7 Half Marathons in 7 Days.

It’s taken me a little while to write this blog, mainly due to the utter exhaustion and desire to forget the physical pain and discomfort that I endured, but here we are, 3 weeks after completing 7 half marathons in 7 days, all to raise money for CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

For those that don’t know, in the UK alone, 125 lives are lost to suicide each week, and 75% of these are male. CALM is a charity that exists to prevent suicide. They do this by provoking conversation, running life-saving services, and by bringing people together to get the help when they need it to ensure that they don’t die by suicide.

Mental Health is a topic that has never been more at the forefront of our minds than right now, yet suicide is a subject that is still taboo and something that most people would struggle to understand or even talk about. This needs to change.

I had a passion to help this amazing charity so decided to undertake a challenge that I was certain would test me physically, but little did I know where the biggest challenge would come from. In my own head.

The plan was to run a half marathon everyday for a week, from Monday 6th September 2021 to Sunday 12th September 2021, which would climax with the Great North Run. This would total 147km, or nearly 92 miles in old money. I consider myself to be a semi-decent runner and have run the half marathon distance numerous times, so how hard could this possibly be? In fact, even the week before I was debating whether to extend the challenge in the number of days to run, or to extend the distance each day. It’s still unclear where this misguided self-confidence came from!

All the training had been done, routes plotted, bags of frozen peas ready for the recovery, all was prepared. But there was one thing I had not planned for, which was a mini heatwave during the first part of the week. Despite the scorching temperatures, day 1 and 2 were ticked off with minimal drama, with the exception of mild sunstroke, dehydration and my running buddy snapping his hamstring just 3 kilometres into day 1 and having to hitchhike home with a passing good Samaritan. This meant that the next 122 kilometres of the challenge up until the Great North Run would be run solo. I enjoy my own company but maybe not to this level!

Day 3 was where things took a downward spiral for me, and it was much of my own doing. Knowing that I was starting the run when the mercury was simmering at 22 degrees and was due to be 28 degrees by the time I finished, and despite being a bit of a sun worshipper, I made, what I thought was a sensible and innovative decision, to run twenty-one 1km laps around a local lake. The thinking being that I would only ever be a couple of minutes from my car, and therefore an ice-cold drink. By lap 8, this decision had backfired as the monotony of seeing the same tree or that smug goose took over and the tiny little hill on each lap that I was originally not noticing, soon became my Kryptonite as I cursed it each time it approached.

This run took the longest out of all of them and it felt that it would never end, mainly due to the ever-increasing length of drink breaks, and as I finished and propped myself against my car, I had mentally checked out of this challenge and began bargaining with myself and thinking of what excuses I could use to justify giving up.

What turned it around was finding a bit of perspective and realising that if this was my biggest problem this week, then things aren’t too bad. I fully believed that I was in a dark place mentally, that the challenge had broken me, and the only option was to give up.

It may seem that my low point was quickly turned around, and I have perhaps glossed over the true emotions I was experiencing at this time, but I can assure you that this wasn’t so, and the text messages on my phone demonstrate my mindset at the time. I was done. At the time it was as clear as day that I didn’t need to keep going. I’d done 3 half marathons in 3 days and clearly that was all I was capable of. It’s amazing what a bit of opening up to friends and family can do to change perspectives.

20 minutes after completing the run/jog/walk/crawl, whilst getting into an ice bath, definitely without any fuss, it dawned on me that it is an absolute privilege to be able to do what I was doing, and I also reminded myself of the reasons why I was doing it. So many people are struggling with their mental health and believe that suicide is their way out. These people are our friends, colleagues, brothers, dad’s and sons, and that for me to give up because it was perhaps a bit warmer than optimal running temperature, or it was a bit lonely spending two hours on my own each morning listening to my questionable music choices, or because of that smug goose, was simply not an option. I had to finish this challenge.

Days 4, 5 and 6, which happened to be National Suicide Prevention Day, although still difficult due to the physical deterioration, were without doubt the best days thus far. I opted for a less than scenic, but more importantly, flat, route up and down the local dual carriageway. Thankfully, the Indian Summer had passed, and I’d never been happier to see overcast weather with a hint of British drizzle. The runs ticked by at a semi respectful pace and all the so-called problems from the day before had disappeared as quickly as they came. The end was in sight!

Day 7 was the Great North Run and to have 55,000 people come out and run with me (or so I told myself), was incredible, and just the incentive, and distraction to power on through to the finish line.

For anyone that has done this “race”, or even seen it on TV, you will know of the incredible atmosphere which makes it so special. For me, it was amazing to be running with all those people, many of which were wearing running attire that demonstrated their support for various charities. It’s absolutely humbling to see how good humanity can be, what we can achieve and how much we care and want to help others. The number of CALM running vests that I saw was in all honesty, surprising and as a relatively seasoned runner and racer, I am certain that I have never even seen this charity being represented at such races before, let alone in such vast numbers. Maybe that shows that the message is getting out there and that people are beginning to talk about suicide and understand things a bit better. That can only be a good thing.

Running through Newcastle city centre for that last mile, with the famous Geordie support ringing in my ears was one of the most wonderful experiences and suddenly I found myself motoring through town at breakneck speed. Crossing that finish line was a truly overwhelming moment and all the pain, aches, mental exhaustion that I’d endured, just instantly melted away.

So, two weeks later, how would I summarise the 7 days? Physically, despite over 145,000 steps for the week, and over 38,500 calories burned (and replaced via a significant pizza intake) I managed well. It was of course tough at times and I won’t pretend that I wasn’t hobbling around, hanging onto chairs or tables for support whenever I wasn’t running, and of course the legs tried to negotiate on several occasions as to whether they were willing to do what was asked of them, but at no point did I feel that I couldn’t put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Mentally, it was a little harder. Some of these harder moments hit me unexpectantly but these were all relative and I was able to remind myself that what I was doing was a choice, and one that many people are not able to make. Having the clarity to make such choices is something that I am always grateful for.

Most importantly, I had a fundraising target of ￡500, but in the end, and with the occasional donation still rolling in, I’ve hit close to ￡1200 which is incredible, and I need to thank so many people for this.

It’s incredible that so many close family and friends contributed such a significant amount but what was perhaps most inspiring was the amount of donations from people that I had perhaps not spoken to for years, or ever, in a couple of cases. People that were acquaintances, or friends of friends, or had just heard about what I was doing. It makes me wonder whether the cause was close to their hearts for any reason. Whatever the reason for the donation, thank you.

The money raised will do so much good for so many people and who knows, with just ￡8 needed for CALM to answer a potentially lifesaving phone call, how many lives may have we have saved?