EPIC RUNNING

Last weekend my brother did a marathon double, running one race on Saturday and another on Sunday. Pretty impressive – and restoring some honour to the Hosier name after my failure to even make it as far as the start line of the Brighton marathon the other week.

52.4 miles is a lot more ground than most of us would contemplate covering in a couple of days, but there are masochists out there who do rather more. At the total insanity end of this spectrum is Sam Boatwright who is currently running 50 miles a day for 50 days (yep, you read it right – that’s 2,500 miles total) around the coast of Britain. I’d had some twitter contact with Sam and got a message on Sunday asking if I could drive his support vehicle today, so I stepped in for a few hours of the Dorset leg.

My job was to drive Sam’s van a few yards behind him as his safety vehicle and it was great fun. As Sam ran through Poole I had a big cheesy grin on my face as other motorists beeped in support and as I got to play a small part in what is a quite extraordinary endeavour. 

When I was marathon training I found running 50 miles in a week tough enough and I still can’t quite get my head around how someone can do it every day, day after day. It’s taking a toll though, as Sam confessed in todays Facebook update:

My left ankle is swollen and is iced every night, my right hip hurts with the constant thud of the road, an old break in my foot is now a massive lump and rubs hard against the top of my trainer, my left knee is twisting due to the camber of the road making a small bone in the front pull hard against the tendon, my elbows ache constantly, my right knee burns at the slightest undulation in the road, I have one toe nail left on my left foot and my right achilles has swollen twice the size it should be and grates when I move. Other places are sore but I know children read this and so does my mum. Lets just say, one day I wore the wrong boxers!!

Sam made it to Bridport after I said goodbye to him, and over the next couple of days will be continuing west through Devon and Cornwall before turning north and heading for home in Skipton. Keep a check on his progress and if he’s passing anywhere near where you live go and give him a cheer.

Lots of things get described as “epic” but this run definitely deserves the description.

Such a gent - he even stops for red lights at pedestrian crossings!