Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

My challenge is to run every day for 365 consecutive days, to raise money for the National Autistic Society. I must complete a minimum of one mile per day, with no exceptions and no doubling up.  

Come rain, shine, sleet or snow. Run. Come illness, injury or travel. Run. Christmas day, New Years Day or Birthdays. Run.

If I miss a single day, I must restart the challenge from day one. This is as much a mental challenge as a physical one. I will record ever run on Strava https://www.strava.com/athletes/2951191

My eldest son, Hugo was diagnosed with Autism 18 months ago.
Autism is a lifelong condition which can affect how people communicate and interact with the world often segregating them from society. There are approximately 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK. The National Autistic Society is the largest provider of specialist autism services in the UK. We have seen first hand the benefits of specialist autism education and support, so wish to raise awareness about Autism and funds for the National Autism Society.

We want Hugo to grow up in a world where people have a greater understanding and acceptance of his condition of who he is. Most of all want him to grow up to be as happy as he is now.

Challenge completed! 365 consecutive days run. Thank you ever
so much to those that donated and gave me encouragement over the past year, and what a year it has been. Since you have shown me such support, I feel it’s my responsibility to tell you some of the difficulties I encountered along the way.

When I first explained the challenge to people, I received
mixed and often polar opinions on the severity of the task at hand. From ‘that’s easy, you like running and it’s only 1 mile, it’s not really a challenge’ to ‘you’ll never be able to complete 365 consecutive days without some form of hiccup or
injury’.

In total, I ran a 2495km (1550 miles) and raised 127% of my target. The runs took place in the UK, Germany, USA (Los Angeles, Charlotte, Washington) and Azerbaijan.

I had expected to encounter some hurdles along the way such as travel, adverse weather, maybe a niggling injury or a mild illness, perhaps.
A few weeks into the challenge I started to experience the effects of no rest days and minimal recovery. My legs were always tired and sore, and my average pace began to dwindle. I took the decision to include shorter runs in a normal training week and even incorporated complete recovery/de-load weeks, where the total distance would be around 30km compare to the unusual 60-70km.

However, even a two-day stag do in Hamburg and an arduous
trip to Baku, would pale into insignificance compared to what 2020 would throw at me. In January I started to feel unwell, suspecting it was just the flu or another seasonal illness I carried on. Until one day at work I mentioned my symptoms that included chest pain to the team Dr, whom suspected I had pleurisy. An inflammation of the tissue (pleura) between the lungs and ribcage, resulting in shortness of breath. That day’s run was easily the hardness and most painful run of my life,
it took me 13min to complete a mile, which I mentally broke down into 100m segments. Two days later, I was diagnosed with suspected pericarditis, a swelling and irritation of the pericardium, the thin saclike membrane surrounding the heart. I was strongly urged by doctors and other cardiac experts to cease all exercise and try to keep my heart rate below 100 bpm. I was left with a dilemma, at day 313 I didn’t have many days left of the challenge and really didn’t fancy starting again. My wife, whom was very supportive throughout, was ‘full of dread’ at the thought of another year of this.

Then I had the challenge defining moment. I remembered why I started in the first place. People with autism, like Hugo, don’t get a day off.
They may have better days and worse days, but never a day off, they don’t get a rest from their condition. They don’t get to quit, so neither was I.

I decided to continue and heed the medical advice. This meant
maximising my rest and breaking the daily mile into sizeable chunks, some as short as 10 metres. Biomechanically I ran, but in reality, it was the pace of a slow walk. I took huge amounts of rest between these segments keeping the strain on my heart to a minimum, never let my heart rate go above 100bpm. Needless to say, this was a challenge all of its own, covering the mile took a considerable amount of time, sometime hours. The silver lining in this episode was a number
of these ‘runs’ took place inside the Emirates stadium! This period went on for just over four weeks, until I was given the all clear. Now it was time to get cracking, I had less than 3 weeks left and wanted to finish the challenge in style. I had expected the effects of detraining and was prepared for the short distances and slower pace that would accompany it. We had discussed the idea of a ‘fun run’ as the final event of the challenge with the additional run at work. However, a merge 3 days after being given the all clear, a work colleague was diagnosed with Covid-19. The period of self-isolation, initially just 7 days was extended to 14 days. I was to finish the challenge on my own, away from people, around a farmer’s field when nobody else was around. My final day
of the challenge, today, came on the first day of lockdown in the UK, an unprecedented event in recent history.  This was not how I envisioned completing the challenge, which at times was significantly more mental than physical.

Hugo may be too young to know about my challenge, but I do hope one day he gets to read this and understand what I and many others are
doing to try and raise awareness about the condition.

Thank you all once again for your support all the runs are recorded
on Strava https://www.strava.com/athletes/2951191