Last May, my dear Dad, Neil McNicol, died suddenly when his heart stopped beating. This was caused by a heart disease called Dilated Cardiomyopathy, which he had unknowingly contracted more than 25 years earlier when he caught a virus while on holiday in Florida. Despite living with this heart condition, my Dad was an extremely active and healthy person; he ate well, drank only very occasionally, ran the New York Marathon (see photo) as well as a number of half marathons for a children’s charity, he walked everywhere (his Fitbit was averaging 30k steps per day!) and did weight training almost every day. His death came as a huge shock to us all. 

My Dad was such a wonderful and generous person and a larger than life character. Since his death, I have been struggling with such extreme grief. Despite how difficult this last year and a half has been for me and my family, I know that my Dad wants me to take care of my health first and foremost, which is why exercise is a huge part of my life. Furthermore, being fit and strong physically helps me to feel stronger mentally. I also find that training is a form of meditation, where I focus on the task at hand and forget (even just for a moment) about my grief. 

I have done a number of shorter Spartan races over the last couple of years (thanks to my boyfriend, Adrian, for getting me into them), however this will be the longest and most challenging one to date. For those of you that don’t know, a Spartan race is an obstacle course race, which is usually done in mountains or fields and can get very muddy. This race will have upwards of 30 challenging obstacles (like monkey bars, a rope climb, barb wire crawl, wall climbs, dunk walls etc.) and if you fail an obstacle you must do 30 burpees. You can check out all the race info here. If I complete this race I will be awarded the Spartan ‘Trifecta’ as I will have done all three race distances within a year (5 miles and 10 miles being the other two).

I am doing this half marathon Spartan race because it motivates me to have a challenge and something to train towards, but I also want to raise money for a wonderful charity called the British Heart Foundation in memory of Dad. Their mission is to ‘beat heartbreak forever’. The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly every day hundreds of people, like Dad, still lose their lives. Thanks to support from people like you the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures! For context, £24 could pay for two hours of research by an early career scientist. Every pound/dollar helps so please give what you can to help me hit my target and share this page with friends and family members. 

I truly believe that when we do something in memory of a lost loved one, especially when that something helps others, we keep them alive and help them to serve their higher purpose. I know that my Dad is still with me and his presence will be extra strong during this race and help me through it. If that fails, Adrian will be there to push by bum over some walls;) 

Thanks and love to you all, Lisa xxx