Mark's 24 Hour Running Challenge for Afasic

This July, I’ll be lacing up my running shoes and taking on a demanding 24-hour running challenge to raise vital funds for Afasic. Over the weekend of 11–12 July, I will be competing in the Spitfire Scramble, a 24-hour endurance race, alongside my son in law, Gareth. [https://www.spitfirescramble.co.uk/] Together, we are aiming to complete 100 miles as a team, taking turns to run through the day and night on a 5.75 mile course.

I’m doing this because Afasic’s work is still very much needed, but funding it has never been more difficult. Your support, at whatever level you can give, will therefore make a real and immediate difference. Thank You.

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We did it!!

Well, it’s done, and thanks very much to everyone for your support, it really is appreciated – here is a quick report on how it went!

It was sooooo hot! Having had training interrupted by 2 previous heatwaves, we turned up to the start line of the event in the midst of yet another heatwave, up to 30 degrees on the Saturday, and I really don’t like running in the heat!The organisers advised us that they had made some changes to the route to avoid the most exposed sections during the heat of the day, but it was still very hot!

Gareth and I agreed to take it very steady during the first few laps and kept taking on as much fluid as possible. We were alternating doing single laps each and then doing double laps so the other could get some nutrition in and have a reasonable break.

In the late afternoon the event was actually paused as 3 separate grass fires sprang up close to the route and one fairly close to where we were all camping, which was a bit worrying. The race was re-started just over 2 hours later when the fire brigade had deemed it safe, but that was 2 hours of potential running lost.

We decided to have a break to listen to the England football match and whilst it was nice to stop, the match didn’t help our stress levels!

Come the morning and with the heat building again we were both struggling and Gareth decided that his knees had had enough (to be fair he had done a 50km trail race 4 weeks before), so I carried on and managed another couple of laps before calling it a day.

We had aimed to run 100 miles between us, but in the event, it was 82 miles completed but we did come first in our category! The highlight was crossing the finish line with my grandson Callum!

Whilst we were very disappointed not to reach our target (we are both very competitive and determined so it didn’t sit well!) in the conditions it felt like we had given it a good go, and the way my legs felt the next morning certainly confirmed that!

Many thanks to everyone for all your support and kind words, it really did help to keep us going through the tough times knowing that so many people were behind us, and the £6,500 raised so far will certainly help to make a difference for Afasic. I’m off to the physio now to get my legs sorted out!

Mark & Gareth

Afasic supports and provides information for families with children and young adults who have Speech Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) with a focus on Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).