As part of my preparation for the MdS and to raise further funds for Yorkshire Cancer Research, I undertook 12 continuous hours on a treadmill at the Xscape Entertainment complex at Casteford, West Yorkshire.

 

The main aim was just to complete the full 12 hours but throughout my training I had one eye on the current official Guinness world Record for furthest distance covered, a record which has stood since 2012 - 101.45km or just over 62 miles.

 

I think I prepared well, and for the last few days eased off the mileage, loaded the bloodstream with glucogen (eating pasta towards the end felt like a cross between a "bush tucker challenge" & "Man V Food"!) and hydrated to bursting point.

 

So on a cool Saturday morning, 7th December 2013, after posing for a few last minute photos infront of a large plasma which brightly proclaimed "12:00:0.00" - I hit the start button and cranked the speed up to 11km/hr.  A speed which I had felt comfortably enough in training, fast enough to trouble the record, and slow enough (hopefully) to preserve some sort of energy for the later stages....at least thats what I hoped??

 

The first 5 hours in fact went better than I had planned. Other than moments of panic when it would dawn on me that I'd ran for 4 hrs and still had another 8 to go, I passed the 50km mark in a tad under 5 hours. This gave me the knowledge that as the pace dropped, which it did...considerably, I'd bought myself about an hour should the worse happen and I needed to limp over the line.

 

Looking back at the hour / distance logs, it was this middle stage which became the most difficult, not neccessarily in terms of physical pain or exertion, that would come towards the 10hr mark, but the mental fatigue as I struggled with the time I still had to cover, and trying to concentrate on listening to what my body was saying, to feeding it enough fuel and water to continue. Indeed each mouthfull of energy bar or pepperami, took 15 minutes to swallow! - (I'll not be taking either to the desert.)

 

I had promised myself that if I reached a point where completing the 12 hours became threatened by going for the record distance, I'd drop back on the pace to push the record beyond my ability, and then be able to "enjoy" the rest of the challenge for what it was - I also knew that if I had decided against the record attempt, that I could hold on to the handles of the treadmill and be dragged along at times (this is a disqualification during an attempt) and getting me through the hardest times.

 

As it transpired with support from my wife and children, a quick foot massage from Harvey and support from John on the 2nd treadmill (I think he quite fancied continuing beyond the finish time to strip me of my new record almost immediately!! - probably able to as well!), I lowered the pace and found that the time started to pass quickly and before long, with 3 hours to go and 84km in the bag, I could relax in the knowledge that if push came to shove and the "wheels fell off", I could crawl over the line and break the record.

 

Throughout the day I was amazed at the generosity and warmness extended to not only myself, but my family and supporters by the public and staff at Xscape that Saturday. From the security who were there when I arrived at 6am to the crowd which accumulated to countdown the last 10 seconds (and magic a glass of bubbly when that clock hit zero), I was blown away by their kindness and encouragement.

I will not have said thank you to everyone, the sheer volume of people made that impossible, but everyone gave kind words, donated or did both (which was the main)

 

So finally a moment arrived which I had been longing for 12 hours.....the crowd counted down to 1, some large bang went off, champagne was passed to hand, photos being taken, treadmill stops...........and an undeserving embarrassed runner, totally in awe of the generosity of people, received the applause.

 

Thank you to one and all....that applause was for you.