Willenhall man getting set for a 100 mile run up Snowdon.

Express & Star

A man from Willenhall that is already a record holder is getting ready for an epic run up Snowdon, covering 100 miles. We catch up with him to find out more.

Transcript

00:00We're here in Willanall with Edward Molyneux, am I pronouncing that right?

00:04Yeah.

00:05Cool, great stuff. Edward, you're surrounded by a few, just a few medals that you've earned from

00:10running your gig. Yeah. Yeah, so talk us through, what have we got here, the medals from previous

00:15outings? So the first three medals are from GB Altruist, the top Altruist in the UK,

00:20and these are 350 milers I've done. 350 miles? 50 miler, 50 miler, 50 miler.

00:2850, a run of 50 miles? Yeah. So that's like here to knocking on Manchester almost, isn't it? Yeah.

00:34So that one's Chester, 50 miler. That one's Wales, 50 miler to Barmouth and back. Yeah.

00:41From Manchester to Liverpool. Wow. And a big certificate there, let's zoom in on that,

00:48world record certificate. What was this all about then, Edward?

00:51So I got injured in 2022. I was waiting for operation, so I got pulled out of my training

00:58and I took on the world record, the world set it 102. And I did about 292 half marathons in a year.

01:08In a year? Yeah, in a year, yeah. And I mean, what is your body saying at the end of a year

01:13like that? You know, you end up with all kinds of sprains and aches and injuries, how's it work?

01:19Your body adapts to it. Your body gets used to it and mentally you just adjust. Yeah. When did you

01:24get into your running? Since I was about 80. Yeah. So I've been on and off with half marathons. Yeah.

01:30Since when lockdown kicked in, I started pushing my fitness. So I started cycling and I bought up

01:35to 300 miles cycling. Yeah. I bought from Skidnest to Aberystwyth. I cycled from all the way from

01:44Wales all the way down to here and I was just going up to 300 miles and then I started doing

01:47the ultra marathons. Oh wow. And then in May we attempted UTS World Series. Yeah. And then...

01:55So you've got a new challenge coming. Yeah. What's this new one? Yeah, talk us through it.

02:00What are you going to be doing then, chap? We're doing the GB Ultra Marathon in Snowdonia again.

02:04So it's the same one as UTS but the tyre is Xtreme. Yeah. But it's got a lot of incline.

02:10You've got a 42 hour cut off. So we're going to cross mountains for about 42 hour.

02:14So in 42 hours, you've got to do 100 miles. Yeah. And like you say, it's not all on the

02:19flat, is it? There's lots of ups and downs and that. So you're feeling confident? Yeah, 100%.

02:24So what have you done for your training then? Have you had to kind of find local hills to help

02:28with the training? So basically, I'm imagining doing a bit of underdale repeats. So like,

02:33because I can't get to Wales as much. So I'm imagining doing it up and down repetition.

02:39Yeah. Quite extreme. So I'm doing a half marathon up and down the hill.

02:44So in that period, there's no sleeping then, is there? No, no sleeping. We're just looking here,

02:49this is one of your training runs. Yeah. So how many, so what is it? Is it a 100 mile run,

02:53is it? Yeah. I've done that a couple of times. Yeah. And also, the Snowdonia, I'll show you 24,

03:02so that's the map for that. So we'd got to UTS, we attempted, I got from Latvia, my mate from

03:08Latvia. Yeah. And we both attempted the UTS 100 series. It's a wild series of trial running. Okay.

03:15And we got trench foot after 27 hours. Yeah. So what happens when you, oh. That was the feet

03:22after. Oh no, look how achy, squeamish, look at that. And that's after 27 hours of running? Yeah.

03:29You have to make the cutoffs and they're really strict. So you have to force feed and get back

03:33out. Yeah. Drink everything, it was dehydrated, the heat was bad. Yeah. And it was quite, so this

03:40time I'm more, I did another 50 more, that's when I did this one after UTS. Yeah. I did another 50

03:46more to get my body more ready for this one. So how do you avoid getting something like that

03:52happening to your feet again then? Looking after my feet more. Yeah. We'd only trained our socks

03:57for the, we only trained my socks once. So how often do you need, on this, when you're doing a

04:02hundred mile run, how often do you need to be changing your socks then? I'd say about, I'd say

04:06about four pairs. I'd say this time tech powder, tech blister, two times powder. Yeah. Just changing

04:13the plans. Don't, I can stick to the same habits. Just try and change it around. Yeah. I said my

04:20body were adapted enough, cause I've been, I've already been horse running for about a year.

04:24Yeah. And this is new to me still, so I'm, me doing these back to back the halves. Yeah. I'm

04:30doing about a hundred mile volume of half marathons to prepare for the ultras. Yeah. So

04:34this year as well, I've done 186 half marathons in five months. So what took me 10 months last

04:40time to get to 186 this year, I've fitted in 186 in about five months. So what is it you get from

04:50running? What is it you enjoy about it and the challenge of these distances? What is it? It's

04:54just overcoming yourself, just pushing yourself to the limit, inspiring other people, just

04:59offering other people, um, pushing myself running, people coming off drink, smoking. Yeah. Just

05:05offering other people, seeing other people change as well as myself. Just make a journey that you

05:10can see it's other people that them, them doing better in their life. Yeah. I'm doing better in

05:14my life and it's maxing the impact on them. That's fantastic, mate. Well, we wish you,

05:18when is this next challenge? In the two days, the next one. Yeah. Well, we wish you all the

05:23best for it, mate. Fingers crossed.

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