WOW - What an experience!

I made a few mistakes in kit selection and training but generally I was pretty good, certainly the extra weight of a small stove and proper food at night was a good choice as the rest of my tent had a diet of nuts, granola and custard powder all week , there was a certain amount of food envy every night when I cooked up chicken curry, spaghetti Bolognese, sweet and sour chicken etc!

The running/walking was a variety of 10 mile salt flats, mountains that you needed ropes to pull yourself up, endless miles of sand dunes with a sudden oasis, uneven rocky river beds amongst other surfaces. The wind was over 60mph at times and mostly in our faces kicking up sandstorms for much of the first three days, most days the temperatures was over 40c in the shade of which there wasn’t any!

I am sorry if you did not get all my emails forwarded when I was away, my wife tried her hardest but technology thwarted her on many occasions, I understand that the race website was a bit iffy too and only got where it should have on the last couple of days.

The tent I was in had a great team but I seem to have come out best as between the other seven members they had:-

Oxygen requirement as struggling to breathe at the finish one day
On a drip overnight due to extreme dehydration
Feet in such a bad way with infected blisters
Feet in such a bad way that advised not to walk for 20 days (on the second to last day, needless to say he walked the last day!)
Fractured ankle on the second to last day (walked the last day on crutches, all 17k of it)
Abscess the size of a tennis ball on the thigh that had to be lanced plus terrible blisters
Tent pole collapsed in the night and landed on his nose

However we all finished which was so important to us all as without it there is no medal!! I learnt so much more about what is important when I was way, not in a massive life changing way but certainly in a way which has made me look at many things differently, hopefully for the better, I certainly feel amazing and my will to fight on never stronger. I saw some writing on the pavement last week in Trafalgar Square, it said :-
“You only have two lives and your second one starts when you realise you only have one”

I guess that revelation for me was 18 months ago, I do hope that you all realise what I now know and that it does not take something shocking to discover what is important.

There were many inspirational stories out there. I met a soldier who had lost both his legs in an IED explosion and was walking on prosthetic legs. He only made it to day 4 before the sores and blisters he had meant that the medics pulled him out of the race. Another man had just had stomach surgery having had stomach cancer, he managed to finish. The flag that I carried the whole way attracted many people who would come up to me and tell me they were running for their brother/father/uncle/friend who had died or had prostate cancer. The desire from so many to prove that you can do things despite everything and try to give something back was everywhere.

I ran this race for many reasons, it was my only bucket list item, I wanted to prove to myself I could do it despite everything, I wanted to be “used” by PCuk as an example that you never have to give up to hopefully inspire others to fight on and of course raise funds to help raise awareness and find a cure. Those thoughts all at one time or another kept me going when it felt impossibly hard but have created the best memories for me.

On my return to the UK my wonderful wife had arranged a surprise gathering outside of my house of loads of my friends, I remain so amazed that everyone has put so much money and effort into my cause and me. To cap it all she then said that I should run the race again next year as it has been so good for me mentally to have a medium term focus for fitness, diet and distraction from part of my reality.

I could bore you all with stories for a long time so I had better stop but I have saved the biggest thank you and mention to last which is you for what you have done by sponsoring me and or sending your good wishes . I still get emotional just thinking about the difference your support has made to me and will make to the charity. With your support I have raised over £30,000 in the last two years and that pays for a lot of research. I am organising a golf day at the moment with a good friend and have managed to obtain some interesting prizes with the highlight for a separate auction being a signed England football shirt, hopefully I can use that to raise even more for the charity.

Thanks again and until hopefully next year (when no doubt I will be emailing you again)

Kevin