7 Marathons - Final Thoughts.

'So, 7 Marathons is finished.  Kevin has successfully completed his 7 runs in a week, we have slept off the tiredness, eased the aching muscles (well maybe !) and we have all gone back to the the "Day Job" !  But before we close the chapter I think it is worthwhile just having a quick look back at what Kevin has achieved here.


Here are a few facts and figures for our little adventure:

• Kevin has run a total of 295.4km in a total time of 31 hours and 4 minutes.....to save you the maths, that is covering 1km every 6 minutes and 17 seconds or an average speed of 9.5 km/hr.
• In supporting Kevin, I have traveled a total of 19,600 km in a total time of 11 days and 10 hours.  When I worked this out as an average speed it came to a very disappointing speed of on 71.5 km/hr.....only seven times faster than Kevin was travelling and he was doing it under his own power where as I had the help of the internal combustion engine and a few of jet powered aeroplanes !
• In total, we had over 100 runners who turned out to run alongside Kevin at various times during the week all of whom ran superbly, no matter how far their chosen distance was.....thank you for your support.

From my perspective, the event has been outstanding and I am so pleased that Kevin gave me the opportunity to be involved with this challenge.  From start to end it has been great fun, challenging and rewarding in equal measure.


At this point I need to say a few thank you's to the people who have given Kevin and me some great support in put this event on.  

• Eva Lefèvre in Belgium
• Jacqueline Theuns in Holland
• Per Vikman in Sweden
• Rønnaug Vinje in Norway
• Rachid Azzi in France
• Gary Thompson in USA
• Sharon Finch in UK
• Elaine Cole (Kevin's PA) for all her help booking travel and hotels.

There is always a fear that you miss people out when you start to name individuals and I am well aware that the people I name here had some great support from the teams in their countries....thank you too to all those others, too many to mention, who helped put this event together, we could not have done it without you.


I couldn't really end my blogging of the event without including something from Kevin himself !  This is what he had to day:


"I really enjoyed this challenged and was very surprised in what I achieved. However I am certain that without the huge amount of support I got from so many people both organizers and runners this would not been possible. I therefore see this as a team achievement for which I was lucky enough to play a role. Thank you."

Let us also not forget what the purpose behind Kevin's run was....raising funds for his favorite charity Kidscape.  This is what Claude Knights, Director of Kidscape had to say:

"We are so proud of Kevin’s 7 Marathons achievement. This is another challenge that Kevin has undertaken on behalf of the Kidscape charity.  His belief in stamping out bullying has enthused him to raise funds for us regularly, through numerous events, but this must be his biggest challenge yet.  


I was there along with other Kidscape staff, family and friends to wave him off on his final marathon. Despite just flying in from Atlanta he looked refreshed and eager to run. He completed the final marathon in a great time and with amazing style.

Kevin’s fundraising efforts will make a big difference to the lives of bullied children. On their behalf we say a huge thank you and well done to Kevin."

Don't also forget, it is still not too late to sponsor Kevin through his Just Giving Website:

And finally, I would like to say a great big thank you to YOU, the readers of this blog.  In the last few weeks we have had over 2000 hits on the blog and knowing that there have been lots of people following what we have been doing has made it so much more enjoyable.  I'll let you all know what the next Challenge is.....when we have all fully recovered from this one !!!!!!

7 Marathons Challenge - Marathon 7; London, UK 02/10/11

The day dawned at 38,000 feet somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic as we returned to the UK from Atlanta.  The last two days had always been my major concern as there was very little slack in our program, both Kevin and I would be getting tired by this point and I knew these couple of days wouldn't involve much sleeping.  As it was, both of us managed to grab a few hours sleep on the return flight.  In fact, Kevin's wory was more about calorie intake and he spent the flight scavenging food from various sources including one of the stewardesses in flight meal (of a dried up sandwich) and a couple of leftover main meals.


To ease my planning worries we landed 30 minutes ahead of time and were very quickly through security, baggage reclaim and customers.  Kevin's wife and daughter were at the airport to collect us and we then drove to Uxbridge to collect my car and the equipment we needed for the day from the UK HQ Offices where we had left it 8 days ago.....although it seems longer than this to me for some inexplicable reason !  After this it was a blast around the M25 to get to Hackney Wick where we were meeting for the car parking.


This was the days one and only problem.....when we arrived there was a football competition go on and the car park was full to overflowing.  Fortunately, the competition was just finishing and some parking spaces soon became available.


There was a good turnout for the event both in runners and supporters.  There were 5 other runners taking part from the start, cheered on by Kevin's family, families of the other runners and also some great support from the guys at Kidscape who are the charity for which Kevin has been running.


After about an hour of preparations our little group of about 30 people walked the 2km from the car parking to the start at Old Ford Lock on the Lea Valley Navigation, right in the shadow of the new 2012 Olympics athletics stadium.  After a quick photo shoot it was time to go.


As with a number of races this week it was HOT....about 28 degrees, and due to the relative remote route we knew that getting drinks would be tricky so I cycled along ahead of the runners, making sure that they knew the right direction to take and to pas them food and drinks as they needed them.  At the start of the race I was carry about 10 litres of drinks in my rucksack which made it quite heavy.....at least it got lighter as the day went on !


The route proceeded 13km up the Lea Valley Navigation Canal to Lea Valley Athletics Centre and was very busy with walkers and cyclists on a lovely sunny autumn day.  At the Athletics Centre we joined in the Family Fun day being organised for the Edmonton Site and Kevin and his runners were well supported as they ran around the 200 metre indoor track for 14 laps.  This was also a good opportunity to restock my rucksack with water and Powerade....back up to 10 litres again....groan !  Whilst we were at the Athletics Centre we were aslo able to grab a hog roast sandwich for each of the runners and we all set off back down the canal chomping away.







The return route was 11km back the way we had come to Hackney Marshes where Kevin and his support team completed 4 laps of a 3.5 km course before finally running the last 2km back to Old Ford Locks where we had started earlier in the day.  Kevin finished the route in 4 hrs 48 minutes and 32 seconds....an excellent time given the temperature and his exertions of the last week !  We were met at the finish by Kevin's family.....happy to have him back in one piece !


Distance traveled today:  6,750 km
Total distance traveled:  19,200 km


Distance run by Kevin today:  42.2 km
Total distance run by Kevin:  295.4 km



Check back here later this week for the "summary and wind up" posting !

7 Marathons - FINISHED!

Just to let everyone know that Kevin completed the London leg of his little escapade.  Today was very hot and another tiring race but Kevin completed in a time of 4 hrs 48 minutes 32 seconds.

I will post a more full account tomorrow.....when I am more awake :-)

7 Marathons - Competition Time !

Now that we are approaching the end of 7 Marathons I thought it was time to get some interaction going with readers.  We have had well over 1200 hits on the blog so far which is fantastic.....time to get you involved.

Whilst Kevin has been running I have spent quite a bit of time listening to tunes on my iPod.....so my challenge is......who can think of a good tune to sum up Kevin's achievements here ????

Here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing:

• REM - Everybody Hurts.
• U2 - Running to Stand Still.
• Madness - One Step Beyond.

Post your ideas as comments.....the best one (in my humble opinion!) posted by Friday will be the subject of a video post !

Get thinking.

7 Marathons Challenge - Marathon 6; Atlanta, USA 01/10/11

When the alarm went at 05:00 I felt decidedly un-rested after just 4 hours sleep in the last 36 hours !  But today was Marathon 6 so there was no time for lying around sleeping!  After a quick shower I met Kevin in the hotel reception at 05:45 and we set off for the 5 minute drive to the Company HQ building here in Atlanta.

Being 6am and a Saturday morning is was still dark and, not surprisingly, very quiet !  After a quick photo shoot (just to prove we did actually go there) Kevin set off on his run.  Yesterday I had made some changes to the route as we couldn't gain access to the parkland we wanted to run in until after sunrise so the first few kilometres were completed around a short road loop close to the office building.


Google maps is a very good planning tool in telling you the distance of the routes you choose.....what it fails to tell you is the elevation change and there was a reasonably substantial hill on this loop that Kevin had to run up seven times.....I am sure he was cursing me by the end of this!


I also felt a bit self concious sitting beside the road in the pitch black with a stopwatch and a clipboard.  At one point a police car trundled past, did a U-Turn and came back for a second look at what I was doing.......I was trying to work out whether to telling the truth about "timing someone running a marathon" would be believed !!!!  Obviously I looked trustworthy (goodness knows how !!!!) because they didn't stop.

As the day dawned, Kevin ran back past the HQ building and off to the entrance to the Chattahoochee River National Recreational Area where the plan was 6 laps of 3.3 km around the "Cochran Shoals Trail".  This trail is clearly the Atlanta runners favourite running location as it was packed, even at 07:30 on a Saturday morning.....and never quietened down all the time we were there.  


It is a very picturesque bit of woodland down along the river bank and Gary, our local coordinator, needs a big thank you for his recommendation on using this area....it was very pleasant for me sitting on a bench watching all the runners exercising in the early morning sun and passing Kevin food and drink each time he passed......I think Kevin found it pleasant running too.....but not as relaxing as my morning!


After the laps here it was then a 5km road run back past our hotel and up to the finish at Brumby Elementary School where staff from the HQ were taking part in a Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability (CRS) week event helping the pupils do some gardening and planting some trees and flowers.


As Kevin approached the finish he got a rousing welcome from staff, parents, pupils and teachers, which was a very nice way to finish what was a lovely run.  Running early here was clearly a good thing as the morning was nice and cool but bright and it made for good running conditions and he completed the course looking very fresh in a time of 4 hours and 37 minutes.


It also gave us plenty of time to refuel depleted energy reserves with a very nice burger and fries before we made our way back to the airport, returned the hire car and checked in for our 9:15pm flight.


So.....one more marathon to go.  We sleep on the plane tonight (well, if we manage any sleep that is) and run in London tomorrow afternoon when we get back.....I think that is going to be hard work!  The forecast is for more hot weather :-(


Check back tomorrow to see how we get along.....and also check out how Kevin is doing on his fund raising on his Just Giving website.

Distance travelled today:  50 km
Total distance travelled:  12,450 km


Distance run by Kevin today:  42.2 km
Total distance run by Kevin:  253.2 km

30/09/11 - We had a day off !!!!

It's going to be a quick blog tonight.....we were up at 05:00 UK time to undertake our little journey across the Atlantic.  Today reminded me of the Steve Martin film "Planes, Trains and Automobiles".....taxi from the hotel to the RER Station, 2 trains across Paris to get to Charles De Gaul Airport, a flight to London Heathrow and then a second flight to Atlanta, collected a hire car and drove to where we are running tomorrow.....we could have done with a boat to get pretty much every form of transport in possible....and maybe a horse and cart or a bicycle !!!  We eventually checked in at nearly 23:00 US time which is 04:00 UK time......as I write this it is midnight here and I have been on the go for 24 hours....and we are up at 05:00 tomorrow to start the run at 06:00 !


Whilst it has been a very long day, it hasn't been too stressful for Kevin.  Being a BA Gold Card Member he was able to get us both into the First Class Lounge at Heathrow and was sipping champagne whilst waiting for his flight.....this helped to ensure he also managed a bit of sleep on the transatlantic trip so he isn't looking too bad.  It will be interesting to see how his legs feel tomorrow after a day of not running.


My day, on the other hand has been a little tense at times.  Gary, my planning colleague from Atlanta dropped a little bombshell into an e-mail yesterday in that we cannot get access to the park where we were planning on running until after sunrise which is 07:30......the plan we had was that we would be heading in soon after 06:30 so I spent a happy couple of hours re-doing the planning for the first hour and a half of tomorrow's race to take in some loops around the streets near the Corporate HQ offices.  It is wonderful what you can do with a computer and Google Maps on the web.


Unfortunately, when we arrived here this evening and had a quick drive around this new route it became apparent very quickly that we had put far too much climbing up hills into the route and so I have spent the last hour re-planning for a second time !


Sorry....no pictures today, hopefully we will get plenty tomorrow to make up for it.


Distance travelled today:  7,200 km
Total distance travelled:  12,400 km


Distance run by Kevin today:  0.0 km
Total distance run by Kevin:  211.0 km

7 Marathons Challenge - Marathon 5; Grigny, Paris 29/09/11

Okay, before I write about today's race I just want to give readers a quick reminder of the good cause behind our challenge.....Kidscape are a UK based charity that provide support for children that have been or are experiencing bullying or abuse.  You can find out more about Kidscape in an earlier blog and donations can be made through Kevin's Just Giving Website.  

So.....back to the marathons !  Today we were in Paris.  It was hot.  No....that is an understatement.....it was extremely hot....about 30 degrees.  Our time in Dongen showed that Kevin, high temperatures and marathon running are not a good combination so we were a little nervous about how today would go.  The race was held at the Grigny Site on the southern side of Paris and we arrived on site at about 10am to meet Rachid, the coordinator of this event.  It was also good that Kevin's procurement team from France were also on site today....many to run and the rest to give moral support.

All in all there were about 35 runners taking part and they all congregated in the site canteen soon after 11am for a quick pasta lunch before getting ready to run.  We started the race soon after midday from outside the main entrance to the site offices and this was followed by a downhill 3km run through the town of Grigny to Les Lacs de l’Essonne which are some very pretty lakes and a nature reserve.  The race then completed 9 laps of 4km around the lakes before a final run back up the steep hill and back to the site.


Everything went well for the first 3 or 4 laps but slowly the heat began to take its toll, not just on Kevin but all the runners as well.  After starting out at about 4 hour pace the running speed soon dipped to about 4 hrs and 30 minutes pace which, given the temperatures, was probably a good thing.


The support from the staff at Grigny and France Procurement (all kitted out in the "Allez Kevin" race tops was excellent, cheering and supporting Kevin around the laps and he kept going well.....drinking plenty of Powerade and fuelled by a steady supply of bananas and sports energy gels!


After the 9 laps it was then time to tackle the hill back to the site......which was very steep, but with the support of about 10 runners Kevin soon made it to the top.  At this point we had a minor problem with the route in that there had been a major failure on a natural gas pipeline on one of the roads that we wanted to go do and this had been closed by the police.  There was traffic chaos everywhere, not helped but 11 runners, 3 cyclists an Ambulance and a couple of cars trying to complete their marathon !  After a diversion of maybe 1km we did get back to the site and finished in a very respectable time of 4 hours 45 minutes 12 seconds.


The huge turnout of runners and staff from the site at the finish was awesome and they put on a superb spread of food and drinks for all the runners, supporters and helpers.


Without doubt, France wins the prize so far for the hottest event, the most food and also the most runners taking part.....well done to Rachid and the team at Grigny for organising such a wonderful event.  


Well, that is 5 marathons in 5 days.....and both Kevin and I are exhausted !  Well I am....and I have only been doing the coordination and planning.....goodness knows how Kevin must be feeling !  The running has certainly taken it's toll on his feet with some extremely impressive blisters on his toes !


But tonight we have a chance to have a bit of a rest as we are staying over in Paris this evening before flying to Atlanta USA (via Heathrow) tomorrow.  We may even manage a beer or two ;-)



Distance travelled today:  25 km
Total distance travelled:  5200 km


Distance run by Kevin today:  42.2 km
Total distance run by Kevin:  211.0 km

7 Marathons Challenge - Marathon 4; Lørenskog, Oslo 28/09/11

Today we reached the halfway point with an excellent race in at the Site at Lørenskog near Oslo, Norway.  Today was an early start for me with a taxi to the site at 06:45 in order to meet up with Rønnaug Vinje, Jeanette Dejligbjerg and Hans Palmgren who were the local oragnising team for today's race.  The early start was to help get the route marked out and accurately measured, a task which took about 90 minutes to complete.

This having been done it was time to get the start and finish area arranged.  Without any doubt, the Lørenskog team win the "biggest start and finish banner" award so far with a massive, 10 metre wide inflatable branded banner...this banner had been used for the Oslo Marathon last weekend....and if it was good enough for 20,000 athletes there, it was certainly acceptable for us to use today ! 


The race kicked off a few moments ahead of the scheduled start time of 10:15 with Kevin supported by 4 guys from the site who raced with him for much of today's race.  The area around the site at Lørenskog is beautiful...forests and lakes and some nice residential areas to run through.....it also had some added features that have been absent over the first 3 races.....hills !!!!  The route headed out of the site along some nice pathways and down a steep hillside before picking up a very nice 4.7 km loop around the town.


Rønnaug and Jeanette who had planned the course had arranged for the first aid and refreshment station to be located next to a very picturesque swimming lake in the town which proved to be a very pleasant location from which to watch the race.  The loop did contain one quite steep hill that needed to be ascended.....okay for the first 4 laps but increasingly hard work for the last 4 laps of the 8 loops.


By the end of lap 6, Kevin had run out of pace makers and was running on his own.  At the end of lap 7, Kevin dropped his bombshell....."I have no idea of the way back to the site, I will need someone to show me" he said causally as he ran past. Gulp.....I looked at Rønnaug, Jeanette and Hans.....I was the one with running gear so it was down to me !  


At least I had 30 minutes to get changed and stretch before Kevin back into view after his last lap and we set off on the final 20 minutes climbing back up the steep hill to be met by a large crowd from the site cheering Kevin to his finish in a very respectable time of 4 hours, 5 minutes and 48 seconds.  The Norwegians were disappointed that Kevin's time was slower than yesterday in Sweden but immediately identified the hills as the cause....some good rivalry between the Scandinavians !!!!


Once again it was a quick round of thank you's and goodbye's before Kevin and I headed back to the hotel for the ice bath.  Today's ice bath won the "coldest so far" prize as the hotel provided the largest quantity of ice so far by quite some margin !


After the bath it was back on the road again, off to Oslo Airport for our flights to Paris and Marathon 5.



Distance travelled today:  1450 km
Total distance travelled:  5175 km


Distance run by Kevin today:  42.2 km
Total distance run by Kevin:  168.8 km

7 Marathons Challenge – Marathon 3; Jordbro, Sweden. 27/09/11

After the heat of yesterday in Holland it was nice that this morning dawned cool and clear and it promised to be a much better day for running.  After breakfast, I left Kevin in the hotel doing his stretching and took a Taxi to the site which was only about 10 minutes away.  I met up with Arne Dahlberg and Per Vikman who were the coordinating team for the day and then went with Per to have a look at the course and help put out the route markings.

Today's route was quite different from the last couple of days.  After the start there were 6 laps of the site car park followed by 16 laps of about 2.5 km along roads around the perimeter of the site.


Kevin arrived on site soon after 09:30 and a group of eager support runners congregated for the start at 10:30. As expected, the temperature was about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday in Dongen and this made for much better running conditions and Kevin set off at a good pace.


After yesterday's tough running conditions, Kevin had asked that I provide him pace advice as he completed each lap.  The maths suggested a time of just over 18 minutes per lap was needed for his desired running time of 5 hours and as he passed the end of the lap for the first time he was 4 minutes up on this pace.  "Too fast" was my cry.....you need to slow down.


The second lap was also 14 minutes......"Too fast" I shouted.  The third lap was also 14 minutes....."Still too fast" I pleaded.  The fourth lap was....well, you guessed it, 14 minutes.  I gave up trying to pace him thinking that his legs would eventually slow him down a bit !!!!


The Jordbro team did us proud today with about a dozen runners coming out to run laps with Kevin....from one lap all the way up to Martin who ran the whole thing !  In the end, Kevin never did slow his pace and kept on pushing the laps out at 14 minutes per lap which resulted in an excellent time of 3 hours 54 minutes and 41 seconds for the full marathon distance.


After the race, Kevin suggested that the format of short laps had helped him keep a very consistent pace and  along with the cool weather, it had made the event really quite straight forward.  Certainly from an organisational angle, this format is the easiest to organise as it allows us to provide food, drinks and medical support at regular intervals without having to use loads of resources.


After the race it was, once again, back to the hotel for the oligatory ice bath and then catching the taxi to Arlanda Airport for more food and then our onward flight to Oslo.


Distance travelled today:  550 km
Total distance travelled:  3725 km


Distance run by Kevin today:  42.2 km
Total distance run by Kevin:  126.6 km

7 Marathons Challenge – Marathon 2; Dongen, Holland. 26/09/11

Day 1 was hot and hard….day 2 was hotter and harder!!!  After breakfast and a quick packing of bags we set off for the site in time to be there soon after 9am.  Kevin has an appointment with the site physio for a relaxing massage of weary muscles whilst I went over the final race plans with Jacqueline (the local organiser) and her team.

Today’s run was quite complex logistically.  We started on the Dongen Site with 3 laps around the site perimeter.  After this it was about 10 km along the country lanes surrounding the site and into the City of Dongen for a visit to the local Athletics Centre where we were met by members of the local council.  At the Athletics Centre, Kevin had to run 10 laps of the track before heading back out onto country lanes for a further 24km of running to return back to the site.

Kevin was joined by runners for Dongen and Londerzel Sites for various distances, from 1km up to the full marathon….about 20 runners in total.

To keep the runners safe we had a small convoy of vehicles….a lead car to close the roads, a chase car to keep Kevin and his co-runners fuelled with water and drinks, a taxi minibus to ferry runners to and from their relevant start and finish points and finally, the Site Safety Manager on his moped to coordinate the whole activity.  There were also a couple of members of the sales team positioned at strategic points with more food and drinks.  Jacqueline and her team had done a superb job on all this organisation and it all came together very smoothly.

However…..today was HOT.  The cars were reading 28 degrees and there was only a slight breeze to keep the runners cool.  Kevin also admitted after the run that he had let his machismo get in the way and had allowed the pace to be slightly faster in the first half of the run than he should have and, as a consequence, the second half of the run was pretty hard work.  However, he did record a very good time of 4 hours and 23 minutes, faster than yesterday!

I did also find one or two items that I had missed on the event risk assessment during today’s run as follows (fortunately these were only observations and not real accidents):

1.       Head injuries caused by falling acorns and nuts from the trees.

2.       Being run over by the chase car that gets too close.

3.       Being electrocuted by the electric animal control grids that cross the roads.

4.       Eating lunch on a moped!!!!

We made a quick exit after the run as we had quite a short time window to get to Schiphol Airport for this evening’s flight to Stockholm.  So after saying our goodbye’s and thank you’s we set off back to the hotel for Kevin’s ice bath and then for the run north to the airport.  In the end, we had plenty of time and managed a bite to eat at the airport before the flight at 20:15.

Add to this a 2 hour flight and a 1 hour taxi ride and it was a quite late arrival at the hotel this evening.....I think I will sleep well tonight !



Distance travelled today:  1300 km
Total distance travelled:  3175 km


Distance run by Kevin today:  42.2 km
Total distance run by Kevin:  84.4 km