Walking 100km to fight heart disease

Chris Palmer and three of his friends tackled the London to Brighton 100k trek in June 2014 for the charity and this year he will tackle the second 100km trek with his son Jonathan.

Despite claiming that the London to Brighton trek was one of the toughest physical and mental challenges he has ever done, Mr Palmer is looking forward to completing a similar challenge for a second time with Jonathan.

He said: “It was in January 2014 when I decided I wanted a challenge, as you often do at that time of year. My father-in-law passed away in 2011 from heart failure, so the opportunity to pair a challenge with a cause that is important to me was perfect.

Chris managed to convince three of his friends this would be a great event to take part in and as one of his friends knew someone who had completed the trek the previous year, they were fully aware of how much preparation was needed and under no illusion it would be a walk in the park.

He said: “While we were prepared physically, I’m not sure we were prepared mentally. When it came to the big day, it was hot – the hottest day of 2014 so far! It eventually took us 28 hours to complete the 100km trek, walking non-stop throughout the night after starting at 8am the previous morning.

“We lost one of our team at 43 miles and another picked up an injury but carried on valiantly! We weren’t concerned with our time, we just wanted to finish the distance and feel that we had achieved something. It was while we were at the finish that one of the team confided in the rest of us that he’d previously completed in triathlons and this event was the hardest thing that he had ever done!”

“The whole event was such an incredible experience. You find your challenge yourself in so many ways both physically and mentally and to finish was just amazing. I even got away lightly as I only had two small blisters which was a lot less than some people.”

Having seen his dad complete the trek, Jonathan was determined he could beat their time. So in June 2015 Jonathan and his friend Robert took on the very same challenge and completed the distance in just over 23 hours.

Going head to head together, Mr Palmer added: “We have managed to recruit around seven to eight others to join us and we are continuing to speak to friends and family about signing up. Training will begin soon and we hope to raise even more than last time to help fund the BHF’s life saving research.”

To make a donation click here.