Turning forty seemed as good a time as any to try something new, and difficult, and so this year (in fact, on the 2nd July) I’ll be running the 55km Peades d’Aigua, which is part of the HOKA Val d’Aran.
I’ll be taking part with my youngest brother, Ryan, who is eight years younger, and a fair amount lighter. He also has the benefit of actually living in the Pyrenees, and so will be assuming the role of guide and pacer, while I have volunteered to wrestle bears and scare off wolves (as required).
Having committed to the challenge, I’ve decided to raise some money for CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably). You can find out more about why I’m raising money for this charity, and keep up to date with the training, by looking below. The link to my JustGiving page is here. All support, and awareness raised, is very much appreciated.
Why this charity?
My fortieth birthday came and went in August 2025 without any discernible midlife crisis: no motorbike; no tattoo; no change of job. However, it did prompt a little bit of introspection, and I realised that throughout the course of my thirties I’d lost six good friends, five of which were to suicide. Of those five, all were sportsmen, four were rugby players, and three were graduates from the University of Cambridge. My humble mathematical skills worked that out to be one friend, to suicide, roughly every 24 months. We know that suicide is the single largest cause of death for men under 50, and perhaps most worrying given my own experiences to date, the age range of 45 – 49 years is when the risk is most acute. CALM is a suicide prevention charity that provides life-saving services and practical mental health support to anyone who needs it.
Why this race?
I’m not new to running by any means, and in fact have always enjoyed it, but I started this adventure in September, inspired in part by my good mate Henry Rose (see here), as well as Jeannie Koster (here). Jeannie ran (more than!) 36km on 13th September 2025, and in solidarity, I put on my shoes, at 4.49am, and scampered round a 22km circuit in a time of 2:02:43 (roughly 5:35/km). My Garmin reminds me that I was 114kg at that point in time, and so two goals revealed themselves: first, to trim down a bit; and second, to try and do something difficult in about a year’s time. Fortunately, my brother lives in a spectacularly beautiful part of the world, which has its own crazy race, and he was up for trying to complete 3,300 metres of positive ascent and 3,700 metres of negative ascent, at altitude. What could go wrong?