Some people believe mankind evolved to run long distances daily, but modern living has all but extinguished our ability to lope effortlessly across the landscape.

Hugh Williams-Preece is about to find out whether evolution or industrialisation has the upper hand. On 3 March 2010 he intends to start running in Lisbon and run a marathon every day until he reaches London, 50 days later. That’s a total distance of 1310 miles.

It’s crazy, of course, but Hugh has his reasons:

“I like the idea of pushing myself to extremes and seeing what the limit is”

“it’s good to do something that really inspires other people, perhaps to start running or to take up their own challenge.”

“it seemed like a good idea when I thought of it while on holiday in Lisbon last year”

Hugh is also raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. He hopes to raise enough to fund 1,000 hours of care by two Marie Curie nurses.

Hugh training with his operations manager, Matt Pain

Whether evolution designed us to run or not, completing 50 marathons requires serious training. Hugh started his preparation in September 2009 with runs lasting an hour or so. Under the guidance of Greg White, who coached Eddie Izzard on his marathon bid and David Williams for his channel swim, Hugh has gradually increased his running time to five hours over the last few months. He typically runs between 15 and 30 miles per day.

Perhaps surprisingly, the training regime includes weekly track sessions where Hugh runs intervals of between 200m and 1,000m. On top of that, he does both a core stability and a strength training session each week.

Training at this intensity takes a heavy toll on the body. When we spoke to Hugh he was taking three days out of training to rest some niggling knee problems. Apart from that though, the preparation has so far gone really well, and hard-training triathletes could perhaps learn from some of Hugh’s body maintenance tricks. These include: two days rest per week, ice baths, regular massage, wearing compression socks at night and applying surgical spirit to his feet twice per week to prevent blisters.

Hugh is also sponsored by Optimum Nutrition who supply him with protein and recovery supplements. Doesn’t he find all these powdered drink mixes a little unpalatable? Not at all. “They taste great and have really tangible results,” he says. 

You can support Hugh by making a donation to Marie Curie here.

You can also run Hugh’s 50^th marathon with him, starting in Richmond Park and finishing in Parliament Square. Contact his operations manager, Matt Pain, for details.

Hugh’s website: www.50in50.co.uk

Hugh’s training schedule: www.50in50.co.uk/assets/HughTraining.xls

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