On 5th September 2020, James Gwinnett will set off on the Thames Path 100, a 100-mile running event which follows the towpath of the River Thames from Richmond in west London to the city of Oxford. A sportsman throughout his life, James Gwinnett, 36, has taken on many running and other challenges, including Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins Series 4, screened in 2019. Here he looks forward extending his endurance running to 100 miles.

See more about the Thames Path 100. You can follow James Gwinnett @jamesgwinnett

First a bit of Form
Exercise (and adventure) has always been a huge part of my life. Through school and university I played as many different sports as I could. Rugby was always my passion and I wasn’t too bad at it either, playing at a semi-professional level in my late 20s. I say ‘always’, but there was a three-year period when I lost my way a bit and forgot the importance of exercise to my physical and mental health. I suffered a bad neck injury during a rugby game and when I was told I could no longer play the game, I let depression – and alcoholism – get the better of me. But there’s a happy ending as I found my way out of this ‘dark period’ and committed to getting my fitness back on track.

Since then I have constantly sought to push my limits, by running marathons on several continents, a number of ultramarathons - including The Wall, a 69 mile single-day race following the course of Hadrian’s Wall from Carlisle to Newcastle – and taking on other mad endurance challenges like carrying a 40kg barbell up Snowdon! I was also lucky to be selected as a ‘recruit’ on the fourth series of SAS: Who Dares Wins, the acclaimed Channel 4 show fronted by Ant Middleton, which puts civilians through a condensed version of Special Forces selection. Although the brutal course in South America pushed us all to our physical and mental limits, I was one of the last eight and ‘survived’ till the final day.

You mention ‘pushing your limits’. What does that mean for you?
Since my neck injury – or since I sobered up after my neck injury and was properly able to assess my thoughts on it! – I’ve been fascinated by what I think of as a spectrum of human capability. On the one hand, as humans, we are very fragile and can be knocked back when we sustain serious injury, but on the other we are capable of incredible things if we’re willing to push ourselves. That might be running a marathon, free diving to a great depth, climbing Everest, etc, etc. It doesn’t really matter what the challenge is, it’s the idea of taking ourselves outside our physical comfort zone and showing ourselves what we can achieve.

Related to this is the concept of homeostasis, where the body maintains a healthy, stable state of equilibrium, which in turn enables the optimal function of our organs and the right body temperature etc. However, it turns out the brain is a bit of a hypochondriac and that when we exert ourselves too much, it tells our body to shut down to protect this state – by making us feel pain and fatigue. But the truth is that it’s possible to train yourself to push through this barrier. The result is that a key element of completing any endurance challenge lies in your mental stamina rather than your physical fitness. So, having injured myself so seriously (a broken neck), I want to see what I’m still capable of. I want to push myself into this zone, train myself beyond it and keep challenging my limits.

Why the Thames Path 100? Why now?
One hundred miles represents the next milestone in my running journey and TP100 is a perfect opportunity. I’ve run all sorts of marathons, ultramarathons and multi-day races, but never 100 miles in a single day. There’s something sacred about that three-digit figure.

Also it’s the chance to do the event in the current circumstances. With so many events being cancelled due to Covid-19, the Centurion Running team (the organisers) have done well to put measures in place that will allow TP100 to go ahead. It has already been postponed from May 2020. I did all the training to be ready for that date, so it was a struggle to overcome the frustration and a test of willpower to keep myself fit over the lockdown period.

Training
Fortunately the global pandemic has helped me clock up a lot of the necessary training miles. Lockdown – and its related restrictions – has given me the time to put in place a pretty structured training plan that has seen me running progressively longer distances each week. I am also focusing on resistance training (jumps, lunges and squats, often with a 10kg dumbbell), though with the gyms closed it’s been hard, and I’ve had to do them in the park. I give myself the odd recovery day after a long run. I’m no expert but for the last couple of months I’ve been able to run a marathon or further every other weekend.

That said, it hasn’t all gone to plan. I went on holiday to France in mid-June and abandoned my (very supportive and understanding) girlfriend one Sunday morning to plod out one of these long runs. The route was glorious, cutting through the countryside around the picturesque town of Uzès and I was humbled to run over the Pont du Gard, a 2,000-year-old Roman aqueduct that’s a World Heritage site. All was going well! What I hadn’t taken into account was the 35°C heat… my girlfriend had to leave the comfort of her sun-lounger shortly after this to drive out and rescue me as I had run out of water!

Are you ready for it?
There or thereabouts. I still have to get a couple of long runs (60km-80km) under my belt as final preparation and then I have to work out some tactics about fuel and rest over such an long period of time. But a concept called the ‘art of acquiescence’ teaches us that there will be uncontrollable events on the day of the race and that it’s the ability to cope with these and adapt to the situation that often separates those who cross the finish line from those who don’t.

It may seem like a strange thing to say, given what I’m about to take on, but I don’t see myself as a runner. I’m certainly not ‘built for running’. At 6ft 5 and around 100kg, I still have a rugby player’s frame, and lugging that kind of weight around for (what I hope will be) just under 24 hours means I’m never going to be close to a podium finish. However this makes my motivation more intrinsic, by which I mean that I’m in it for the personal reward of completing it; for the satisfaction, rather than the prospect of a medal at the finish line.

What’s the most daunting thing as you approach the race?
The distance. The furthest I’ve run up to now is 69 miles and I managed to do this all in daylight, starting at 7am and finishing 14 hours later, just before 9pm. But at the pace I run, the extra 31 miles of the Thames Path 100 means I will be forced to carry on into the night. The scheduled start time is 9:30am (though this will now be staggered because of Covid-19), so even if I manage to run four back-to-back, five-hour marathons, that will still mean finishing at 5:30am. I’m sure the lack of sleep will be a real test in those early hours.

And what are you most looking forward to?
My girlfriend and parents have promised me that whatever the time of day or night I arrive they’ll be there to greet me at the end. I can only imagine how much pain I’ll be in at that point, so a celebratory hug on the finish line will go a long way to making me feel better!

What is success?
I’m very much in the ‘compete to complete’ bracket; getting over the finish line will be enough for me. But doing it in less than 24 hours would be the icing on the cake.