Colin Green completes 200-Mile Manchester Ringway Trail

It’s Manchester. We do things differently here… A phrase by Anthony H Wilson that you can find plastered on walls in giant print throughout the city. Manchester athlete and neuro-physio Colin Green definitely does things differently. 

It’s not often you think of 200-mile races through Manchester. However, with the opening of the Greater Manchester Ringway Walking Trail, Colin saw a new challenge that was not just unique but monumental. He became the first to complete the 200-mile loop in just one long weekend, a feat that will be remembered in the city’s athletic history. 

Colin was no stranger to these lengths of challenges, having steadily progressed through the distances since embarking on his running journey in 2000. From his humble beginnings, he signed up for Ultra Great Britain, a now-finished race by GB Ultras that explored the length of the Trans Pennine Trail, and found that this distance was a perfect fit for his evolving capabilities. 

The second time he completed the route, he knocked 12 hours off his time, showing that his determination has no bounds. 

The Greater Manchester Ringway Walking Trail is a looped 200-mile (322km) route exploring all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester. Split into 20 stages, the route has been classified into four larger sections including:

• The Southern Start-Up
• The Exhilarating East
• The Noble North
• The Western Wind-Down

Colin explained that his main inspiration came from the fact the route was right on his doorstep, with the Ringway Walking Trail just 400m from his house. 

“It set off from my house. No one had done it before. It was my favourite distance, 200 miles. So why wouldn’t I go and do it?”