Mission Statement

Welcome my little blog, my name is Martin Hookway and this blog is a way for me to log my personal thoughts & views as I am attempting to complete personal & physical challenges each year with other like minded people.

The next Challenge's:

LONDON MARATHON (21st April 2013)
EDINBURGH MARATHON (26th May 2013)
YORKSHIRE MARATHON (20th Oct 2013)

THE ADIDAS THUNDER RUN 24 hour Race
#PROJECT100in24 (27th to 28th July)

I will be running as usual with GPS with Runkeeper & tweeting as I run on @TEAMB_O_B as long as I have phone coverage so all your support will be gratefully received.

I am currently funraising for Rainbow Trust so please dig deep if you can to help this amazing charity.

Rainbow Trust is a Children’s Charity that provides emotional and practical support to
families when their child has a life threatening or terminal illness; immediate
help is available for families 24 hours a day. Support is offered from diagnosis
through treatment and, should a family become bereaved, we continue to support
them for as long as they need us. They help family members cope with the present
and prepare them for the future.
So please dig deep & help this great charity, just think £10 is a meal at KFC so by donating £10 you will not only be helping yourself but you'll also be helping others ;o)

Cheers for taking the time to read my blog, its greatly apreciated, fingers crossed it will bring a smile to your face. My challenges never quite go to plan... ENJOY.

Thursday 7 June 2012

The Run Around #Treble12Challenge

Lets set the scene & put this challenge into perspective. In 2009 I smoked & drank too much, (to be honest I still do drink too much but we over look that one ;o) in 2009 I started training for what was to be the first of an on going list of personal challenges Hookway to Hookway, this was a challenge that got me hooked on cycling & made me realise I wanted to keep fit. With work & family commitments I was unable to keep my fitness levels up & due to the bad winter of 2011 I was unable to get out on the bike & train so, as well as turning my road bike into an indoor training bike which resides in pride of place in my living room (much to the annoyance of my very understanding wife), I took up running.

In January (2012) I attempted my 1st run, feeling too much like a new years resolution I found it hard, both physically & mentally. I struggled to run a mile without stopping. Fast forward a few months I had improved & was talked into running in my first 10K race by my friend Ian Man (aka Ian Bullass), fast forward to RELAYGB  in May (2012) where I ran 124 miles in 18 days, during which I ran my first ever Marathon. This was a MASSIVE personal achievement, never would I have thought on those dark, cold January mornings that in 5 months I could have done this, but I had.
With this in mind lets bring things up to the current date. As I write this its the 5th June, The Queens Jubilee & I'm nursing sore legs after completing a 12 hour run with some crazy Scottish guys in Edinburgh.

This was The Run Around, part 5 of Stuart Doyle's (@Stuart_Doyle) #Treble12Challenge, Stuart challenges himself once a month by putting himself through physically & mentally challenging events, each lasting 12 hours, with the end goal to put his body "Out of the Comfort Zone". I was privileged to be asked to be part of this crazy challenge a few months ago & always intended to only run parts of the challenge to keep Stuart company.

The night before I struggled to sleep, the last time I looked at the clock it was 11:00pm so 4 hours was the most sleep I could have got through the night, the alarm call at 3am brought pure dread. I climbed out of bed, put my running kit on, & prepared to leave the house. The Drive up to Edinburgh was hard, tired was an understatement, I just hoped the adrenalin of the run would pull me through. My spirits were lifted as the challenge came in sight.


I arrived at Holyrood Park which is situated at the base of Arthur's Seat at 7:15am, the first thing that sprung to my mind was that there were no toilets in sight! Stuart sent me a text to say he was on his way so I used this opportunity to ask where the local "amenities" were.

Apologies for the bad grammar, I'm blaming the tiredness  

en suite
After getting my bearings the first thing I noticed were runners, the area was full of runners, the 2nd set of runners I saw contained a runner wearing a RelayGB top, we had only ran through here a few weeks ago but what were the chances of that?!?!


Within a couple of minutes the @Jog4Hampden lads who I were to be running with had arrived. (in September they will be running from John O'Groats with a football to Hampden Park, 4 men, 1 ball, 300 miles. Mark Graham , Andrew Milne , Stuart Doyle  and Chris Strother ) Andrew came to the rescue with bog roll & a shovel, to be honest he came to the rescue quite a few times throughout the day, he had EVERYTHING in the boot of his car, he was proper boy scout material. The guys were a good bunch, we made our introductions & headed off around Arthur's Seat.

Chris Instantly took the lead, he was definitely the stronger runner 


Mark, Stuart, Andrew & Chris
This was a laid back run, the only rules were that we would aim to get as many laps of Arthur's Seat done in the 12 hours as possible. The first noticeable thing was how hard it was trying to run at a slow pace, this was uncomfortable from the start but we knew we could not bolt out of the starting blocks as we would soon tire. We agreed to start by going anti clockwise around Arthur's Seat for 3 laps, then mix it up by running clockwise for another 3. (Clockwise has a long but gentle up hill & a steep downhill whereas Anti Clockwise has obviously the reverse with a steep uphill & long steady downhill) this turned out to be a bad idea as the pounding of the steep down hill instantly caused pains in our knees. We soon reverted back to the anti clockwise route, each lap slowly drained our legs but we all were still running strong, spirits were high & kept high by friends of the lads who took it in turns to join us for a couple of laps.


We looped back to the car park every few miles to make pit stops (yes I said pit!) The pit stops included gear changes, water & gel refills & the occasional blister & toenail check.

Andrews feet had seen better days (School Boy Error #NewShoes)
As the laps got harder we were jeered on with the thought of finishing the 1st Marathon, I had previously ran my 1st ever marathon only weeks before but neither Stuart, Mark, Andrew or Chris had ever ran over 13 miles before today. Spirits were still high & the last lap of the marathon slowed as Mark started to get bad shooting pains in his hip, we put in 1 walking lap to fill up on food, pasta was my weapon of choice while Mark ripped lumps out of a cake as we all soldiered. Marks shooting pains carried on so he told us to run on, we said from the beginning that this was not a race & we were in this as a team, we motivated Mark and he started running again, this never lasted long though as his pain was getting worse. As we got onto the down hill part to the end of the lap Mark insisted we ran on to the car park, he had made his mind up that the Marathon end would also be the end of his part in the challenge. We ran on, it felt strange to be running without Mark & we joked about him sprinting past us at the last corner just to finish the marathon before us, literally within seconds of that Mark came sprinting around the corner as we hit the grassed area into the pit stop. "a couple more meters & I'd have beaten ya" he said. We all laughed & congratulated each other on completing the 1st marathon, a massive achievement for us all.

By 2pm we were 6hrs into the run & we had ran 32 miles, a PB for us all. Strangely enough these 6 hours flew compared to the next 6, the team was down to just 4 of us as Mark went home, we started to walk up a lot of the up hills, we had a figure of 2 marathons in our heads but due to this drop in pace we knew this would not be possible. We passed other runners again & again, they finished their runs & we carried on, humours parts were when people hurried us up, "Come on you can go faster than that!" was a common shout, upon stating we had been running from 8am their faces dropped, they dropped even further when after asking us why we were doing this Stuart replied "its just for fun, just for fun". The best had to be when we were overtaken by 2 elderly ladies on a hill who found the need to apologise to us while overtaking us.    

The views around Arthur's Seat were great, sea views, views out over the city, Lochs & obviously Arthur's Seat itself... Well they were great for the first 5 hours, around & around & around we ran, each time you started to notice a little more, an ice cream van, a bank of swans, a portable toilet (yes a bloody toilet, no need for the shovel after all) & a grass genital sculpture... Yes you read that correctly, after who knows how many times of running around we noticed a sculpture embedded into the freshly cut grass of a huge trouser snake. It certainly brought a few laughs on the following laps.



Andrew stopping for Ice Cream!!!!!!
People came to run with us & people went, one of these guys was Steve Murdoch (@Tentsmuir) a new found friend from RelayGB, Steve had taken valuable (& well earned) drinking time out of his day to come & cheer us on, by this point we thought we were on our own, all of Stuarts, Chris's & Andrews friends had been & gone. Steve brought not only a welcome friendly face but a nice boost to all of the team, Steve's story of the day can be read here:
Two short runs and a Stag Night (but not in that order!)

As the last lap came up we agreed to use this last hour to climb Arthur's Seat & end the challenge on top of the very thing we had been running around all bloody day. The climb was steep & hard on the legs, the first thing that sprung to mind was that The Wife would not be too comfortable up here.






We never spoke much on the climb up apart from the odd grumble or groan we never really made a sound until we hit the top. BANG ON 8:00pm, we were there!!! Boys We Have Done It!!!

Me, Andrew, Stuart, Chris
I was chuffed to bits at our accomplishment, slightly unsteady on the legs (mainly due to the fatigue but also the fear of heights I seemed to be suffering from, (I mean just look at how much I'm leaning into the plinth) we headed back down the other side of Arthur's Seat. The pain on my knees them was unbearable! The guys shot down the slope & had to wait at the bottom, although my feet & leg muscles seem to have held out well, my knees were shot. I limped down the downhill section of the last lap back into the car park, the champagne was popped & as the sun set behind us we all said our goodbyes. I got back in the car & headed back down south, this was a fantastic challenge with a great set of lads that I wish all the best for in their up & coming challenges.

The Long Way Down
My body felt great, surprisingly my knees were the only part of me that was hurting, every gear change caused pain in my left knee & I felt my legs stiffen as the driving miles clocked up. I drove 100 miles before my eyes started to close, the lack of sleep had caught up on me so after hitting the rumble strips for the 2nd time I pulled up & had an hours sleep.

I arrived home at 4am, I'd been out of the house since 3:15am the previous morning:

I had ran for 12hrs, covered 47miles, climbed 8770ft & drove 448miles, *cough* then thanks to a very understanding wife I fell straight into my bed. 

The next morning I was definitely "Out of my Comfort Zone" my legs were stiff even after an ice bath, the first challenge of the day was to put on my trainers, this really sums up the last month & what I have put my body through, not too shabby for a bloke who only started running 6 months ago.

I now have a week to rest my body & prepare for a weekend of races, I have the RunnersWorld TrailBlazer 10K at Clumber Park on Saturday & my family are coming to watch so this will be the 2nd time I can share my love for running with my girls, I will race then, weather permitting, we will have a picnic & a play. Then on Sunday we have the Goole River Bank challenge, a local 10mile race & Daughter#4 will be running in her 1st ever fun run too (Proud Dad face) so getting rested is a MUST!!!!

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings, its greatly appreciated. I have lots of time to plan my next challenge now as I'm grounded from big events for the foreseeable future, but please if you have any ideas for challenges don't hesitate to give me a shout... Did someone mention wanting to run an Ultra Run???? ;o) Watch This Space... Its safe to say running is a bug & have caught it.

Don't just take my word for this, check out Stuarts video he made from the run.


Martin

Friday 1 June 2012

Marathon RelayGB 2012 - My Story


So where do I start? Most of you will know what RelayGB was, you can skip this bit & go to The Team. The rest of you can read the build up story HERE if you do so wish, but basically RelayGB is:

A 2600 Mile, 18 Day, None Stop Marathon Relay Run around Great Britain, this is an attempt to break the current world record for distance relay running which was set at 1,923 miles set by the ‘Gillette Phenomenal Tour’ in Romania in 2009 over the course of 13 days.



THE TEAM

In a nutshell I (Martin the Northern Monkey) joined 5 guys, John Stanford (The Boss), Steve (The Dad) Charlie, Ed (Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dee) & Nigel (Boris) to travel Great Britain supporting runners 24 hours a day running a baton around GB for Brain Tumour UK. We were joined along the route by more fantastic guys who joined the support team around the country when work & personal commitments let them.

Meet the Night Crew
Jon Lawrence, Steve, Tony, Me, Boris
(Oh & Day Crew Ed predictably gatecrashing the pic :o)
After an "interesting" late night train journey into that there London town, tackling The Tube & its grumpy inhabitants that can't stand still in case they explode, I arrived at The Bosses house. His lovely wife had saved me some chilli, so after a quick meet & greet with Charlie & Ed I headed off to bed for a massive 3hrs Sleep (something we would get used to over the challenge) before we headed into Wandsworth to start the Challenge. Oh & I can confirm to all my fellow northerners that they have carpets down south as well as something called Eeelectricity, but the streets are not paved with gold.

Its was a damp morning (again something we got used to fairly fast), there was a no show from the television crews that were rumoured to be coming, the crowds were disappointingly low, I was in a strange park with people I never knew & had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, but it all felt right, there was a good mix of excitement & nerves in the air, the realisation of what we had let ourselves in for had started to sink in, IT FELT GREAT!!! John (The Boss) had even less sleep than the rest of the crew but was running on all cylinders. He gave a quick overview of the plan & after registering the first lot of runners the baton (which turned out to quite phallic to say the least) was off!!!


The 1st mile of the 2600 miles aimed for was under way...


The first day was NUTS!!! Strangers became instant friends, the manic streets of London turned into quiet country lanes & soon came the hills, something I rarely see living in the flattest parts of England. The 1st Day/Night set the bar of what to expect. On 3hrs sleep & very little "real" food I went against all my running rules & at 11:52pm I decided to join Jon (@strongjon) on his first Marathon of the Challenge from Rye to Eastbourne, it was 19hrs into my day & was running on adrenalin alone. This was my first night time run & it was AMAZING!!! I managed half of the Marathon & was chuffed to bits!!!! I even ran up a big chuff off hill, YES A HILL! It shocked me too.
 Massive Thanks to Jon for the company & motivation up that hill, it was a good one to brake my duck.
Normally after a run like this I'd have an ice bath then a warm shower, hot meal & rest, BUT THAT'S NOT HOW WE ROLE ON RelayGB...!
A Quick energy drink, change of top (if your lucky), the Lynx Effect & your back behind the wheel of one of our support cars or the motor homes. The baton had to keep moving & it was our job to ensure this happened. The 1st Day/Night (33hrs without sleep) ended with 8 marathons completed, I'd met far too many inspiring people to mention them all, but wow an event like this really does bring the best out of people. The days & nights merged into each other as we moved around the country & we met runners from all walks of life, all ages & abilities. Each runner had their own story & their own reason for running with RelayGB, but we all had the same goal in getting this baton around GB whilst raising money & awareness of Brain Tumour UK & to brake this world record.

I'd need a book to write down all the inspirational stories I heard, maybe one day I'll write a blog for all those stories but for now I'll just concentrate on the ones that will defiantly stay with me. One of those stories was of Carole Loader who ran from Poole to Dorchester in the early hours of the1st night. GPS signal was poor on this leg, to be honest none of us could even get a bloody phone signal so the GPS maps never stood a chance! Carole spent the majority of the night running alone down dark lanes in the middle of nowhere as both support cars on the night shift were looking for a runner that had taken a wrong turn (last seen running down a dual carriageway as he thought is was a short cut). At one point I got out of the Astra to wave my phone in the air to try & get a signal, trust me when I say it felt like a really bad scene from a B movie! I SOON shot back in the car when a twig snapped behind me & a massive dear jumped out of the wood & over the wall I was stood on... "Manning Up" I went looking for Carole. It was about 9mile into the marathon that I caught up with Carole, I turned on the hazards, full beam & drove beside her offering the already customary Water, Bananas & conversation. I had a great chat with Carole and it soon came to light that this was her 5th marathon in as many weeks, a fantastic effort by any runners standard but to run her final one in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere was a brilliant achievement in my books. Carole had certainly set the bar high.

More inspiring ladies followed in the name of Marilyn (pictured with John Stanford) & Jenny , who nailed some monster hills on the south coast.


Wales brought some nutters out of the woodwork, the machine that is Richard Gardiner (Welsh Commonwealth Champion,) joined up with us for a night shift, even the support car had trouble keeping up with him & his team as they sprinted down the Welsh hills. It was great to see the Welsh support & great to put faces to twitter names. The night time runners friends & families came along to support them, there were convoys of cars at every turning point, it was brilliant support, well it was until we all tried to follow the runners down a footpath that due to rain had turned into a river!!!


Turning the *cough* 5 support vehicles out side of a farm house seemed to anger the Welsh Farmer, who after dishing out a tirade of abuse (it would have been interesting to know how more irate he would have got if he'd have found out that there was a Yorkshire man hiding in the pack) phoned the police, thankfully the police saw the funny side & we were soon on our way to catch up with the Support Motor Home who was struggling to keep up with the runners who were heading up to the Brecon Beacons.


The rain was pouring down & the fog was thickening by the minute. The Motor Home just could not get up the hills so Steve shot forward to the end of the Marathon, Me & Bozza stayed with the runners as they battled up the monster climb. The pack of runners was starting to split, Bozza thought it was a great idea if one of us got out of the Astra & run with the runners. As Borris had his legendary flip flops & shorts on (Typical student on his holidays) this fell down to me.



 As you can tell from the pictures the view was FANTASTIC from the top of the Brecon Beacons ;o) Oh & Boris never came back to pick me up so I ended up running an impromptu half marathon.

All the Aberdare Valley AAC runners were great guys but I want to tell you about one guy, Lee Griffiths (aka @26point2by52 ) Lee was on his own mission & RelayGB fitted in with this. Lee is attempting to complete a Marathon (26.2Miles) a week to raise awareness for Brain Tumours, with his friend Ian Phillips as his inspiration, Ian himself is battling a brain tumour. Ian provided much needed support by driving along side us playing the Rocky sound track as & when needed. My GPS failed on my iPhone due to water logging so I lost my Runkeeper log but thankfully Lee broke down the run with this diagram.

The Marathon was hard, it would have been hard on a good day never mind on a rainy, windy, foggy night at silly o'clock. The run was great though, we laughed & joked through the painful bits & although we never saw the amazing views the run has to offer it was a great run with some fantastic people that I would definitely run again with given half the chance, who knows maybe next year the RelayGB team may be back in Wales.

Lee & Myself, tired was an understatement 


Sadly the Night Crew missed more fantastic views, the Lake District landed on the Day Crews Shift but we were heading into Scotland, after a long night of running by the Night Crew, Loch Lomond was a welcome relief to camp up. As we took a natural ice bath in the Loch to ease the legs the Day crew had a full day of Marathons to cover as for some reason nobody in their right mind wanted to run in the Highlands.



The harsh weather of the highlands made both shifts tough, the hills were massive climbs & when you were not climbing you were faced with open baron land where the wind & rain ripped through you. The nights were pitch black & the weather never gave us break, but all was forgiven when the sun came up to reveal some stunning views... 





The Northernmost road in Scotland was a hard one for me, I was missing my family & we had to run the baton up & down the same long road all night as we were too far ahead of time, thankfully the insomniacs of Twittter kept me company tweeting messages of support into the early hours. The next day was a nice turning point though, we were about to hit John O'Groats which not only meant we were on the way back to London & the finish line but about to meet up with Carolyn (of @BareAll4BT) who had not only been hard at work drumming up support from local runners like the Metro Aberdeen  running club with fellow Scot, Steve Murdoch, & Strong Jon she had organised food parcels. A welcome relief from the prison style food we had been cooking for ourselves. 

Carolyn leaves John O'Groats
Day Crew & Night Crew take the photo opp
The Boss (John), Charlie, Steve, Ed, Me
Nigel (Bozza)
We had some very inspiring / NUTS runners up in Scotland, & I'm not talking about the great work from Liz Mccolgan (World & double Commonwealth champion, Olympian & probably now be the world record holder of longest breath held while she filled in her paperwork in our van only inches away from my fermenting running shoes)

I'm talking about those runners that quite literally went the extra mile for RelayGB, we had runners that finished their Marathons & then later in the week returned to run another marathon to help us out. Runners like:

Andrew Fletcher who ran Helsby to Old Trafford went home then travelled up to Scotland days later to run Beauly to Easter Fearn in the middle of the night.

Howard Seal  who ran Berwick-upon-Tweed to Bamburgh, Runswick Bay to Scarborough – plus a 10K at the start of Grasmere to Caldbeck

Trevor Keep who ran some good hills in Taunton to Glastonbury & Scarborough to Driffield

Steve Murdoch who not only ran Nairn to Elgin (the scenic version of the route) then Inverbervie to Arbroath but stayed with the support crew, putting up with the smell & helping out for a couple of days after.

There is also our very own Support Crew members Jon Lawrence who ran Rye to Eastbourne, Ipswich to Colchester  Tony Meenaghan who ran Old Trafford to Widnes & Miami Beach to Friskney – plus 8 miles Chester to Helsby and countless RelayGB Support team miles, Ed, Charlie, Steve, Brian & Boris & Borat (Joseph) all the support crew put some miles in normally in the darkest & bleakest conditions as no one else wanted that stage ;o)

Nigel                      -                     Boris
Borat    -    Allo Allo Policeman    -    Jo
Then there were the guys that proved there was a fine line between inspirational & just plain crazy...

Jim Groark (Beauly to Easter Fearn to Rhian Bridge – back-to-back marathons)

Craig Mackay (Loch Lomond to Crianlarich to Kingshouse – back-to-back marathons)

These guys ran back to back marathons that fast that we had to ask them to slow down. YES that's right, these guys not only did back to back marathons in bleakest conditions that the Scottish Highlands had to throw at them, they powered through them putting the Relay hours in front of schedule, making the poor support crew run the baton around up & down the Highlands to kill time (mentioned above). Fantastic effort guys, when I grow up I definitely want to be like you.

*SINGS* What's that coming over the hill... Its the morning, its the morning
Out here none can here you scream (at the hills)
Any chance of Hope was miles back
The most marathons during RelayGB were ran by Dafydd Biffen. This guy had never run a marathon before RelayGB and he turned in 3 marathons in 10 days (Shrewsbury to Chirk, Glengarry to Invermoriston, and Berwick-upon-Tweed to Bamburgh Castle) plus a 10K to help us out from Wick to Ramscraigs. Dafydd not only saved our legs by running he continued to pop up during all hours too, in the most random of places, like a ninja in the night to offer support. Cheers Dafydd, awesome performance, TOP BLOKE!

Up in Scotland we gained an extra crew member in the name of Brian (Johns brother) sadly for Brian the day crews Motor Home broke down & he had to stay in a sleepy Scottish village while the locals argued with the AA to get it back into civilisation. Saying that, as we were 1 Motor Home down all the crews had to live in the other Motor Home. As you can imagine the smell was bad! So Poor (or lucky, depending if your glass is half full or empty) Brian caught up with the team just as he had to head back home. Heading back down South we picked back up Tony & Jon, (both welcome additions to the support crews, fresh legged & ready to roll, both were soon put into action.) we also welcomed Liane & Leanne who not only had water & bananas to offer but Percy Pigs, Jelly Babies & Monster Munch!!!! We were also joined by Angela who ran a Marathon & joined the Day Crew right to the finish. (Thank you Angela & Andrew for the lift home too, greatly appreciated)

As we approached Middlesbrough I managed to get away for the day & drove home, never has collecting my girls from school felt so good, they nearly bowled me over with excitement. The Wife made me a fantastic tea, I had a MUCH NEEDED warm bath (with a beer) & I really enjoyed the few hours I had with my family before I settled down for an early night. The next day was the turn of TEAMBOB!!!

Ian, Me, Steve, Sally
I met Ian, Sally, Steve & Julie (who had kindly come along to run with Ian Man) at 5am & we drove to Grimsby to start our 2 back to back marathons along the east coast that finished at Friskney & took in the sights of Miami Beach of Mablethorpe.

We took the baton from Grimsby & even though Ian & Julie somehow managed to take a wrong turn on a straight road, adding an extra couple of K, they beat all the other Relay runners & Ian not only smashed his 10K PB he did it over 8miles!!!

Julie & Ian Man
Steve 

Sally
 The baton was passed onto Steve who shot off at a fantastic pace, sadly he had to pull up short of his intended distance due to a foot injury so Sally took over & destroyed the miles arriving in Mablethorpe miles before anyone else. The baton was passed onto Tony & we headed off to Friskney, as we had a full marathon to go (Ian had gone home for his daughters birthday, I still cant work out how he got a pass to come & run. Steve was Injured & Sally had just ran) I decided that this was the perfect time to attempt my full marathon. With Sally & Steve acting as my support crew, along with Liane & Leanne, I set off running with Tony & Chris.

The weather had brightened up & it was not long before Tony shot off & Chris made a pit stop to take off some layers. At every corner Liana & Leanne were were there armed with a goody bag of treats & sweets *cough* it turnes out that they were stopping to ask us for directions as they were lost & could not read the maps ;o)
Chris strips off
I've known Chris from when I first joined Twitter, (many of you will know him as @Takeachallenge & @6amClub ) Chris is a top bloke, a very inspiring man who dedicates his time to help others achieve their goals. It was a pleasure to meet Chris in person & hear his stories as we ran the marathon (if you have a spare 2 mins check out his story, its a very motivating story, one of which I still go back to read when feeling deflated), we ran at a steady pace & I thoroughly enjoyed it, this was my first ever marathon & it was flat!!! Yes FLAT!!! This excited me just as the fields & drainage ditches excited the city boy Chris. The last hills I ran were up in Scotland, the climb out of Loch Ness was the last major climb for me & it was a killer 1000ft climb in one steep go, this was rolling hills, pure bliss.

The Loch Ness climb

The virtually FLAT Mablethorpe to Friskney 


Chris takes in the sights
Chris's Picture of a field that I happened to get in the way of
The GPS played up at the end cutting 6 miles off of our marathon, this was my 1st marathon so there was no way I was going to finish short!!! Thankfully Chris agreed to add an extra loop into the run to make up lost miles. On this loop we discussed future challenges, Chris asked if I was planning any Triathlons (I replied with an excuse about being rubbish at swimming) within 10 mins of this conversation we met a guy on on a bike, picture an bloke in his 60's (maybe closer to his 70's) on a bike with a basket on the front & his trousers tucked into his socks. After asking what we were doing he proceeded to tell us he was training for his 1st Triathlon! He told us he had already been for a run & he was on his way to the swimming baths to learn to swim, YES you read that correctly, TO LEARN TO SWIM! Chris looked at me & laughed, "there's no excuse now chap" this guy could not have been in right place at the time. Chuckling away we said our goodbyes & headed on to Friskney.

Thankfully the support crew had waited for us, I finished feeling strong, no loss of toes, no blisters & no major cramp!!! Obviously I never went hard enough but considering what I had put my body through over the last 2 weeks I was not going to beat myself up over it. I was happy, I'd ran my first marathon & it was more about finishing my longest ever run that setting a time. Now I know I can run a marathon, with these miles under my belt & the inspiration from all the fantastic people I have had the pleasure to meet along this challenge, it opens a whole new world for me.
Tony, Chris, Me at the finish
The following miles seemed to fly by as we continued to support runners with back to back marathons back down to London! The final goal was in sight! As we heading into London we got word of previous runners starting to gather at the B&Q in Wandsworth, this was the 1 mile mark from the finish line. Ed & Charlie got the bikes out & supported to runners through the busy city streets as we headed through London (Mario Kart styleee) to drop the Motor Home & Vans off at he finish. We walked back along the route to the B&Q 1 mile mark to meet with the runners that were able to attend the last mile. It was great, so many familiar faces, so many stories & so many laughs.



 As we waited for the baton to come the realisation of what we were about to achieve crept up on me, we waited for an hour until the baton arrived then 50 runners set off on the final mile a truly epic adventure. Seeing the grin on The Boss's face was fantastic, John Stanford was about to cross the line to end a challenge that people said he had no chance in completing, as he skipped across the bridge he was ushered up through the bunch to the front & given the baton. 



As we entered Wandsworth Park there was a round of applause & cheers from a big crowd, people using the park stopped cheered & waved, we did a lap of honour & with arms out wide John lead us across the finish line to the sound of Queens "We are the Champions". WE HAD DONE IT!!! This was certainly the best mile I have ever ran!



This was an exhausting, exhilarating, challenging and ultimately rewarding experience for all those involved. 2,680 miles in 18 days breaking the current world record by a whopping 757 miles. This World Record still has not been clarified by GWR but that's not going to dampen our party. It was an honour to support & run with so many inspiring people for the 18 days, it will be something that stays with me forever. The support crew alone could have not been as different in background & personality if we'd have tried, but with John & Steve running the show it all worked a treat! No arguments, no cross words, just lots of laughs, a massive sense of pride & some fantastic stories, on the challenge I celebrated my 32nd Birthday in a lay by at 6am after a tiring night shift with a bottle of Stella & some FANTASTIC people.

Not many people can say they have been part of something on this scale, but then to not only complete such a challenge, but to be a part of smashing it is an incredible achievement, everyone involved with RelayGB should feel so proud of themselves, every runner, supporter, sponsor, everyone that retweeted our tweets & helped raise the awareness of RelayGB & Brain Tumour UK, Everyone that sent messages of support right through the night. You ALL ROCK! Together we have raised (an unofficial) £100,000 at the date of me writing this for Brain Tumour UK.

The Full Crew 
The End of an Era, the start of a Legacy...?


Thank you for taking the time to read my blog


Martin







SO WHAT'S NEXT?

I will not lie to you, it was hard for me to acclimatise after this back into "normal" life. I'd ran 124 miles, during the 18 days, My body could not sleep for more than 4hrs & I could not sit still. I'm still buzzing about what we have achieved, my head will not stop thinking about "What,s next?" We all have agreed to that the main thing is to keep RelayGB alive. A new challenge will certainly be started via @RelayGB so if you do not follow us on Twitter then do so now.

We will continue to support Brain Tumour UK, I personally will keep my Justgiving account open as I take on my next challenge as I never quite reached my target.

So After 2 weeks of rest I have picked up my running shoes to join @Stuart_Doyle & the @Jog4Hampden Team as they attempt to run 12 Hours non stop around Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. We will start at 8am on Saturday & finish at 8pm so if you are around Edinburgh at that time come & give us a cheer, if not give us a shout on Twitter. I will be running as usual with GPS via Runkeeper & tweeting as I run via @TEAMB_O_B so all your support will be gratefully received.




Look mum it's me running in the rain