8 Inzpire Employees Complete Gruelling 69 Mile 'The Wall' Ultra-Marathon
23 Jun 16
News
8 employees from Inzpire Limited took on ‘The Wall’ Ultra-marathon on Saturday and Sunday 18/19 June, raising over £10,000 for charity in the process. Navigating terrain that reached more than 1000ft above sea level, the team had 26 hours to complete the 69-mile course which ran from Carlisle to Newcastle
Rich Havercroft (Head of Support Services), Dan Simmons (Head of Aviation Experts), Jonny Priest (Head of Helicopter Services), Chris Raynes (Helicopter Services Project Lead), Jim Mulholland (Head of Integrated Sensors and Systems), Sophie Paul (Head of Cyber, Intel and Counter-Terrorism), Alex Mitchell (Sales Executive) and Marcus Hedley (Apache Civilian Qualified Helicopter Instructor) all completed the tough challenge with time to spare, despite many of the group suffering injuries that hindered their running along the way.
Inzpire Apache Pilot Marcus Hedley was the first of the team to cross the line, in a hugely competitive time of 13hrs 19mins; which was the 58th quickest time of nearly 800 people who started the event. Marcus, who was fundraising for Macmillan Cancer Support and Scotty’s Little Soldiers, decided to run for the latter of these charities after being separated from his children twice during tours of Afghanistan during his time in the Army. “Scotty’s Little Soldiers are a charity who support children who have lost a parent who has been killed whilst working in the Armed Forces. I cannot imagine how difficult it is for a parent to tell a youngster, who has been counting the sleeps until Mummy or Daddy gets home, that the other parent will not be coming home at all”, he said of his reasons behind running the ultra-marathon.
Marcus at the finish line
Chris Raynes was the other Inzpire runner who took on the challenge on his own, crossing the line in 15hrs and 04mins, helping to raise thousands of pounds for charity in the process. Chris explained: “The first 14 miles were great however the second and most undulating stage was extremely hard work. At mile 18 through to 27 I was seriously questioning as to whether I would manage to complete the event. My legs were extremely tired. The cross country route was playing havoc with my ankle injury but slowly I started to feel much better. As the half way point passed, morale started to increase significantly, as did my pace. It was an amazing day with amazing people. You have to be a certain type of person to be able to complete an event like that as the majority of the struggle is in your head. The military mentality certainly provides an advantage”.
Dan Simmons, Sophie Paul and Jonny Priest were the next Inzpire employees to finish, as the trio crossed the line in 17hrs 20 mins. Fundraising for Diabetes UK, Combat Stress and Macmillan Cancer Support respectively, the group stuck together throughout, which inevitably helped Sophie, who had suffered a knee injury at mile 10 and had to limp for the next 59 miles. Reflecting on his preparation for the challenge, Jonny Priest explained: “I have never been a keen runner and so the first challenge was to prepare myself to some extent for this run. As my Mother has gone through her own cancer treatment she has endured a lot day in day out; a prolonged challenge requiring a long term effort seemed the least I could do to support her. The training for ‘The Wall’ took a long time but knowing how my Mother kept going and that others in the Inzpire team were out training was a great motivator for me”.
As one of our many ex-military employees, former fast jet and Red Arrows Pilot Dan is used to pushing himself to the limits. However, after initially saying no to running this event, Dan’s arm was twisted at last year’s Inzpire Christmas party when he learned about the life-changing commitment to the training fellow colleague Rich Havercroft had undertaken. Despite having a good basic fitness level, the 69 miles was no easy feat for Dan: “My hardest time was from about 30 to 40 miles where I faced my own ‘wall’ of introspective silence, nausea, cold sweats, lethargy and, excruciating ankle pain. Luckily, jelly babies and caffeine gels sorted me out and towards the end I felt quite good. I was amazed at how committed everyone was to completing this challenge; to watch people conquer their ‘wall’ and fight through injuries to raise money for their various causes really was inspiring and felt a great thing to be part of”.
Alex Mitchell, Jim Mulholland and Rich Havercroft all suffered painful injuries, which slowed their progression in the ultra-marathon. With Alex and Rich both picking up stress fractures and Jim’s feet swelling and cutting, the team finished in 19hrs and 20mins. Alex, fundraising for The Alzheimer’s Society and Macmillan Cancer Support, said “this was quite comfortably the toughest physical and mental challenge I have undertaken in my lifetime, but I can now look back on the day with fondness and a real sense of pride. I didn’t honestly think it was possible for me to finish it. By mile 50 I had nothing left; the final 20 miles were extremely emotional”. Rich, fundraising for Combat Stress, found the strength to finish the event in his fellow colleagues: “At 44 miles I knew I was in trouble with rapidly worsening stress injuries to both lower legs, but I was able to draw strength from running with Jim and Alex and we kept going together as a team, knowing that none of us was going to give up on the hundreds of people who had sponsored us. That teamwork was invaluable over the last 25 miles which were a real painful slog, but we knew it was nothing compared to the challenges faced by those being helped by our inspirational charities”.
Rich about to tackle a steep incline near Walltown Crags
At the time of going to press, the team have raised nearly £10,100 which will be split equally between 6 charities: Macmillan Cancer Support, The Alzheimer’s Society, Diabetes UK, Combat Stress, Scotty’s Little Soldiers and The Jon Egging Trust.
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