Deciding to undertake the gruelling challenge a week earlier than originally planned, industry veteran Nathan Mollett raised more than £8,000 for South East Cancer Help Centre during his 100km run.
Mollett set out at 6:30am, making the most of the cool weather and passing the first 42k in just over four hours. He sailed through the next 20k, entering Battersea park and pushing past the half way point.
Mollett explained: “I was having to walk in parts from 30k onwards so I could eat and drink. Endurance running is often described as an eating competition with some exercise in the middle.”
According to Mollett, things started to go downhill after reaching 70k; he’d lost his phone, his watch was almost out of battery meaning he couldn’t track his distance as accurately, and the weather had taken a turn for the worse.
He said: “The Thames towpath was flooded at Mortlake so I had to divert and figure out how to re-join it at Kew. You don’t want any hiccups on endurance events so this was a bad combination. My watch finally died after 75k. I plodded on towards Kingston at a very slow pace. Everything was hurting.
“The last 15k was murder. I’m pretty sure I was hallucinating at points, and the conditions turned bad with heavy rain & hail (unless the hail was a hallucination, which is possible). There was no elation at the end, I just collapsed and slept on the grass for 20 minutes before hobbling to the car and getting driven home.”
After a good recovery, Mollett set to working out the stats. He counted a total time of 11 hours and 40 mins, 11,500 calories, three toenails, one phone, one out of body experience and more than £8,000 raised, which equates to 400 alternative therapy treatments for people affected by cancer from the charity.
Donations can still be made via the following link https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nathan-mollett100k
