After a nightmare ankle injury last year running 100km I will be taking on the monstrous 199 mile/318Km Isles Multi Day Ultramarathon this September 2023. 

It's a challenge that I'm finding difficult to get my head around... 6 days, 6 back to back ultramarathons, running across the length of the Outer Hebrides... in Autumn... with only 9 months running training.

I had to defer this from last year and start all over again following a nasty ankle injury completing running 100km. This took the following 7 months to overcome and I've started from the bottom all over again... but, I promised to keep going... so here I am.

I'm doing this to raise essential funds in the battle against Cancer. A battle that has affected my wife, my family, my colleagues, and my friends. Some have won, some still fight and some have lost... 

Sadly we all know far too many people who've had to endure this, and it is unspeakably cruel to everyone who experiences this illness; while also savaging those close to them.

I'm doing it for all of them... and for all of you who have either faced, or are yet to face, this disease.

The reality is, rates of cancer are dramatically increasing. It is affecting people at an ever younger age, and it is wreaking havoc on millions of lives; so, once again I'm asking for your help, donations and support.

In doing so, I put myself to another test and take on something unbelievably hard for me to achieve. It's a challenge that has given me a few sleepless nights already, and significantly harder than any challenge I've done before. The 9 months training just to attempt this is a pain-filled-back-breaking process that requires me to turn a massive chunk of my life upside down. Everything from 5am runs, 50 and 100km training runs, diet, injury, recovery, strength & conditioning is required.

The challenge comes with its own risks for someone who is ageing at speed (I'll be 49 when I do this), heavy, slow, and rather prone to injury. As someone who is NOT a distance runner this is, quite frankly, an insane undertaking. 

All donations go directly to the charity. I am both self funded, and proudly sponsored by my company ECR Global for the costs of this challenge; so, rest assured that anything you can give will go to the charity

Here are some stats for what I will have done by the time I finish this Isles challenge in September:

- 9 Ultra Marathons (6 of these are back to back over 6 days)

- Half a million steps in just 6 days

- Over 1500 training miles on my feet

- more than 3 million steps in just 8 months of training

My aim is to do something extraordinary... (and a little bit crazy). Something that scares me, forces me to live differently, and challenges me every day... To take on something bigger than I ever dared to think to complete and fight to the very end. An appropriate act of solidarity and support for the extreme challenge, trauma, highs and lows that hundreds of thousands, of those with Cancer, face every day

This is it. The monster challenge. 

I have asked for your help before. I do so again. Grateful for the donations, the encouragement, the well wishes, the banter and the support so far. 

...In return I will again promise to keep going until I can't and push myself further than I ever have.

This is an epic journey for me, and for anyone who wants to learn a bit about what I I'm putting myself through to do this please check out my blog to follow my progress:

www.longroadtoultra.com 

You can see the 300km route video here:

https://youtu.be/YaPSk-QY86A

The ups, the downs, the swearing (and there is a LOT), the frustrations and the lessons are all in the blog for anyone who wants to give something like this a go. There is so much that goes into what I am doing, and the blog has tracked my journey behind the scenes from the very start.

Thank you for anything and everything that you give... It matters more than you realise.

Much love and huge gratitude...

Rich