wider rights to roam in the countryside now but prior to this period no such rights existed.

The course record (for the traditional South to North route) is held by Damian Hall in a ridiculous 2 days, 13 hours, 35 minutes and 15s.  We thought that was a little too much to ask of you so you have all 30 days of April to complete!

Choose from:

We recognise that everyone's abilities and opportunities for exercise are different and offering only fixed distances doesn't suit everyone, especially if what would be the ideal challenge for you falls somewhere between two options.

So if you'd prefer, we're letting you to set your own challenge distance (between 50km and 420km) as a goal that motivates you personally.

There's also a mechanical hare to keep you on track.  It'll be set running on the 1st April and will reach your goal distance at midnight on the 30th - try and stay ahead of it!

All walks, runs and hikes count towards your total during the entire month.  You can join in any time before the close of the 15th April and backdate any activities from the 1st of the month.

Register your miles either manually or with Strava (a free Strava account is all you need) and we'll plot your progress on our live map.

You have until the 7th April to complete the logging of your walks and runs, after which point we'll treat the results as final and send out your awards.

We allow you to switch routes up until the closing date of the event on the 15th April, so if you're finding you're crushing your challenge and want to push harder, or time constraints mean you can't put in the miles you'd hoped - no problem!

To do this, go to My Account -> Tickets and Entries.  Click the 'entry form' tab under the ticket for the event and make your changes to your form.

We are all missing the chance to get out onto the real trails and these priceless resources take a huge amount of maintenance, which relies on an army of volunteers and never-ending battles for scarce budgets.

We donate £1 from each entry to the National Trails (each Trail is managed by a separate group) to help support their upkeep and make sure they are available for us and future generations.  So your taking part will directly support the Pennine Way.

As a 1% For The Planet Member, we also donate a minimum of 1% of all revenues to our non-profit partner, Sustrans.

It's important to us that we support local businesses and reduce the environmental impact of our events as far as possible.

Complete your challenge and we'll send you a custom, etched wooden medal to commemorate your achievement.

We will also send you a real postcard through the mail featuring a stunning shot from the trail taken by professional photographer Ally Whitlock, with your challenge achievements on the back.

We're proud to be supported by our local sports store - Apex Sports - who are offering all entrants a very generous 15% off all non-sale items (we will send you a discount code with your joining instructions). 

You can recoup the price of this event with the savings from a single pair of shoes!

Important : Apex are currently only shipping to UK addresses

TREES NOT TEES

We're proud to partner with Trees Not Tees who plant native trees in their managed forests to offset CO2.  If you don't want a medal posted out to you, you can instead exchange it for your very own tree.

Trees Not Tees will email you a certificate of ownership, a photo of your sapling tree and the exact location in what3words format.  You can even go and visit (when we're allowed out!)

This is a fantastic way of doing something positive for the environment and we'll add your tree to the event map.

You will need to complete your challenge to receive a medal.  If you have opted for a tree, one will be planted for you whether or not you complete the challenge.

It's very simple to record miles either manually, or automatically if you use Strava.

Note that - we request read-only access to your Strava account which means that we cannot write to your page and we can only read public activities from public accounts.  Ensure your activities are recorded as one of 'hike', 'walk', 'run' or 'virtualrun'.  It may take up to an hour to collect your data from Strava and update the leaderboard.

Remember you have up until the 7th May to log miles accrued between the 1st and 30th April.

Here's National Trails's official intro to the trail, just to get your feet itchy!

Dufton https://flic.kr/p/fxAMXV by Andrew 
Hawes https://flic.kr/p/roW92G  by minniemouseaunt
Thirlwall Castle https://flic.kr/p/7UbPTU by Andrew Bowden

Pennine Way sign https://flic.kr/p/H8rH9d by Andrew Bowden

Edale https://flic.kr/p/dT3zXW by Samuel M