Beyond the Wall: Our Independent Climb and the Road Ahead

Eight weeks ago I was idly checking my social media when a friends post in our running group caught my eye.
‘I’m injured, does anyone want my Race Across Scotland place?’ As expected no one snatched up his offer as running 225 miles over Scotlands Southern Upland Way in under 100 hours appealed!
Funnily enough though a few people mentioned my name…
Whilst big epic running challenges are my thing, I felt with only six weeks notice and a lack of big training days, I wasn’t quite ready for such suffer fest.
I also had the slight complication that I had a 100 mile race two weeks before that one!

To cut a long story short I accepted the place, I only ran 40 miles of the 100 and arrived at Portpatrick on Friday the evening before the big race.

On Saturday 6am 163 of us set off heading East to push our bodies and minds to their limits.
As the miles clicked away we ate plenty and slept little but pushed on regardless.
Day 1, day 2, day 3 were a blur and eventually day 4 arrived.
Everyone was totally spent but with the finish line close (40+ miles) we needed to crack on and complete this epic journey.
Unfortunately many people had had to drop out along the course but 63 competitors pushed on.
After running for 85 hours and sleeping for less than 5 hours I eventually hit a pain barrier that tried to thwart my progress.
Blisters on four toes, the base of one foot and around both ankles brought me to a hobble/wobble!
I had a final nine miles to the finish and NOTHING was going to stop me. While I walked, hobbled, tripped and jogged, a few hardier runners passed me but we all had the same goal in mind.

I’m pleased to say that I crossed the finish line after 227 miles and 89 hours and raised an awesome £2100+ for Mind Charity (the JustGiving page is still open for donations https://bit.ly/DavesRAS24)

I had a good friend Dave Jones help me along the way with nutrition (pot noodles), kit (sweaty clothes) and encouragement (move it…). Without his tremendous support the outcome would not have been the same.

I’ve received so much positive support via emails, social media and personally that I can’t thank my supporters enough.

My years of climbing have taught me many things, but one of the most important things is ‘Stay Positive’.

Hope to see you at the climbing wall soon,

Dave Douglas