To a man who's going to run across North America, the Bermuda International Race Weekend 10K may not seem like much of a challenge.

But to 51-year-old Masters runner Phil Barker no distance is too short or, for that matter, too long once he has got his spikes on.

Take the mile: He ran a Masters world best of 3:58 in 1989.

Take the marathon: His 2:17.49, achieved in 1994 when he was 48, is also a world record.

He's also run the half marathon in 1:08.45.

The 10K? He's done it in 30:06, but in Bermuda he expects to record about 31:50 -- if he was firing on all cylinders.

"But I'm only about 75 percent fit,'' he says. "And it's a hilly course. I saw a couple of mountain goats out there when I was training this morning.'' If it's not clear by now, Barker, a former policeman from England, loves -- and lives -- to run.

He caught the bug at school when he was 14 -- his PE master taking a group of shivering pupils over a cross country course in the depths of winter. He's been on the move since, covering a lot of ground as he combined his police duties in the traffic division with 100,000 air miles a year, competing at meets as far apart as Thailand and the US.

Then, says Barker, from Thornaby, Cleveland, in the north-east of England, it got too much, and something had to give. In 1995, after 25 years of service, it was the police force.

"I decided that for the rest of my life I wanted to do what I wanted,'' he says. That meant running, running training camps, talking about his experiences of running and, most importantly, running to raise money for charity.

Hence, the 4,000-mile mega-marathon across America, which he hopes to start in August. The aim: to raise $800,000 for Whizz-kidz, which helps to mobilise disabled children.

Barker intends to cover the distance in 111 weeks, running back-to-back marathons daily -- and this a man who didn't take up the distance seriously until 1991.

"I ran the London Marathon in 1985 and it took me six years to forget the pain,'' he jokes.

But on that run, he had a meeting that was to change his life. "I hit a bad patch at about 17 miles while on the Isle of Dogs. I was overtaking one of the wheelchair competitors, Peter Hull. He has neither arms nor legs. As I passed him, he looked over to me and said: `Are you all right'. It brought home to me that although I may be feeling a little tired, I had nothing to complain about. "Twelve years later I was back in London looking around the pre-race Expo. I was intending to undertake a venture in the not-too-distant future and was trying to decide on a charity. As I walked between the stands my attention was drawn to the Whizz-kids sign. It brought back the memory of Peter Hull.'' So the idea for the Trans-Continental Run, which takes in two Canadian provinces and ten American states, was born.

Starting in Montreal, the route will take him through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and California, where the epic will conclude in Los Angeles.

It will be an uphill task, both figuratively and literally, as he has to climb 28 "major elevations'' -- not to mention the deserts.

He will be accompanied by a a manager, physiotherapist, PR expert, and two driver/cooks in a project likely to demand an initial outlay of around $160,000.

A TV crew will be with him to record the experience, warts and all for a future documentary; Barker has already written a synopsis script.

He's also involved in arranging sponsorship -- a lengthy and often frustrating task.

"It's not just money,'' he says. "We need to get companies to give product, such as hire vehicles, so that the money we save can go back to the children.'' But somehow you cannot see that holding back a man who trains by running 160 miles a week -- "I stepped it up from 100 in 1993,'' he says dismissively -- and is used to getting up from a few knocks.

In 1994, invited to take part in the Redondo Beach 10K in California on Super Bowl weekend, he overcame the loss of his suitcase during his transfer at Amsterdam Airport, its subsequent arrival in three pieces at his LA hotel, fighting outside his bedroom window and near-arrest by police when he went for a 4.00 a.m. run, to take his place on the starting line-up.

Then a woman in the pace car opened the door as he was passing and knocked him flat out: he got up, carried on and set a course record.

INTERNATIONAL RACE WEEKEND DISTANCE NO OBJECT -- British runner Phil Barker warms up for the 10K this weekend, but the 51-year-old Masters record holder is planning a longer trip later this year -- 4,000 miles across America.