There's no easy way to say this, but my brother-in-law's brother has run from Land's End to John O' Groats. That's my sister Annie's husband Martin's brother Rob. Running. About 900 miles. At the rate of about 45-60 miles a day. With no rest days. This is the equivalent of (at least) two marathons a day for 18 days.
Not only this, he was accompanied by the most fantastic extended family entourage and supported by the tightest planning I've ever encountered (and nor had my sister's physiotherapist, who went up to run with them one day and has some experience of these things).
Rob is a member of Hinckley Running Club (Leicestershire) - you can read all about the club, see a sponsorshop link, and read his blog from this link.
So, given that John O'Groats is at the top of Scotland, I rang Rob's wife Niki to find out where they were, and Lesley and I decided it would be fun to go and meet them. There was no question of joining them during the day: I can't run fast enough to keep him company, and it's all finely planned, with Rob's sister Sue and her partner Martin cycling alongside or behind (so THEY did the whole distance too, on bikes) to give him snacks and drinks, keep him right on the route, and presumably to draw attention to him in their hi-viz vests so that traffic avoided him. So we went up to Brora on the north-east coast, 2 days short of the end of the run, to meet them at the campsite where they'd be in the evening. Thing was, we were a day early - I rang Niki to find they were in Dingwall, a day further South - so Lesley and I had a lovely restful day in the blazing sun in Brora. We had a plan to go and look at things - Dunrobin Castle, I recall - but it was so nice we just lay around the van and sunbathed. I did book the gang into the site for the next day, though: the campsite owner was quite surprised that we were being joined by six adults and two children in two motorhomes and a tent.
We saw their vans arrive about four o'clock: Niki driving a big hired camper with Reuben, 12 and Atticus, 14 in it (who, I had claimed, when booking them in, were 9 and 11 - see previous post on getting old), and Niki's mum and dad, Trish and Ian, in another camper. The tent was for Sue and Martin, the cyclists, and everyone had their jobs - Trish cooked for them and the two boys, Ian and the boys put the cyclists' tent up, and Niki did meals for Rob, Sue, Martin and herself (all carefully calorie-controlled), distributed route sheets (worked out in advance by Sue) for the next day, shopped, packed up snacks and lunches and made drinks bottles, did the blog, massaged Rob and collected his data, and booked campsites...all helped by her parents whenever they could. And, if it was raining, she had to go and meet the team for scheduled breaks three times in the day to make sure they had a sheltered place to stop and change clothes if they needed to. So she was pretty worn out by it all, but hugely organised and cheerful. We did offer to help - eg make supper - but it was all so finely tuned that it was better to butt out and just offer a place to sit and a glass of wine or juice to anyone who wanted it.
We waited for the team to come back and greeted them - and were very touched that, at the end of every day, Rob stops just short of the home 100m to hug and kiss his sister and Martin for helping him all day. And then he came in and was pleased to see us and shook Lesley's hand. Although, to be fair, the rest of the evening he had a thousand-yard stare. He said he couldn't sleep well because his legs were keeping going in the night. Niki had left him a bed to himself and was sharing with Reuben, because of all the twitching (perhaps it runs in the family: Annie says Martin does it too: he's a long-distance swimmer).
I was really glad Lesley was there, because she's so sociable and interested in everything she helped boost everyone, even though they were exhausted. Reuben and Atticus were just lovely: Reuben wearing a kilt and shirt they'd found in a second hand shop, and telling us lots of stories, and Atticus, who is deeply cool and is not only a grade A scholar but a bassist in a rock band. We all went to the beach together to give them a break from being cooped up in the van.
Later on, eight of them came over to squeeze into my van and have a cup of tea, and also do the blog, because my internet was working and they didn't have a signal. It was great to see them - what a brilliant family, and working so well together. I've since heard, of course, that they finished in the morning of day 18. Rob said he felt fine and could just carry on, but unfortunately he'd run out of land. I've no idea what he plans to do next - in fact none of them had any plans beyond this trip, which took two years to co-ordinate and arrange - but I have an idea there will be something even bigger coming up. Round the world, perhaps?
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