Three Peaks 2024
Once again this year, May and June saw hundreds of our amazing supporters come together to climb the UK’s highest mountains across two separate events to raise a massive £262,045 for Railway Children.
Date: 08/7/2024
“The biggest challenge of my life is about to come to an end. A solo 100km attempt to run from Rugby to Tewkesbury is complete. I sink to the floor and look up at the sky, shedding a tear as I can’t believe how far I’ve just ran.”
12 months. 15 marathons. A life-time of achievement for vulnerable children across the world.
1920
miles ran in total
91194
total elevation
HOW IT ALL STARTED
In January 2024 I embarked on a year long challenge to run a marathon a month for The Railway Children.
My new found love of running came in 2023 as I changed my relationship with alcohol and found running to be my ‘go-to’ to relieve stress and get into the best shape of my life.
A year-long challenge meant that this would be not only a physical battle, but mentally challenging. I knew there would be times that I’d get ill, be on holiday, work would get in the way, I’d need to manage injuries and there would be times that I flat out didn’t want to go for a 20-mile training run.
Ensuring the word ‘challenge’ was met, I also knew I couldn’t just complete marathons. I needed to increase the distance to ultramarathons to keep interest keen through the year, not only for potential donors, but also myself.
MASTERING LONG-DISTANCE RUNNING
I booked several events at the start of the year including my first ultra marathon in February at Lulworth Cove. This was a 34-mile coastal trail run with 7,106ft elevation. After getting my first marathon ticked off three weeks earlier I went into it feeling confident.
At best I was naive, more likely out of my depth as after 19 miles my quads cramped up like never before and I struggled to walk, let alone run.
To put things into perspective, 7,106ft is like going up Snowden – twice.
What made this tougher was the conditions. The ground was soddened from a wet winter and most of the day was spent battling the mud and sliding down hills.
With my quads and calves cramping up constantly, I very nearly pulled out at mile 27 but managed to find some inner resilience I’d never met before, finally finishing eight hours after starting.
After a grueling test on the Dorset Coast, the marathon in March felt as comfortable as a marathon could be and come April I had the best piece of advice that changed everything of what I thought would be possible.
I’d booked my place at The Railway Children/ C2C/ XNRG event, running 50-miles from Upminster Station to Southend-on-Sea in June. I also had a 35-mile ultramarathon planned in May and I hadn’t figured out how to effectively train for such long distances.
My event in April was a trail marathon and the organiser provided a leader as we split into groups for the run. He gave me the advice that I’d been looking for, to get up to the longer distances (35-miles, 50-miles+), you need to go back-to-back.
Sounds so simple but what this means is that your training now goes from 20-30 miles per week to 40-60 miles per week.
After training like this for a month, I went into May’s 35-miler feeling confident. The weather had finally warmed up and it was a very hot 28C, but I finished strong and was ready for the next challenge.
C2C ULTRAMARATHON
Heading down to London for the Railway Children C2C and XNRG event, I felt nervous as the distance was a massive leap from what I’d completed in February and May, but knew I’d done all I could training wise.
Leaving Upminster, my legs felt heavy from the start with nervous energy, and they didn’t really settle throughout the race. Leaving the checkpoint at 25-miles I needed a bit of an uplift, so I recorded a live video for my Instagram of how I was getting on and where I was.
Something I’ve learned is that when I’m struggling during a long run, putting a phone in front of my face to get me smiling or talking gets the positive energy flooding back and the pain is quickly forgotten.
Getting past 40 miles and I was now sore and chaffing in places I didn’t realise I could be.
It amazes me that the stiffness only lasts a few minutes and once you start moving you get going and before you know it, back to running at a decent pace again.
The last two miles running along the Southend promenade and crossing the line felt like a huge achievement and I was buzzing. It was made even better with tea and cake to celebrate with the other runners.
On the train home the next day, I looked at the event page to check my official time and was amazed to see that out of nearly 200 runners I’d come 20th!
From that point on, I knew that I wasn’t only getting by in this challenge, I was thriving, and I knew I could push myself further.
100km CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
In July and August, I completed a marathon and ultramarathon respectively and going into September’s event in Richmond, I was managing a niggle in my knee and treated it like a very long training run.
Attention now turned to the biggest test of this challenge with a 100km solo attempt to run from my hometown of Rugby to Tewksbury in October.
To gather momentum and support, I decided to set-up a sweepstake to try and generate as much fundraising as possible: Guess the time it’ll take me with the closest guess winning a hamper. The sweepstake generated over £1,000 itself and as I set off I was already beaming with how much this run alone had raised.
The 100km was wild, setting off on my own and running 54km before being met by my wife and friends in Stratford-on-Avon. Armed with food, drink, massage guns and a change of clothes following my learnings from the chaffing during the 50-miler!
Leaving Stratford with clean, dry clothes felt like such a boost as I headed further West towards Tewskesbury.
At 80km my wife again met me in Evesham with more food, drink and another change of clothes!
Leaving Evesham, the sun was starting to dip, and I’d already ran as far as I’d ever had before, but with 20km to go still this was going to be a mental battle to get to Tewkesbury.
Hamstrings and calves were stiff when I left but they loosened up soon after so I could jog again.
At 90km I started to feel queasy but kept drinking fluid and eating what energy bars I had to keep fuelling up to get through.
I’d been following the National Cycle Network 41 the whole way which now led me off-road. The final 10km would be through fields to add one last test to get to the furthest destination of the challenge.
Running in a hi-vis orange top and the reflection of my chest light, the scared sheep in the fields ran away and I was desperately trying to not to twist an ankle during the final hurdle.
Out the fields and back on road I ran over the M5 bridge, and I knew the end wouldn’t be far away from here. What a day!
The biggest challenge of my life is about to come to an end. A solo 100km attempt to run from Rugby to Tewkesbury is complete. I sink to the floor and look up at the sky, shedding a tear as I can’t believe how far I’ve just ran.
SETTING THE BAR EVEN HIGHER
Following the 100km I had my longest break of the year, six weeks before flying to San Fransisco for a 50km ultra with over 6,000ft elevation.
The stunning setting of the Golden Gate Bridge, rolling hills, beaches and trails of California made this very hard run enjoyable. It also provided the added bonus of a holiday before flying home to complete the challenge in December with a bang.
I was thinking about how I could complete the challenge after such an epic year, and I always thought I’d like to do my last run on Christmas Day.
The meaning of Railway Children is to support vulnerable children, and those kids who won’t have the same upbringing and Christmas Day that I had, so it felt right to put myself through a bit of pain one last time to try and generate extra funds.
I wanted one last challenge and push through December so instead of just one marathon in the month, I went wild and committed to 4 in 4 weeks.
This included a 50km ultra in the Surrey Hills to take me up to the magic number of 15 for the year.
Six days later I was back out for a marathon and much like March, this felt as comfortable as a marathon can do after two difficult 50km ultras in 3 weeks.
Instead of just sitting and chilling out the day after a marathon like every normal person wants to do, active recovery is now part of my routine. I’d run long (20-30km) and slow the day after an event to help recover – who’d have thought!
CHRISTMAS DAY AND THE FINAL MARATHON
The adrenaline of the day meant that this run went very quickly. I spent a lot of time reflecting on the year, what I’d learned, how much I enjoyed it and the huge difference the generous donations would make to the Railway Children charity.
I was sad that it was ending, but in need of a break. Coming home I was greeted by my wife for the last time with a bottle of alcohol-free Prosecco to pop and celebrate what really had been one of the greatest achievements of my life.
Fancy challenging yourself in 2025? Find out more here.
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