It’s now been over a week since I completed my Running Britain Challenge for the NSPCC (okay Duathlon now!). It still feels like one big dream, though sometimes I have woken up during the night wondering how many more miles I have to go… this is just a (relatively) short post JOGLE blog, based on my foggy memory of the events. Maybe I’ll write a short memoir one day since there’s a lot I’ve missed out…
John O’Groats to Bridge of Cally - Week 1 (15th – 21st April 2019)
I was going into this knowing it was going to be extremely tough, easily the hardest thing I would do just after trying to navigate around Ikea… but it really is hard to fully comprehend the magnitude of such an event. That was until the Saturday morning I left from Epsom to drive up with my Grandparents who were supporting me on the Scotland leg. I had a few people say they wouldn’t like to drive JOGLE, let alone do it on foot. After reaching Braemar, in the Cairngorms, I could see why. Of course I knew it was a crazy challenge that I chose to do, but this is when it really began to sink in the mammoth task ahead. Had I bitten too much off to run? I quickly tried to brush it off and remain positive. But then the next day it was the drive to the start-line, John O’Groats, and to think in just a weeks’ time I would have to do that journey (but less of a direct route avoiding the A9) and be back in Braemar. This brought back some negative thoughts, especially since I ended up having a bad run-in to the start.
The day had finally come – I was at the start-line at the John O’Groats signpost. One of the signs obviously pointing to Land’s End, stating a mere 874 miles away, thanks for the reminder signpost! 3, 2, 1…GO! And I was off! Like a… tortoise. You know how they say it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon… well for me it’s not a marathon, it’s an ultramarathon every day for the next 27 days. I really know how to spend my holiday allowance at work. From everything I had read, I knew the first week was going to be the hardest. And it certainly was. Your body is going to get a surprise of the nasty variety but supposedly after a week it starts to accept and co-exist with the pain and torment you put it through, so I hoped. Day 1 there was no real issues, other than missing my very first turn. I’m renowned for getting lost (I once got lost in a fell race where all you had to do was run up to the peak then back down the way you came from…) and luckily I didn’t have too many more misfortunes with navigation.
The next day is where the real fun began. My first back-to-back ultra, going into unknown territory. After one day of running on the roads I felt confident enough to take more direct routes even if it meant running on slightly busier roads. If the movie dodgeball taught me anything, if you can dodge a car, you can dodge a ball. Maybe I now have a luxurious dodgeball career to look forward to. As I was in the highlands the traffic was minimal and I mostly had the roads to myself. Every so often I would shout “I’m running Britain” then stare at the pavement and shout “I’m running you”… it felt oddly satisfying. In fact, being outdoors for 8/9 hours a day was at times a real pleasure. One perk of running I find is being in the great outdoors, giving you some proper ‘me’ time. Simply hearing your footsteps and the birds tweeting does wonders for me mentally, giving me a complete refresh. Oh, and also the great running tan you can get! Anyhow, by the end of day 3, all I could tell was that my lower half consisted of pain and fatigue. I barely had any range of movement in my legs as they had seized up so much and I was walking a lot more than running. And people were telling me I must be sleeping like a baby, not quite… although extremely fatigued and tired, my body was still on alert at night making it difficult to find those zzzzz I desperately needed. And then there were the night sweats…
Throughout the challenge there was many times I wasn’t sure how I was going to complete it, but I vividly remember day 5. Ultra running can be a cruel sport. Actually, when is it ever nice? Wait, why did I do this again? (I kid). You can go from feeling on top of the world to feeling like wanting to bury a hole and not come out again in a matter of a few steps. This is something you have to experience to truly understand it. As most days had gone, the start was fine and I had the added motivation that I would be joined by a university friend for the next few days, but after the marathon distance my body started to breakdown. Personally, I don’t like to know how long is to go until the end, and when the Grandparents told me there is only around 8 miles to go I couldn’t believe it. I had already put in a big shift during one of the hottest days Scotland had seen for a while. A litre of coke couldn’t even help give me a little refresh but I ran on. I even had a concerned citizen pullover asking if I needed any help, and after telling him what I was doing he kindly gave me a donation – my first one during the challenge, but even this didn’t help push me much further. I got to about 3-4 miles left which after completing 32 already, seemed like I still had a mountain to climb. I ended up sitting on a layby and gave myself a stern talking to. Fortunately a family member had sent a link to a news article in one of the Inverness media outlets. It talked about the NSPCC and how the money raised could save children’s lives. I got up, squeezed the coke bottle like it was one of those stress relief balls and ran it in until a mile to go where my friend, George, walked it in with me and passed me holy water (beer). But this wasn’t the end of it. I had serious troubles moving, and when I went to bed I remember thinking it would be an achievement getting out of bed next morning, let alone to run an ultra through a mountain range (at least I could be surrounded by beautiful scenery whilst in pain). If it wasn’t for the fact I had George to push me the next couple of days, I don’t know how I would’ve got on, so big thanks Mr. Potter! That said, those next two days broke me even more.
Bridge of Cally to Kendal 2 Week (22nd April – 28th April)
At the end of day 7 I had two lovely inflamed front ankles. I think the last few days I had my laces way too tight, especially with all the downhills plus the heat caused them to swell and bring on even more pain which I didn’t think was possible. I thought I could walk day 8 but after a few miles it turned into a limp which got worse and worse, bringing my speed down to how fast grass grows in Siberia. I decided to call it a day, which I think George was secretly pleased about as we had happened to stop nearby a lovely quaint pub which served more holy water. The annoying thing was I felt like my legs had just got used to this new unusual routine… Day 8 and this was it. I really wasn’t sure how I could go again tomorrow. I went back to some relatives in Scotland I’ve not met before (I think), and had a lovely time even though I thought this could be the end already. But like most of this challenge, I got up, put left foot after right foot, endured more pain and got to the end of the day questioning how on earth I just did that. I’m still asking myself the same thing now. After a couple of extreme grit your teeth days (my teeth are luckily still intact) the swelling in both ankles calmed down although I could feel crepitus in both (creakiness feeling – likely all the micro tears) as well as in my left achilles. I felt like a ticking time bomb waiting for one of my body parts to blow up and call it a day.
During the Scotland leg, my Grandpa and I decided it would be a marvellous idea to sample a new whisky everyday that we hadn’t had before. After finishing day 11 which was my first real taste of the Scottish rain, I came into the inn we were staying at absolutely drenched. After finishing each day it is essential to begin the recovery process – get your calories in especially the protein, light stretching, some form of bath (ice/hot), tend to blisters etc. and today was born a new one. Slamming a whisky down my throat. Not quite as refreshing as the holy water, but the warmth was welcoming.
Fortunately I survived the next week or so, finally crossing the border into England, which was a significant milestone for both myself and my Grandparents who had endured the last 13½ days doing a marvellous job supporting me. Scotland had broken me a couple of times, but I still carried on with my left foot right foot shenanigans. This was my first time in Scotland and I was looking forward to seeing some wildlife. But Scotland had other ideas and treated me to roadkill instead. I can’t wait to come back and explore it properly off the roads and into the mountains! Scotland? Completed it mate…
Only a few miles into England and I rolled over my ankle. Fortunately, no damage, but that quickly reminded me how easy it could be for this challenge to be over with one wrong footing. And then after Scotland blessing me with mostly glorious weather, I finished my first day in England by running into a thunderstorm featuring lovely hail stones. Times like this you just have to ride it out and accept there’s nothing you can do about it (especially if it’s the weather being a nuisance) – so just get on with it and enjoy it as much as you can. And afterwards once the worst is over, you’ll feel great. Most of the time… it was a good test for the new support team, well member, Kate a friend from Austria who took time off her busy university schedule to help me…
Kendal to Aust - Week 3 (29th April – 5th May)
Day 15 I was really looking forward to as I got to wear a green tutu to get people’s attention and raise the profile of this charity challenge for the NSPCC…plus I was going to pay a visit to the town and university I went to – Lancaster. I also had quite the important matter of getting to a Halifax so I could close my Help to Buy ISA so that I would get the government bonus on the house I bought and moved into after only 3 days of completing this challenge… it just happened this day lined up perfectly for that visit to the bank, in my lovely green tutu. Having lived there for three years, I’m sure Lancaster has seen weirder. I also happened to stay at the university but was rather disappointed they couldn’t offer any special deal being an alumni and doing this challenge for charity. Afterall, many lovely people I had no connection with were far more accommodating and generous with their offers. Just shows you universities mostly care about their rankings and monies coming in…
Since I began to become best friends with pain, the next day I went a step further. Since it was mostly my bottom half becoming besties with pain, I thought it was time for a change. I was cutting holes in a pair of my running shoes (so my toes weren’t cramped in giving me more blisters) using a knife which I didn’t realise you had to click in to lock it in; so as I applied a fair amount of pressure to make the initial cut into the shoe, the knife’s blade snapped back and wedged itself into my middle finger. A rather loud swear word which rhymes with duck came out of my mouth in the street of Garstang. I looked at my finger to see the knife already making itself cosy in my finger so I pulled it out and the blood came oozing out all onto the road and Kates car. Adrenaline must’ve been rushing through my body as I luckily couldn’t feel too much. Kate didn’t panic either and quickly got me bandaged up. Now I had the small matter of running 32 miles today... 10/10 would not recommend to anyone before a run. I told Kate to keep this secret and that I would only tell my parents if I made it to Land’s End… fortunately it didn’t affect me too much, but from then on, I kept getting the creeps every time I recalled the moment I saw that knife wedged into my finger…and they say running is bad for your knees!
I was trying to take it day by day, step by step, but every now and again people would start talking about the finish, especially my mother who had now taken over from Kate... Even when I was over half way it was still one hell of a distance still to cover. Though I’m a big believer in being positive, I knew it was dangerous to think about the end with the amount of pain and fatigue I was having to endure each day. When I was pushing my body to its limits I needed to focus purely on the day at hand and make sure I completed it. The night before another support team handover, now from my mother to my other set of Grandparents, I felt completely whacked and had a horrible feeling at the back of my mind that tomorrow would not be fun. That horrible feeling was right. In fact, it had travelled through my body into my shins…and so the next day was another real low point. I managed about half a marathon before the pain in my shins became unbearable. It was like day 8 again and I didn’t know how I was going to do more mileage the next day. I was also feeling bad since it was my other set of Grandparents who were now supporting me but now they had a moody injured runner. Fortunately the shorter day and more rest somehow got me going again. Or maybe it was that tipple of whisky they gave me the night before.
Aust to Lands End - Week 4 (6th – 12th May)
Able to run-walk again, I relentlessly went on and made it to a couple of milestones. First, the final support team handover, where my parents and more importantly my dog was joining me in a Campervan! And then there was the important day of May the Fourth…not because of Star Wars, but because my eldest brother, Tom, would be joining me for a whole day. I treated him to a three-course dinner of left foot, right foot and pain. He did a marvellous job and made it through the whole day, though there was a close call with a bus… he soon understood my love for pavement. One thing that I completely underestimated was the mental fatigue I would experience as you are constantly focusing on cars while running on the roads. My ears were soon able to distinguish the difference between a people carrier, saloon, tractor, lorry etc. one of my new party tricks… at times it was like playing chicken with a car coming at you. Who was going to move first? Luckily, I won the battle, most of the time. But after each day it would take its toll and I would have trouble making a decision or answering a question at times. The joys of pushing your body to its limits! The day after was also a great day since I knew I would be seeing more family, plus a cheeky day trip into Wales! I had now done the Britain part of this challenge (Scotland, Wales and England), all I had to do now was finish the running part!
And then on the May Day bank holiday I had a spontaneous visit from my other Brother and his girlfriend, Will and Lorena, who joined me for the last 12km or so. During this last part I could feel my shins going again, much like how they felt the day before they got real bad. That day had also happened to be one of my fastest days with quite a bit of the dreaded downhill. You may think downhill is better, but in fact you are putting three times your weight through your leg each time you take a step. Now times that by the hundreds of thousands of steps I took downhill! I tried to blow it off and hoped I would wake up with carefree shins. Nope. They had got worse overnight. I managed about 18 miles before calling it day. Then the next day about 12 miles. I was really beginning to think this could be the end... again... but something I had been trying for a while finally came to fruition. After many messages to Wayne Rooney (he’s NSPCC’s first Child ambassador) I looked at my phone to see I had been mentioned in a tweet by him. At first I thought it was a fake account. But that prestigious blue tick was next to his name as was his number of followers – over 17 million! With this added motivation, I went into the next day ready to break a new pain barrier. I had someone from Instagram who I had been in contact with for a while drive 60 miles to come join and push me on. He did a great job, but just after squeezing a ball of tape the whole time, trying to ignore my shins which felt like some had stuck a knife in each I called it a day after completing the marathon distance. During the evening it was a struggle walking a few hundred yards to the hotel’s restaurant. And then the walk, well limp, to breakfast was even worse. Again, I had no idea how I was going to complete a full day.
After only about a mile of running with my Dad, I was on a downhill and I told him I didn’t think I could complete this. The pain in both shins was intensifying. Had someone sharpened the knives they left in my shins overnight… I somehow managed to run another 4 miles before it got beyond unbearable and I was seriously concerned about the damage I was doing. They were already swollen, the pain area in both was getting larger with one also having a weird lump on it as well. Downhill again was the most troublesome. I even tried crab-walking sideways hoping it would be better, but nothing worked. Again, I had come to the speed of next to nothing. Where’s a zimmer frame when you need it?
Being concerned about the damage I had already done, we went off to the local hospital. I knew any medical professional would tell me to stop immediately, unless they were crazy, and by crazy I mean an ultra-runner. In a rare case, I was seen by a doctor after 10 minutes, who took a look and feel of both shins to tell me that they are pretty swollen and that I should get off my feet and rest, with a strong dose of prescribed painkillers. What I heard was you should get off your feet. Oh. So how about I go onto my bottom? And so the ad-hoc bike-ride was born. There was no way I was going to end it here, with just over 100 miles to go. I knew it would make a huge difference to the amount of donations I would get for the NSPCC if I managed to make it to Lands End. I had to get there for them. For all the children who deserve a real childhood. It was a really tough decision to make but I knew it was the right one. I can go back and finish those last 100 miles on foot in the near future.
After a couple of hours, my Dad and I were off on our hired mountain bikes to complete JOGLE! Even though there was still some pain in my shins cycling, it was nothing compared to what I was going through while running. Plus, this time downhills are my best friend! The only issue I had was I couldn’t stand up and cycle as my shins were like ‘NO NO NO JACK WE’VE TOLD YOU ALREADY WE’VE HAD ENOUGH, GIVE US A BLINKING BREAK’. Still, I suddenly felt positive again. If all went to plan, I would be in Land’s end by the 12th May – 28 days in total.
Well, this is where it all went completely wrong. Just kidding! Other than the continuous hills and my front tyre being close to coming off, the bike ride went relatively smoothly. On the penultimate day we did a 52 mile ride so that it would be a marathon distance to finish off on the last day. That 52 mile ride also happens to be the distance for the London to Brighton cycle, something I thought would be fun to do. Well no need to do it now! Cycling even enabled me to have a proper lunch. During the running phase, my lunch would consist of a dash into some establishment that sold food and coffee, grab it, pay for it and eat it on the go... no rest for the wicked! With cycling I was able to tick off the miles a lot quicker and have time for a leisurely lunch with the family. There’s always a silver lining… I even stayed up until midnight and went for a little jolly with some of my friends who had come up to see me finish!
So the day had come. The last day of this challenge. The run turned duathlon of Great Britain for the NSPCC. I was full of nervous energy and it showed on the bike as I was going for it. So much so that I surprised everyone by turning up to Lands End earlier than expected. I actually went past my grandparents and friends car as they hit a bit of traffic getting into the car park. And then there it was. John O’Groats signpost southern friend, was beaming up ahead. I got off the bike and hobbled to the signpost to be told by a person guarding it that this is a business and I couldn’t touch the signpost, unless, I paid for a photo. How ridiculous! With all the generosity I have received there is always the anomaly. Everyone there waiting for me was not ready, so I even had to do a little circle around the café and then hobble back in like it was my first time coming in again… this crazy challenge has come to an end. 28 days before I had no idea if I was going to last a few days, let alone get out of Scotland. But after running around 765 miles in 26 days and cycling 114.9 miles in the last 3 days I had travelled the length of Britain by mostly foot with a bit of cycling (or as I sometimes thought, my ‘mark your territory over Britain challenge’ since each day I was going to the toilet like a dog on the roadside…). It still hasn’t quite sunk in, and when I tell people, the words coming out of my mouth sound a bit crazy. And best of all, we’ve now gone over the £10,000 target! That’s now just over 8 hours of the Childline which will be funded by all of your kind donations – thanks!
I’ll end with an overall big thank you to all of those that made it possible. The support team (you know who you are) who had a tough job making sure all I needed to focus on was my favourite left foot right foot activity, talking of which, now I’m back at work I think I need to be rebooted to forget those instructions! To all the accommodation providers who put me up and gave me special discounts or even free nights, with one particular one in Scotland donating the room for myself, my grandparents plus dinner and breakfast! This was one thing I had been really been looking forward to – meeting all kinds of different people, and experiencing their generosity. There’s a lot of negativity in the world, especially social media, but I like to think 99% of people are good.
The companies that helped support me – Buddi giving me a GPS tracker so that my family could privately track me and have 24/7 support available to them should anything go wrong. Epsom Salts providing me with a lot of sodium, making my post bath a post sea bath for enhanced recovery. Funnily enough Asda provided me with some food and drink supplies after Lidl who are one of the NSPCC partners rejected me – Asda have no partnership with NSPCC! My employer, KPMG, enabling me to do this in the first place and being positive throughout the build-up, as did the NSPCC who also helped a lot with press coverage. Both KPMG and NSPCC also sent a lovely congratulations video at the end featuring all kinds of different people. The one that really stood out to me was a Childline counselor just in their call centre just finishing his late shift telling me the monies I’ve raised so far enables people like him to answer the children’s call, potentially saving lives. Hearing that really brought it home how vital it is we keep the Childline going, even if it means doing these crazy challenges! All the different media content published about the challenge. All the positive and kind words I received on various social media platforms which kept me going during the tough times. All the people that have donated so far. The people that came out to run with me. The people that created these lovely things we call roads. This was one of many thoughts I had when going on some hilly country roads – how do they build them? But most of all, big thanks to my number 1 fan who travelled Britain with me.
It just goes to show you what the human body is capable of. By no means was I prepared for such a challenge – only properly running for the last 2 ½ / 3 years meant I had very little ‘mileage’ in my legs. Nor had I done a back-to-back ultra just to get some experience as to what it may feel like. But somehow, my body relentlessly pursued each day, surprising myself and many others. One big takeaway from this is that one of the hardest things is making that bold decision, which ends up putting you on the start line. So go make that decision you’ve been wanting to, time doesn’t wait for anyone! I hope you all enjoyed following my journey as much as I enjoyed doing it (even though this blog may read like I had a painful time, it was an amazing and unforgettable experience at the same time). I hope it inspires you to do something you’ve been wanting to do, as well as get outdoors more. There’s something so wonderfully primitive about being on foot exploring the outdoors with little to no technology distractions.
And finally, I’d like to finish off this blog with a few stats…thanks for reading.
Running Leg
● 26 Days
● 765.77 Miles / 1,232.4km / a long way
● 13,813 meters of climbing / 43,307ft / 1 and a half Everest’s
● 1,479,785 steps
● 129,386 calories
● One left foot
● One right foot
● 7,200 waves to kind drivers
Cycling Leg
● 3 days
● 114.9 miles / 184.9km
● 2,397 meters
● One sore bottom
Eating Leg
● 31 Ice creams
● 64 Flapjacks
● 32 packets of pork scratchings
● 46 eggs
● 122 cups of coffee
● 30 pints of new holy water I’ve not tried before
● 15 new tipples