Pre-Run Blog – Nick’s NC500!So, around last March I started to think that I wanted to take on an enormous challenge, to not only mentally and physically test myself, but a challenge that could potentially raise a large amount of money for some very worthy charities. Over the following few months I began searching out possibilities, ones that wouldn’t involve going abroad so that to keep the challenge relatively local. I stumbled across the UK’s answer to Americas Route 66.
The North Coast 500 is a 500 mile road trip starting at Inverness Castle, which navigates all around the north coast of Scotland. It all starts on Monday 27th July, the first week I will run approximately 300 miles, then around 220 in the second. The total ascent on the 500 miles is greater than climbing Everest, and to my knowledge, there has only been one other person to run this route.
Whilst my training for this event started back in March, I was already training for ultra-marathons, so it was quite like starting from mile zero. However, I’m by no means a slim light weight ultra-runner. Six years ago I weighed nearly 19 stone and was very unfit. I’m still around 14 stone now which is still fairly heavy to be classed as a runner.
Over the last few months the training has been far from smooth, let’s face it, the last few months haven’t been smooth for anyone in the whole world. Having to completely change my normal routine day to day routine due to Covid-19 restrictions, it completely changed my original training plans. My work changed for a few months which then hugely disrupted the training, and obviously with the gyms not being open I had to change the way I had organised my strength and conditioning workouts.
Without realising I had increased my weekly mileage quite dramatically and was consistently doing 100 mile weeks, originally this felt great but it soon had negative effects on my body. As I wasn’t working the hours I’d predicted, I found more time on my hands, and with the international pandemic going on this left my mind to drastically over think. I battled this by doing even more running and not sticking to the running plan I had created. At first it felt great and everything was going smoothly, my mental health was great and the training was working. My legs were eating up the miles and I felt unbreakable. I was happily running 22 miles to Lincoln and back and recovering well. Then on the 2nd June on my normal morning run into Lincoln my quads were hurting on every step, nothing felt right, the pace felt like a struggle even though it was no faster than normal. I tried to self-massage the quads and have hot baths but nothing was working. In the end I had acupuncture on both legs, 2 sessions in total. The diagnosis was quad strain in both my legs and no running for 3 weeks, this was a massive blow with less than 2 months before the big run, but at least I was given enough time to still recover so I remained optimistic. The recovery was very slow and I was strict with my stretches and stuck to the plan. After the 3 weeks I tried a gentle 5 mile run and it seemed to go well, with minimal pain. Then 2 days later I went out for a 10k loop and I managed no more than 2 miles before having to stop before the pain, this concerned me a lot! I remained optimistic and simply allowed greater time for recovery. I then began to build back what was going to be a steep curve for mileage leading up to the big day. A very nervous 4 miler went ok, then an 8 mile road run the following day which built confidence. Then 2 days later a 10 mile run, the first time I’d ran double figures in over a month, and I had less than a month till the start day! Since then I’ve done a few runs but nothing longer than a very hilly solo half marathon around Lincoln to test the quads on the hills.
Now with just over a week till the start I’ve hit the phase I seem to get before every large event I do…… random niggles and slight illness. I’ve developed a stiff neck, feel exceptionally tired and have two blocked ears so I can barely hear. I’m convinced like many others, my subconscious mind/body knows I’m about to do something stupid a week or so before and seems to react to try and stop me doing what I’ve got planned.
Please visit my website www.nicksnc500.com to read up on the event, look at the route, and donate through the link to the Just Giving pages, you can also order an event t-shirt by emailing nicksnc500@hotmail.com
When choosing the charities for this event it felt very easy. Back in October my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and since then has also gone through his second battle with cancer.
Just like many people on this planet, I for many years have battled with mental health issues, and given what’s gone on over the last 6 months, many of us have a lot to thank our amazing NHS for.
Here a few people that need thanking so far for their support in this epic challenge: Lincolnshire Runner, Brooks Running, Erdinger Alkoholfrei, Swift Motorhomes, MyProtein, Steve Paley, Alan Heap, Stephanie Bell, the event support crew, and of course my amazing family and friends.