A bit about me...
at 46, overweight, tired, and a man who sits for a living, I decided to take on one of the UKs most challenging non-stop ultra marathons - The Jurassic Coast 100 and run it! 2 Years ago I hiked the same challenge and it nearly killed me!
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The Blog is about my journey to the JCC 100km Ultramarathon and beyond... onwards to running 300km with only 9 months training. This page is about my story. To understand my journey better it helps to know where it started...
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The story so far....
I had that day when I looked at myself and said 'Rich, you need to sort your shit out!'. I was overweight, smoking, sat on my ass all day and eating way too much. My wife had just spent the last few years battling Breast Cancer and her commitment to that challenge was awe-inspiring.
Here I was, coaching people on their performance while I'd quietly ignored my own. Looking at my wife's challenge, I decided to make some changes. It had been a long time since I had been in any kind of healthy shape (well over 10 years). At the time one of my best friends, Graham, had completed an ultra marathon 100km hike for charity which inspired me to attempt the same feat in 2019.
A challenge which lit the spark and had me taking on the same feat along the Jurassic Coast in June 2019. A life changing event with only 12 weeks of training and a broken toe on the way. A challenge that I eventually completed (one of only 500 people to finish out of the 1200 who started the continuous challenge!)
In a moment of madness I decided to push it further and made a plan to run it the following year! Something at the time that was so far away from what I've ever done. It was mad as I'm built for power and comfort. I was always a weight lifter, not a runner. Add to that I had torn my Achilles a few years ago (in an ill conceived Dad's race at my 7 year old's sports day), which led to me not being able to run more that 100 ft at a time for a number of years.
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It was something I discovered that might be harder than I thought, after I tore my Peroneal Muscle in my second training run that same July in 2019! An injury that I'm still fixing today and that had me out of any running until Jan 2020.
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in 2020, after 6 months of training, Covid19 came, along with the peroneal tear, tendonitis, Achilles tendonitis, serious ankle instability and an ankle fracture that wrote the rest of my 2020 off. The event was cancelled due to Covid restrictions, so I had to take the time to fix the things that were not working.
Thousands of pounds spent in MRI scans, physio, custom orthotics and now I have just 5 months to start right back that the very beginning. Now at my heaviest ever and committed to nail this thing once and for all. Now it's time to get in shape to run the 100km this May (2021)...
**Post 63 tells you how I got on. And will continue to blog as I keep following the road forward **
** UPDATE... 2022 saw me train to take on a 300km multi-day ultra marathon - The insane Hebridean Way. Injury snuffed out that attempt. Now I go for it again in 2023 **
This blog is my journey, and hope you enjoy.
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