Rich's Easter 50km Coal Ultra

FINAL UPDATE 05/08/21 This update concludes my fundraising with just over £4,500 raised for CRUK to continue their amazing work towards eradicating cancer. I have been blown away by the many generous donations I have received and the massive support I had on the day so a huge thanks to all. Xx UPDATE 11/04/21. I did it! Wow, that was a mission and a half! 5 1/2hrs, ran almost the whole 50km, just a couple of short walks on the two steepest hills, a few paracetamol and some emergency fudge an hour from the finish. MASSIVE thanks to friends and family that were running or cycling in support or cheering vociferously, I could not have done it without you ♥️. It's been a challenging but hugely rewarding experience but I won't be running for a good while 😁. Thank you so much for the many many donations, including gift aid, the totaliser is approaching £4,000 that CRUK can put towards their mission of beating cancer. There's a few pics and a short video in the Gallery section below Thanks for taking the time to visit my fundraising page. Please take a minute to read my story below. I lost my hero, my Dad, to cancer 2.5 years ago and I have lost friends younger and older to cancer. I am sure you will also sadly have lost friends and family. All of these people still had so much to live for and are missed terribly by those that they leave behind. I also have friends that have survived cancer thanks to the amazing NHS and cancer treatments available today. In autumn 2020 I decided I wanted to do something to raise money for CRUK. Hoping that it would help raise more, I chose to take on an event that is a real challenge for me. I entered a 50km ultra run, a full marathon plus 5 miles. I do keep myself fit but this is way out of my comfort zone. Until this challenge, for the first 45 years of my life, I had not run further than a half marathon, 13 miles, once, in 2006. I started training in September working up to a half marathon on Christmas Eve. My last and longest training run was 24 miles, took 3h45 and really took it out of me so training is now walking and stretching to try to recover for event day, 10th April. I find that up to mile 10 is comfortable enough but from that point onward, my body and mind don't think I should be running any more, so it's increasingly uncomfortable as each mile passes but thinking of those that have been lost to cancer keeps me going. I know they would gladly swap places with me. Even when I was running through the snow & ice over winter. I hope to complete the full 50km distance in around 4 and a half to five hours or thereabouts... In September I entered the Easter50 challenge, an organised event scheduled to take place on 10th April 2021 starting in Windsor. Unfortunately, the event became a casualty of the pandemic when Boris announced the road map. Having trained since September, with my body just about holding together and with charity fundraising badly hit by the pandemic, I decided to stick to the event date, but to stay local, where I have trained. My 50km Coal route features several sites of historic Coal Mining significance. Nottinghamshire has a rich history of Coal Mining and it's particularly close to my heart as I work for the Coal Authority so have a real insight to the industry. Running my own route, I will miss the company of other competitors that I would have had at the organised Windsor event but two friends have each offered to run a half marathon with me and my son Oscar (13) who has also been training hard to be able to help me through the final 10km, so I will have company all the way. And a special mention to Flo, our 3y/o Cocker Spaniel who has kept me company on some of my training runs and apart from getting distracted chasing squirrels and nearly wiping me out, she has been awesome! Please give what you can to support CRUK help bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. I haven't nominated a specific cancer for the fundraising proceeds to support but have instead asked CRUK to put the funds towards research where it will make the biggest difference saving lives.