Can you beat the Bogle?

Registration has opened for the Bogle, a 24-hour charity walk around Greater Manchester. It will remain so until the 6th of March, when the event is set to take place.

The walk is organised by Manchester RAG, the fundraising arm of The University of Manchester Students’ Union.

Starting from the Union building, the event will go through Stockport, Manchester Airport, Fallowfield, Salford, Farnworth and Failsworth before ending back at the City Centre.

The organization anticipates that 250 people will be participating in the event this year and that £50000 will be raised for charity.

There are three categories in which contestants can take part: the Bogle stroll, a 55-mile walk taking between 14 and 25 hours to complete; the Bogle ramble, a more relaxed 26-mile event; and the Bogle roll, a 72-mile cycle.

The Bogle stroll is the longest running sponsored event in the North West. The organization describes it as “taking the scenic route to the extreme.”

Kathryn Murray, a second year English Language student who completed the event last year, said: “I found it very draining. I didn’t do any preparation for the walk, I think the only training you could do is if you walked for 55 miles straight frequently, which is a crazy idea.

“My motivation came from the money I had raised for my chosen charity, I had to finish to get them the money.

“Walking through Manchester in the early hours was strange. We walked past people going on nights out, coming home in the morning after, people going to work and lots of sleeping houses.

“Although it was hard, and I couldn’t walk for a few days after, it was a really rewarding experience and I am glad I did it.”

The Bogle Stroll started in 1961 when a group of lecturers from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (now part of The University Manchester) missed the last bus home in Lancaster and decided to walk the 55 miles back to Manchester.

Along the way some of the group started to hallucinate and saw the Bogle, a Lancashire imp of folklore. In their imagination the Bogle was taunting the walkers, willing them to give up. It is in defeating the Bogle that the event gets its name.

In the years that followed, the event became a highlight of the Mancunian calendar with up to 3000 people taking part each year during the seventies. The current circuit attempts to mimic the challenge faced by the lecturers five decades ago, while raising money for good causes.

In the challenge this year, participants will be able to stop every few miles at checkpoints, where there will be access to toilets, food and drinks. Checkpoints will be manned by volunteers who can provide moral support and offer first aid assistance to those in need.

This year the organisation’s main charity to be supported is the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which campaigns and works toward child protection in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands. Still, participants can choose to donate their fundraising to different charities.

Led by volunteers, mostly students, the event is produced at a low cost to enable as many people to take part as possible. There is an entry fee which is discounted if the walker is a student.

Those interested in participating in or contributing to the event can obtain more information from the Manchester RAG website.