In early December a challenge appeared on my radar called The Longest Night and I instantly signed up. I had heard of the other challenge that was held back in June called The Longest Day where runners would head out on the hour, every hour for 24 hours during the longest day of the year. The format was going to be the same but most of the runs would be taking part in darkness.

I initially signed up as a challenge to myself now that I was starting to train for longer distance races and was going to simply run a mile from the house on the hour, every hour, but why not make things a bit harder and raise money for my chosen charity Colostomy UK?

To make it more difficult I would run at least one mile in each of the 20 wards in Newport which would mean having to travel across town between them and have less time recovering between runs. But why not making it harder still? So in addition to running at least a mile in each ward I would include at least one hill. And so was born the 24 Miles, 24 Hills, 24 Hours challenge.

Challenge Report

Rather than recreating the full challenge report, head over to my other site Beer Runner for a break down over each mile with photos and route maps along the way.

How Did I Find It?

It was one VERY tough challenge but one that I intentionally made tougher to both test my limits and to make a more worthwhile charity challenge to raise money for.

For most of the day I was criss-crossing across town to the different wards in Newport. This meant that I would end up sitting down a lot (either driving or waiting to run) and as any ultra runner will know, you should always ‘beware the chair’. Over time the combination of aching legs and sitting down made things uncomfortable. As the runs got closer to home I was able to head back home but only for a short period.

Then there are the hills! I think I managed to run most of the steepest hills in Newport and that took its toll on my legs. I think if it was a flat mile every hour it would have be easier (not easy, but perhaps less tough).

Staying awake proved to be straightforward no doubt due to having to drive around all night in addition to the running. Apart from sitting in the car I didn’t really sit down at other times. If I was running from home that probably would have been a different story.

I’m posting this three days after completing the challenge and my legs are still ruined from running up, but mainly running down so many steep hills!

Raising Money for ColostomyUK

As of December 23rd, over 50 wonderful people had donated an amazing £770 to my chosen charity Colostomy UK who help support ostomates like myself. This far exceeded my original target of £150 and due to it being close to Christmas I wasn’t sure how many people would support me so I’m extremely grateful that so many did.

A Huge Thank You to the Following

Roni, Katie, Charlotte and Paul, Sam, M&S, Ant, Rach and Jon, Linda, Sarah, Team Ozum, Michael and Denise, Jonathan, Louise, Paul, Trudy, Sammi, Suzanne, Rich, Mik, Rachel and Family, Helen, Rob, Sue, Daisy, Jon, Samantha, Mike and Caroline, Martin, Louise, Beth, Ali, Ian, Helen, Paul, Andrew, Tania, Mum and Dad, Lee and Mel, parkrun Toast Friends, Luciano, The Webbs, James, Rhiannon and the Anonymous donators.

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Diagnosed with IBD in 2002, I have experienced the usual ups and downs of having a chronic disease and tried numerous medications but the time finally came in 2018 to elect to have surgery to improve my life. I had the surgery in 2019 and this is my journey having a 'New Bum'.

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