USA 2025 route re-planning finished

At long last, the task of replanning the final quarter of the route across the USA is complete. I now have a full coast to coast route from Coney Island, New York to Huntington Beach, California. It has taken me a good 12 hours today, as well as many hours in recent weeks, to re-plot a challenging and, at times, mind boggling course from day 71 right through to the finish line on day 100. 

You'd think it would be a simple case of taking the total milage (which is 30 miles longer than before and now sits at 3180 miles!!) and dividing it by 100 to give a nice steady set of consistent days. It's not as simple as that unfortunately. Plotting the route became quite a tactical exercise with some days exceeding 40 miles which will be done at the height of the US summer. 

I've spent much of today reflecting on my own capabilities and limitations. The new route and the physical and mental demands it will place on me and also the support team over a 100 day period, hover precariously between chances of success and failure. It won't be easy. It will take us to the absolute brink of breaking point. It will take an unprecedented amount of effort, discipline, luck, clever thinking and absolute bloody mindedness to succeed. When I'm writing sentences like that, I know that I'm setting the right kind of challenge. 

Following the regular weekly update I give my sponsors and support team this Thursday, I'll talk more about the changes I've made and the extreme challenges that we'll be facing on my blog and socials. In the meantime, there remains no doubt in my mind that this will be by far and away the most difficult running challenge I've ever undertaken. I, of course, include the last USA run in 2011 and the 2013 Australian coast to coast effort too in what was their hottest summer on record at the time. 

Getting to the finish line in 100 days is only the first of the two part goal for 2025. There is the small matter of raising at least £60,000 for St. Benedict's Hospice. I'm sure you'll agree, once you learn more about the route, that the 3180 mile run across the USA will be very worthy of sponsorship. 

Speaking of which the fund is growing very nicely indeed over at my JustGiving page. Any donations, in aid of St. Benedict's Hospice will be gratefully received.

Beach Bootcamp

Last Saturday morning saw me make a return to David Fairlamb’s Beach Bootcamp at Longsands Beach, Tynemouth. It was a tremendous session held in nice warm conditions. Having had some very warm sessions recently, I handled the heat very well. I’m also making a concerted effort to drink more water which helps. 

It’s good to get acclimatised to the “warm” temperatures. The fact that I’ll be running in 110 - 125 Farenheit this time next year really does put things into perspective though. I’m not worried about what is to come. I’m honestly relishing the challenge while maintaining a healthy amount of respect for the conditions I’ll be facing. 

I was really pleased with the efforts up the ramp at the beach. My fitness appears not to be in too bad a place. That ramp is usually where you get found out. That wasn't the case for me last Saturday. 

Like all of David’s other sessions I do, I left on a high. I really do think that GPs should prescribe exercise (particularly of the beach variety) instead of drugs to people who have depression, anxiety and to those who want to lose some weight.

Thanks from St. Benedict's Hospice

I received the St. Benedict's Hospice Summer Bulletin today. There was mention of the recent Beyond Mount Everest challenge where, thanks to some brilliant generosity, £520 was raised.

Thanks again to everyone who donated. You can view the final JustGiving page here.

USA 2025 - Further Kit Sponsors Added

Since making my kit sponsorship offering more dynamic, I’m pleased to tell you that progress has been made in the search for the remaining commercial funding. There is still a way to go but it’s been a brilliant week. I’m happy to announce that Vigon International (an Azelis company) will be on the front and back of my kit for the first 10 days of the run across the USA next year. They are “a leading manufacturer and distributor of ingredients for the flavours and fragrances market in North America”. Incidentally, their office is only 32 miles away from where I’ll be starting my run on day 4 next year in Pennsylvania. Vigon are the first US company to ever sponsor one of my running shirts.

To have the Run Geordie Run brand reach “across the pond” makes me very proud indeed. I’m looking forward to getting the run across the USA underway at Coney Island with their logo on my kit. A huge thank you to Vigon for supporting the run across the USA. 

The excellent kit sponsorship news continued this week when I had a really good conversation with Ian Watson OBE, chairman of Hadrian Healthcare Group. His multi award winning company has residential care homes in Gosforth, Whickham with involvement in others outside of the region. The homes are rated as outstanding by the Care Quality Commission with equally prestigious ratings by other bodies including the local authority of course. Hadrian Healthcare Group will be seen on my kit for the final 15 days of the run from Las Vegas, through Death Valley and all the way to the finish line at Huntington Beach. 

Once again, it makes me feel very proud to have the logo of such a brilliant company on my kit. A huge thank you to Ian and Hadrian Healthcare Group for very kind support. 

Beyond Mount Everest - DONE

Last weekend saw me tackle Beyond Mount Everest in aid of St. Benedict's Hospice. The concept of the event was a straightforward one. To climb 40,000ft on a VersaClimber at David Fairlamb Fitness’ VersaHub and hopefully raise at least £400 for the hospice. It was all to help celebrate St. Benedict's Hospice 40th birthday.

Despite being in unknown territory, I predicted that it would take between 10 and 13 hours to complete the climb. Proceedings got underway at 0840 on Saturday morning. I was really pleased to see the money coming in to the hospice via JustGiving.com and that served to give me an early boost. 

The first 10,000ft took 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete. At this point, I was well ahead of the anticipated 10 to 13 hour completion time. So far so good. Things got very tough soon enough though. The climb up to 20,000ft was incredibly draining from a mental point of view. While I managed to maintain the same pace, the depth of my steps reduced considerably. This meant that second set of 10,000ft took over an hour longer to climb (3 hours 25 minutes) than the first 10,000ft. That was quite a drop off in performance but I was aware that I’d set the bar high very early on. 

 I was so relieved to eventually reach the half way point. Just like the many 30+ or 40+ mile runs I’ve ever done, when I get over the 20 mile point, I was aware that things tend to get easier. 

The next section to 30,000ft was even slower still and took 4 hours to complete. It would have been even longer but I made sure that my pace didn’t get any slower and depth of step get any shallower. Reaching the height of the Mount Everest summit gave me a boost as did the continuing donations coming in to St. Benedict's Hospice. It all seemed very slow going though despite all of the effort. 

With 10,000ft left to climb I decided to take drastic action. That’s right, disco classics reverberated throughout the VersaHub (it has a world class speaker system by the way). I’m not saying that the volume of the music was loud but it’s a good job it was late on Saturday on Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate. Once again, just like my big runs, I was able to focus on pace in those later stages and take a few risks. The tempo of the disco music was perfect and I was almost back to the pace and depth of those early stages. I had a bit of a wobble at 36,000ft when YMCA played. In hindsight, it’s not a good idea to try and do the actions while climbing on a VersaClimber. I almost fell off! 

I’m pleased to report that I reached the finish line at 40,000ft after a further 3 hours of climbing and 12 hours 45 minutes in total. That last set of 10,000ft was the second quickest of the four. Again, that late surge was not unlike many days that I’ve spent running in the USA, Australia and Europe. 

To end the day on a great note, the fundraising target of £400 was smashed and finished on £480. So all in all, it was a very good days work with over 10,000 calories burned and 73,664 steps taken (the equivalent of 33.1 miles). 

The confidence that I got from the climb was most unexpected. “There’s definitely life in the old dog yet” I thought. I had a debrief with David Fairlamb the following day and we talked about the lessons learned and the many parallels to my big runs. Speaking of which, A huge thank you goes to David for allowing me to use the VersaHub at his gym. It’s the only place where I could have got through the event. The lighting and, moreover, the sound system is out of this world. It’s a very special place to train. 

The final donation page can be viewed here. Happy 40th Birthday St. Benedict's Hospice.