At 12pm on Friday the 19th June Eamon Chapman and Derek Keir set off from Hammersmith in London aiming for Bath. The sun was out broken by a few clouds and the first 5 minutes were definitely 300 of the trickiest seconds either of us were to endure. A mix of anxiety, nerves, pressure and expectation accumulated to heavy breathing and a quiet start to what was to become a Monster Marathon, monster challenge and most of all the most incredible if weekends.FYI: From here on in Eamon is appropriately referred to as Yapper for as was pointed out he has the inhumane ability to talk under water!

Friday was tough but as we left London and the sound of Heathrow faded behind us we got stronger, our breathing steadied until we reached a bridge that possessed a problem, a spiral footpath led to the bridge that kept us on the A4 however as we circled the spiral we received a bit of Irish Logic from Yapper that made complete sense. Let’s follow Windsor Road to Windsor. I contemplated and just then a police officer came zooming down the footpath on bike. Yapper and I both put our hands out to ask the question of the quickest way to Windsor, half way through the question the police officer shoots by us thanking us for letting him by? "Excuse me" and "after you" on a tight bend have apparently the same meaning.  So we were left with the logic, we ran through Windsor and even saw the castle. But our decision to go off route added an extra few miles on the way into Windsor as we ran back to Old Windsor before progressing on the wrong road into Windsor. After a pee off the corner of royal ground we were back in the game feeling strong. In hindsight Eamon was a massive reason for my freshness throughout the race as he insisted on rehydrating throughout the early stages and this was to have a massive impact on my ability to run on day 2. Taking the wrong road out of Windsor wasn’t something we were aware of until we were told 3 times we had 3 miles to go until the next town only to arrive at a sign saying 5miles. Entering Windsor on the wrong road meant we left Windsor on the wrong road and though we should have reached Twyford in under 2 hours in took more than 3 and a half to get there and we were a man down as a result. Running those extra miles was not what we needed and after 30 miles we were badly running against the clock and daylight. 
 
En route from London Eamon past his previous personal best of 13 miles and 17 miles later he was still battling on. Funny as was the moment Yapper took yapping to a new level. Recognising he had now ran further than he had ever run before he started a short verbal recognition of his new record with every passing step. "Step PB, STEP PB, step PB PB PB PB PB PB PB, Step PB". Eventually however going 17 miles further than you’ve ever gone before started taking its toll on Eamons knee and just as he reached Twyford his knee gave way but not before achieving his first ultra marathon. As it turned out this was still only the beginning of his input to this weekend. The first 30miles would not have been the same without someone running along side me and in Yapper as I’m sure the rest of the team agree, I had a friend that could entertain even whilst playing chicken with crazy fast cars without path for protection or space to jump into pending impact. 5 miles after that sign I eventually reached the greatest sight in history. Welcome to Twyford and I ran straight into Michelle and Brevan who recharged me with a chicken wrap before heading back to pick up Eamon. I ran on.

I was now on my own. For miles at a time I would run simply concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other as fluently as possible. I was starting to feel the ache but was so relaxed after overcoming the stage of the race I was most concerned with. The first part! The first few miles were my biggest concern after injury plagued training. I kept on moving and figured that any success I was to have would come down to simply hanging on and getting through the bits when I felt empty. I kept on moving and thankfully every so often I would catch up with my support team who became legends in my life this weekend. I regularly offered for them to drive 5 or ten miles on and chill out for an hour or two till I reached them but they were having none of it. They were there to support and sure enough every couple miles I would see them waiting for me, with smiles, encouragement and refreshments.

Mile after mile, town after town we kept going all the way through Reading which was great to reach but horrible to run through because to those that know me I hate running on treadmills and entering Reading was like pushing the start button. The run was easy reaching each town, ticking them off as I went but spending 6 miles running through the same town is a killer for any soul. After six miles I finally saw the green again and was back on the open road. The sun was setting but I was determined and still feeling strong.

Night came and the world moved slowly on, foot by foot I kept on moving; I conquered a motorway roundabout without any paths. After 45 miles this roundabout appeared impossible but by sprinting(ish) between cars then legging it toward the central reservation before running round a sharp blind bend I gave myself a chance. Not advisable after being on your feet for so long but I still felt ok. I kept on moving and the sun had set when Mum and Dad drove into sight. Arriving from Scotland for a pit stop to support my run. After picking the key up for the cottage they brought themselves east to find us and in the middle of a dark road without any lamp posts everyone introduced themselves to my folks. Surreal experience running 50miles then introducing friends to mum and dad. Right before Mum and Dad arrived I experienced the worst feeling any runner can have after running such a distance. I began to feel empty, I felt hunger creep up on me despite the constant energy bars and gels I was consuming like candy. It arrived and I new this was a massive problem. I reached the next pit stop faint and very close to stopping but I got a banana in my hand ASAP and moved on before I had the option. Despite dealing with it I new the banana was only a stop gap to the inevitable, an end was coming to this first day of running and I wanted to go as far as I possibly could before reaching that end. We were now past the 50 mile mark and after 10 and a half hours of solid running it was a battle against the wall approaching.

Wobble, faint, light headedness arrived and an hour after I got hungry it was time to start stopping. I had already started thinking that I need to stop when im still moving or tomorrow will be impossible. I was empty, flat, nothing left in my legs. At one stage my mum jumped out the car and slow as I was running she was walking alongside me. I had reached my end point. Day 1 was over and the relief on my joints when I sat down in the cottage cannot be described. The atmosphere was really bubbling and we were all talking about the challenges of Day 1, how surreal it was running straight into Michelle and brevan, how nice was this cottage, how was I going to conquer the stairs and what would I do if I was in this much pain in the morning?

Farmer (Michelle) inquired over the sleeping arrangements and there was debate over the double bed. Yapper sat on the couch and never moved till morning. Brevan and I took the singles even though Farmer insisted I take the double. I showered, lay down on the bed and told myself I was going to feel fresh when I woke up. I repeated it in my head over and over.
 
6and a half hours later I woke up. I sat up cautiously. I didn’t feel anything. Again I told myself I’m going to feel strong. I moved my legs to the side of the bed. I still didn’t feel anything. I stood up and went to the bathroom and again I still didn’t feel anything. By the time I got down stairs Emily, Becks and Lyson had arrived all chatting to Mum and Dad outside who were now talking to Miss Rose who owned the cottage. I asked if I could pay her by card and out of nowhere she insisted that the cottage was on her. “Anyone crazy enough to run that far deserves a nights rest” or something to that end is what she said. For absolutely no reason The Rose’s were now a part of our run, a part of this weekend where I was on my feet on day two and now running with 4 friends plus Em on her bike. There was 38 miles to go till we reached Bath and I kept within touching distance to everyone for the first 6 miles. Brevan was running for the first time, Lyson was running the furthest he had ever run, Becks to and I was attempting to complete the trip from London. After 6 miles and I have to write this, two gates got between us and the next stage on the canal. All the boys ran on and I took great pleasure after all my miles to point out that I was still the gentleman of the group as I backtracked to lift Emily’s bike over the two gates.:)

After 7 miles on day two my race ended. From nowhere I hit a wall that I didn’t think I could over come. I was completely flat with nothing left. Emily and Becks will both vouch to this. I tried energy bars, gels, bread and nothing gave me any kind of lift. My ankles had started to ache, occasionally a piercing pain would shoot through my foot like I had stepped on a nail, I was later to discover that my feet were starting to bruise at this stage and that shooting pain was pressure on the bruise that became the beginning of very swollen ankles. I kept on complaining to Emily who would become accustomed to my expressions of pain but having someone to listen to my complaints I realised was possibly not helping me so I asked if Becks and Em could cycle on and let me try to catch them up. For the first few minutes there was nothing apart from becks and Emily getting smaller and smaller in the distance. I kind of thought that was stupid. Now ill be stumbling to the end on my own. Then I set myself a target, I pressed play on my Ipod and started running with the simple goal of moving for ten minutes. I reached ten minutes almost immediately and set myself the same target again. I ran solidly like this without a break for the next 2 and half hours where I caught up with everyone for lunch and for a short period I actually over took the group running at a stupid pace that I myself new I wouldn’t sustain but it was eating up the miles in the meantime so I went with it. I felt stronger than I had felt at any point in the whole race. After a few miles the guys passed me by again but I managed to catch everyone up again for one of the most special moments of the run as we all collapsed on the side of the canal for lunch. At this stage Eamon insisted I get rid of some of the unused items of my back pack. The deodorant I had somehow forgotten about was quickly chucked along with a spare set of clothes still in there from yesterday. Lighter back pack would make a difference especially at this stage and in the pain I was now in but at the time I was running with a rhythm and I did not want to part with any of those items from my bag. I got over it after the first few steps.

Running through Devizes I new we were within 20miles of Bath and bumping into Anne Stokes and family was an incredible lift at such a crucial stage. Anne was waiting with balloons soon to be tied to my back pack, her daughter and granddaughter and gave me a cheque for over £400 raised by St Johns School but more than that, just seeing them along the way really encouraged me to keep on moving and from this point on I never doubted I could make it to Bath.

The pain at this point I should emphasise was excruciating, I could still hold conversation and I was still making light of my pain but everything was a countdown to reaching Bradford and the final leg. I moved for the next 14 miles from Devizes dreaming of Bradford and when I seen becks, farmer, eamon, brev, Lyson all there, at the canal waiting for the final stretch I got a second wind. At this stage it lasted a full 200yards but it got me to the lock for our final leg. We had five miles to go and everything in me ached. My feet were swollen and every step felt like I was implanting 5 or 6 nails each time into the bottom of my feet. This was obvious to em and Lyson as my groans were upon every step but we stumbled on and together we made it through the dark, along the canal from London to Bath. My rhythm was gone; I forced my legs forward with every step.

It was dark at the bottom of Brassknocker Hill. Emily was lost. Lyson after two years in Bath didn’t know where he was but we were there. I had driven this route for 9 months and we were just a mile from bath. Emily contemplated cycling another ten miles rather than cycling up Brassknocker Hill. I was kind of insistent in my head that we had ran together and we were now going to finish together so I grabbed the bike and started cycling toward the lights. This hill is massive, the monster at the back of bath, it wyndes from side to side its so steep, cars race up it at 40+miles per hour slowing only for the bends. There are no paths, there are no places to hide. When you start going up it you have no choice but to continue or be run over. Emily jumped in the car. Lyson was running but a bit behind me. I had lights on me and I peddled, peddled hard, the burn began early on in the hill as I new it would but I pushed through, after almost cycling into a ditch witnessed by everyone, Farmer, Reynolds and Brevan eventually went past us in the car which is when we lost our protection, I kept on going. Success is a simple matter of hanging on when others let go, so I kept on hanging on. Kept on keeping. Burn burned then just after half way as cars were zooming past me I thought about Lyson and the fact he had no lights so I paused. I waited for him to catch me up so we could go forth together with light and the cars could chase us up the hill at least seeing we were both there. Half way up Lyson had sweat dripping off him. I tried to start the bike but every time I pushed the peddle down I rolled backwards down the hill, it was to steep. My legs after close to a hundred miles never had the strength to push start the bike so Lyson was charged to give me a push start. We made it to the top of Brassknocker hill just after 10:55pm which meant I had been running for 22hours 25 minutes since I had left London the day before. Reaching the top of Brassknocker with Lyson was the best moment of the hundred. What a run. What a weekend. What a team to have achieved this. 5 friends ran further than they had ever ran before each completing their first marathon or ultra marathon.

 None of it would have been the same without all of it. Yapper, Farmer, Brevan, Becks, Emre, Zulu, Skillz, Pardyji, Stokes1,2&3, The Rose's or the Mary's (TBC), that cottage, mum and dad. 5PBs in two days and I can honestly say I saw the number ten in everyone in this weekend. I’m Inspired!!! At 1055pm on Saturday 20th June I made my way into Bath with huge appreciation for those that helped along the way. Strangely it was sharing this experience and seeing friends achieve big distances that gave me the most pleasure in the aftermath of my run. Seeing everyone together on Saturday night, realising that Pardy ji was a former student of farmers. Talking about Brevans bonk after missing Devizes or Becks disappearing act as she beat us all home, sharing the painful part with Emily on her bike by my side and the thrill of seeing the support crew in Farmer and Yapper, Mum and Dad and the Stokes. We made it and it turned out to be one of the most rewarding and funniest weekends of 2009. Strangely I would recommend 100miles to anyone. 1 Marathon, 3 Ultra marathons, plus a hundred mile monster meant 5 personal bests for me and friends along the way. Truly inspired and thanks to everyone who has donated to our cause. Can’t wait to get these books out to Zambia. One love, one time. Power to the pearl jam and when you are feeling physically lower than you’ve ever felt before in your life, when you’ve got shooting pains driving through your feet after 90 miles on the open road, put up the volume and press play, you are truly only ever half way there, there is always something left. 
 
Ill never forget this weekend and I don’t think anyone involved will either. No matter how difficult it got along the way, I stupidly promise you that with friends like these and a bucket load of determination you are always more able than you think and more powerful than you know, keep on moving and you will always get to where you wanna go.

If you'v made it this far thanks for reading and for all your support.

Derek