Day 1 Walk for AnaBella 2021 | 28 Marathons in 28 Days

Date: 21/05/2021

Locations: Studland to Steeple, Wareham

Distance: 42.15km

Accommodation:  Steeple Leaze Farm Campsite

 

 

Sometimes you have to start at the end…

The South West Coast Path (SWCP) is traditionally traversed from Minehead in Somerset to Studland in Dorset. I don’t know who first decided that was the way but the beginning and end markers have been set accordingly.

To enable me to finish my challenge at home, and symbolise running away from home but then running back again, I decided to run the path in reverse.

So that is how I found myself at 7:00 am on 21/05/21 crossing the stormy seas from Poole to Studland on “The Bramble Bush” chain ferry. Heading to the end of the SWCP to begin 28 marathons in 28 days.

This had all started as a crazy thought one day as I was thinking of an alternative challenge to my cancelled 2020 event: Walking the Camino de Santiago with my father-in-law Enoc.

COVID-19 had thrown the world into turmoil in 2020 and my challenge was one of many cancelled events. What had also happened is the bar for charity events had been raised by a certain Captain Tom who had raised millions for the NHS walking laps of his garden at 100 years old.

So I felt if I was going to do something, I had to go big and that is how the idea of 28 marathons in 28 days first germinated.

Up until January 2021, I had never run a marathon and I still haven’t competitively run one to this day. However, I was a keen runner and regularly ran 5 to 10 kilometres three to four times a week. I had also been regularly walking longer distances of between 20 and 30K in training for the cancelled 2020 event so I felt I could take on a marathon distance.

So with a couple of months of running the marathon distance back to back during the weekends, I set off to run 28 of them simultaneously along the length of the SWCP.

One of the last things I remember saying to my wife before I set off was “Everything will be ok unless it pours” So what did it do on Day 1? Yes, it poured, but not only did it pour, but the rains were also combined with galeforce winds hitting me head-on as I started my first days running on the sands of Studland beach.

A rude awakening it was to the challenge that lay ahead.

On one of the rare days that I had read the reverse SWCP guidebook, I had got the tip to run on the sand closest to the shore as this would be wet and compact and therefore easier to run on.

However, with the tide coming in rapidly and the wind blowing sand into my face it felt as if I was being attacked on all sides and this was just the beginning…

I had taken on this challenge in memory of my baby girl AnaBella who died in 2018 just 28 days old.

And as it turns out this is quite an apt description of the day that AnaBella died. Attacked on all sides.

AnaBella had been born prematurely via emergency caesarean at just over 25 weeks old. There was nothing wrong with her apart from the fact she was so small. It had been guestimated she was over 500 grams when in actual fact she was 413 grams. Teeny. However, she entered this world eyes wide and arms flailing ready to fight.

And she did, for 27 days until she died on the 28th.

On that day I was also attacked on all sides.

Words no parent wants to hear. “Your child is going to die” and the realisation that there is nothing you can do.

You cannot protect. You cannot reverse. You cannot do anything…

You have to decide when to switch the ventilator off. You have to hold your dead child. You have to leave them…

Likewise, I was stumbling along the sand thinking I couldn’t carry on whilst realising I had to…

The day before I had made a video saying that running, walking, stumbling or crawling I would do whatever it took to complete the distance of 28 marathons in 28 days. I didn’t realise this would all be in the first day.

As the day continued the winds got stronger and the ocean below became more violent.

I found myself at numerous times shouting at both, this was May the weather was not meant to be like this.

It was as if the world was angry and it was doing everything it could to stop me from going forward.

On the clifftops the wind was so strong I found myself being pushed around. Having to scramble to get back up with my heavy pack on my back only to be taken out again by the rough terrain.

Serious decisions had to be made 30 kilometres into my run, just past Houns Tout, as the winds picked up and I was forced against a barb wire fence. Some tassels that a friend had lovingly made with the names of our lost babies wrapped around the fence and my arms and hands were lacerated as I tried to pry myself away. As I was stuck there my cheeks blowing in the wind, there was nothing between me and the edge of the cliff.

As I looked down into the ocean I had to decide what I was doing here, was it to do 28 marathons in 28 days or did I have to stick to the SWCP religiously. Envisioning my impending doom I realised that was definitely not the point of the exercise and retraced my steps to where a sign pointing to an inland path had been spotted.

Off the path the wind was calmer and whilst it took some time doing some ad hoc navigation I managed to get to my campsite

in Steeple, Wareham.

My introduction to the SWCP had begun.

The lesson learnt was not to try and do too much at the same time 28 marathons in 28 days is hard enough, 28 marathons in 28 days carrying a full pack even harder and 28 marathons in 28 days with a full pack running along the SWCP is insane…