Running Coast to Coast: 300km in one go!

In April I was due to take on The Northern Traverse race – a 300km/186-mile self-supported run on the Coast to Coast route from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood’s Bay in Yorkshire, with 6,500m of ascent!

In typical Alex style, I had to withdraw 2 weeks beforehand due to ongoing post-viral fatigue and pending test results. As it happens, I tested positive for COVID round #2, three days after spectating the race and cheering on friends. Talk about deja vu! I always trust the process and that every setback comes for a reason: we just don’t always see it at the time.

I’d done the miles, I had the vision, and I always believe in finishing what you start (or almost started). So I’m excited to announce I’ll be completing the route with my own logistics and support team instead. Running the Wainwright’s Coast to Coast is equivalent to 7 consecutive marathons, with minimal sleep. My longest run to date is the Lakes, Meres & Waters – 105 miles, which took me over 32 hours. This will be the furthest I’ve ever ran in one go, which I aim to complete in 60 hours. There’s no specific calculation to justify this number other than it feels right and I’m going to put my stick in the sand. In the words of Archilochus — ‘We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.’

I’m curious to see what happens when I try to run through two days and nights. But this is fundamentally why I feel the need to keep challenging myself: to keep growing as a person and raising my internal perspective of what’s possible. Life is, after all, a series of challenges to be overcome. It’s a privilege to be able to come up with your own.

More importantly, the Coast to Coast will be my first challenge as part of Project 500 – a campaign to raise £500,000 for Mind Over Mountains, a charity I co-founded in 2020, to restore mental health through outdoor experiences alongside professional mental health support. The target is June 2025, my 30th birthday, to highlight that suicide is now the biggest killer of under 35’s in the UK. But I can’t do this on my own – so I hope it inspires you to get involved and join us on the mission! We already have a community taking on a fantastic array of challenges for us, and I’ve been painfully aware that as the founder I’ve not been able to pull my own weight until recently.

Fortunately, COVID round #2 was much more benign. I was grateful for the benefit of experience to learn from, prevent similar mistakes, and bypass the months of trial and error. With a strict month of enforced rest I managed to make a much faster comeback and just in time. But only a few hours before finalising my schedule with my support crew, I was on a sunrise training run up the Old Man of Coniston, when I heard a shout, was distracted, and slipped on a giant slab of slate – whacking my shin on the sharp edge of the rock. Sh*t! I was able to run onwards, nauseous from the impact, and made it home. After a lot of swelling and bruising, an X-Ray confirmed I’d escaped once again. I’ve successfully managed to nearly break myself before every challenge to the point that now I’m paradoxically more worried when things go TOO well. But it also served up a painful reminder not to be complacent with just over 3 weeks to go.

A live tracker will be shared nearer the time. If you’re inspired by the challenge and/or able to donate towards our Project 500 target it will genuinely push me forwards and hold me accountable during the tough moments. Please do give whatever you can. Thank you!

https://www.justgiving.com/page/northerntraverse