The Challenge Begins

Hello Everybody,

Today I have entered the Thames Path Challenge 100km race, which will take place on Saturday 9th September 2017. Full details of the event can be found here:

http://www.thamespathchallenge.com/

In a nutshell, I'm going to try to run a very long way for a very long time! The furthest I have run in one go to date is 32 miles (just over 50km) on the Cornish coast last summer. Obviously 100km is a big step up from anything I have done before and my initial aim will simply be to cross the finish line. If all goes well (a big if!) then I would expect this to take somewhere between 12 and 14 hours.

The obvious question is WHY?! The answer to that is partly because I want to see whether I am capable of taking on a proper ultramarathon, but mainly because I am lucky to currently be fit and healthy enough to consider putting my body through such an ordeal, whilst others are not so lucky and have to deal with the much bigger challenges of illness and disability on a daily basis. A good friend of mine, Sam Barker, has recently been diagnosed with late-stage bowel cancer. He is not much older than me and has a wife and two young children. It's been extremely humbling to see how Sam and his family have responded to such devastating news with grace, hope and good humour, and it really puts my own problems into perspective. I have no idea what it is like to have to cope with cancer, but it must be completely awful. I also have no idea what it is like to run 100km, but I imagine it's not half as bad as the cancer. If Sam can take on cancer then surely I can take on 62 miles of English riverside footpath? I certainly hope so, because I'll be aiming to raise money for Maggie's, a charity that runs cancer support centres throughout the UK and offer invaluable help to patients and their families dealing with the daunting list of issues that arise following a diagnosis of cancer. Their webpage can be found here:

https://www.maggiescentres.org/

I've decided to start this blog to track my training over the next 5 months as I try to build up from my current level of fitness (i.e. half marathon - fine, full marathon - at a push) to the race itself. If people read it and want to leave comments, either of encouragement or telling me to pull my finger out and work harder, then that will be very welcome, but ultimately I hope to use this mainly as a reminder of why I am doing this and how well I am doing on my path to ultramarathon glory!

Stephen