World renowned Bristol runner prepares for "suffer-fest" around Britain
Nick Butter will attempt to run 200 marathons around the coast of Great Britain in 100 days
Last updated 16th Apr 2021
A world renowned Bristol marathon runner is about to embark on his most grueling challenge yet.
Nick Butter, who is the first ever person to have run a marathon in every country around the world, will tomorrow begin an attempt to run all the way around the coast of Britain in 100 days.
Starting and finishing at the Eden Project in Cornwall, it will involve running two marathons a day, every day, for the duration of the task.
He's doing it to raise money for his 196 Foundation, named after his original challenge to run a marathon in all 196 countries across the globe, which he completed two years ago.
Recently we caught up with him to find out about his latest adventure.
"Since running the world has been a whirlwind," he said.
"Obviously this little factor of a pandemic has had a huge impact and so we've been really busy trying to plan trips ready for when we could then travel again.
"Fortunately living in a van with my girlfriend Nikki and our puppy Poppy, we've been relatively self contained and not having too much problem.
"But we have managed, in between the two different eras of the pandemic, we managed to go and run North to South of Italy, so I managed to do 100 marathons in 100 days.
"So I've kind of tested this upcoming mission already."
During his 196 challenge Nick had to run in extreme heat and extreme cold. He was robbed at gunpoint, shot at, attacked by dogs and even suffered a minor heart attack in Samoa, but despite all that he feels running around Britain in such a short time period will be his hardest task yet.
"What I love about this journey is that it is actually more miles than when I did running the world, in a fraction of the time," he said.
"So I'm going to be running for about, between 11 hours and 14 hours (a day) depending on the hills and how tired I am.
"So that is literally it. For 100 days all my life is running, running running and then sleep."
For the duration of the challenge, which he's said is likely to be a "suffer-fest" Nick will follow a strict routine of getting up at 5am and having breakfast, before starting two consecutive marathons at 6:30am.
He will run anti-clockwise around the coast, finishing with the, (in his words) "rather brutal" South West coastal path.
"I'm really looking forward to what it has to offer, but in all honesty I am terrified of being able to keep going because I am going to be so exhausted," he said.
Taking the difficulty into account, on this challenge Nick will run with a support team, in contrast to his 196 challenge during which he largely ran on his own.
As an example of how physical a challenge it is likely to be, he told us how during his run through Italy, his body fat levels decreased from around 11-12 percent down to 2.8 percent.
HIs 196 challenge was done in aid of Prostate Cancer UK, but this time around he will be raising money for his own 196 Foundation so he can support multiple charities instead of just one.
"We're aiming to help charities, organisations, groups of people all over the world, and all we're asking from the general public is a donation of £1.96 a month.
"That goes into a pot and every year we deliver one project to a cause that is voted for by the donors."
He calls the system "democratic donorship".
Nick will start his Run Britain challenge at 6am on Saturday (17/04) at the Eden Project in Cornwall.
If you want to find out more about it, including the route and how to donate, you can do so here.