Housman hundred 'Shropshire lad'

With the Lakeland hundred drawing closer I need to get in some long runs so I have filled my calender with some of the usual suspects such as the Haworth Hobble in March and Fellsman in May but this one will be by far the longest I have ever run/walked and will serve as an experience gaining exercise for time on my feet.  I plan on walking a lot.

The LDWA events are notoriously well organised with well stocked check points and are becoming more popular with runners because of the cheapness of entering.

The Housman is named after the poet AE Housman as all LDWA hundreds have a theme  and is set around the Shropshire Marches area, the inspiration for many of his poems.  Thats what the entry form says anyway.
The events was filled up with 550 places taken in a couple of weeks which is apparently unprecedented and has left many regular hundred walkers without a place.

Just before Christmas all that have entered received a fully marked up 1:50,000 map which is bloody huge. I have since had a chance to have a good look through and found a few familiar tracks that run on the same route as the Longmynd Hike which would be the reason that event filled up so fast as well.

There is a cut off time of 48hours for the Housman as opposed to 40 for the Lakeland so I won't be trying to go too fast at the start.  I don't think my recent run as fast as you can while you can tactic will work on this one as I'll probably be knackered with 70miles to go.

Having never heard of Housman before entering this event I now seem to be seeing his name everywhere like he's haunting me!  I can't even walk down the beer aisle in tesco without him being there.  Fortunately it's a damn fine beer!.  Mmmm pear drops.....wild berries...