Running to break limits: Ali’s North Coast 500 challenge

Running challenges aren’t something particularly new to Ali Walker – but this June, he’s taking on his toughest one yet.

Ali is gearing up to run Scotland’s iconic North Coast 500 (516 miles) in just seven days. It’s an impressive feat that will see him cover the equivalent distance of three marathons a day for an entire week - all to raise funds for My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, a cause which Ali is no stranger to, having fundraised for us over the last four years.

Ali had always been a keen rugby player, but his route into running began unexpectedly. After stepping away from playing to avoid any nasty injuries the year of his wedding, Ali felt himself lose a sense of purpose. So, he started running whilst on his honeymoon.

“When I say I started running, I was doing five minutes on the treadmill and felt invincible!” Ali exclaimed, “and I decided to sign up for my first marathon pretty much a week after my honeymoon.”

What followed after that marathon was a series of increasingly demanding challenges, from his first ultra marathon running from Glasgow to Edinburgh, to a 24-hour race six weeks later - which raised funds for us and the MND Association.

Then most notably, two years ago, Ali ran seven marathons in seven days, once again raising money for us. His seventh marathon of the week was Edinburgh Marathon, in torrential levels of rain: “It was biblical!” Ali remarked, “but that was still to this day, one of the coolest experiences of my life.

“With about 5km to go, I just sprinted all the way home, and with the horizontal rain and the crowd watching - honestly, it gives me goosebumps thinking about it. I loved it.”

This year, Ali’s challenge is going to push him significantly further.

“I’m trying to run Scotland’s North Coast 500 in seven days, for no particular reason other than seven days sounds pretty cool,” Ali explained, “and everyone has work they need to get back for!”

Fewer than five people are believed to have ran the whole 516-mile route through Scotland’s rugged northern scenery, and if Ali completes it in under eight days, he will become the second fastest person to ever do so.

Ali’s dedication to supporting those affected by MND is deeply personal.

“I feel pretty attached to the MND community,” he said, “my wife has been a nurse on a neurology ward for the last 10 or 11 years, so she’s cared for people with MND.”

Through her work, Ali has learned of the impact of the disease.

“She doesn’t break patient confidentiality, but some of the stories she tells me are just absolutely heartbreaking,” he described. “She’s not one to talk about her work very much, and I think to be a nurse you have to close down your emotions a bit.

“So when she does come home and tell me a story or she comes home upset, you know how much of a toll that must be on all the people affected by the diagnosis,” he added.

In addition to this, Ali takes inspiration from figures central to the MND community, such as our founder, Doddie.

“Having played rugby, everyone knows or knew of Doddie - I don’t think I’m unique in saying it was really inspirational the way he faced MND for six years.”

But it’s the story and friendship between Kevin Sinfield and the late Rob Burrow that resonates most with Ali.

“That friendship, every time I think about it I want to cry. Kevin’s mission statement of ‘I’m just going for a run with some mates for a mate’ wrecks me.”

Reflecting on this, Ali added: “It made me think, if my friends and family were in that horrible position of getting MND, I’d be the first person to go out and do that kind of silly stuff. And then I was like ‘why are you waiting?’ There are plenty of people who need the money now.”

Ali knows this North Coast 500 run will be unlike anything he’s taken on before.

“It’s just going to be exponentially harder, isn’t it? I’m trying not to think too much about it at the moment. But there is rationale behind it,” he went on: “I know I’ve done one marathon a day for a week, and when I think back on it now, I’m not going to say it was easy, but it was incredibly doable.

“And I’m a lot fitter and a lot better runner now, so I know I could do that again, and I would back myself to be able to do another marathon on top of that a day - which means I’d only need to walk another marathon...this is the maths I’m doing in my head!”

He continued: “It is going to be mentally soul destroying; it’s going to be awful. But that’s the whole point of it. It’s meant to be difficult. Everything I’ve done so far was meant to be really hard for me at the time. I was meant to find that breaking point, but ultimately, I’ve not found it yet.”

However, reaching this breaking point will be one of Ali’s main motivators to keep going: “I know this will break me this time,” he stated, “and I’ll have to keep moving. I know I’m going to keep going - that weirdly excites me.”

Turning his mind inward towards the cause and channelling his determination to complete the run in just seven days are also incentives.

“Thinking about the charity and about where the money’s going, that’s hugely motivational, but it’s also mentally and emotionally exhausting if you’re using that constantly, that's quite a dark place to keep going to,” Ali described. “It’s more the act of proving other people wrong and proving yourself wrong that will help keep me moving - you said you were going to do this, now let’s do it. I’m probably more motivated by all the negative stuff, which maybe isn’t too healthy, but that’s the kind of thing that helps me.”

Throughout the challenge, Ali will be supported by his wife Jade, and three best friends, whose presence will also be crucial to making sure he keeps moving forward.

“Jade will be slightly different, she'll be a lot softer on me.” Ali noted, “But I know my mates will give me absolute abuse and they won’t give me the option to stop.”

Preparing for something like this isn’t easy, physically or logistically.

“How do you train realistically for something like this without killing yourself?” Ali considered, “No one should be able to do this kind of thing. Chances are I’ll get some stress fractures, and regardless of what my training looks like it’s going to be terrible, so I’m trying to relax a bit about the training side of things.”

“It’s more the logistics that are keeping me up at night,” Ali admitted. From booking campsites and planning how to keep himself fuelled, to stocking up on plenty midge spray, blister plasters, and ice packs - everything requires careful thought and planning.

Though despite all the months of planning and preparation, Ali knows there will still be unknowns: “I just need to be there and find out what it feels like, try and keep moving for as long as I can.”

However, whilst the week on the run will be gruelling, Ali is most looking forward to the quality time it will give him with Jade and his friends.

“It makes it so much easier, so much more enjoyable, having people there,” he said, likening it to the camaraderie he experienced when he used to play rugby: “Obviously it’s a distraction from the horrible pain you’re in, but it’s really enjoyable going through that, it’s like being in a team environment again, like being at the rugby club again. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

He added: “Everyone keeps saying ‘oh you’ll enjoy the views at least.’ And I'm like, I don’t think I will – I'll just be staring at the ground!”

With everything Ali is away to put himself through, at the heart of it he hopes it will help encourage others to reconsider what they’re capable of achieving too.

“You’d be amazed at what your body can actually do if you just do it or say you’re going to do it. You can probably do a lot more than you give yourself credit for,” he declared.

“It doesn’t frustrate me, but when people say to me all the time ‘oh I could never run a marathon’ I’m like, see if tomorrow you really decided you wanted to do it, or there was a reason behind why you were doing it, you would do it."

In fact, motivating others to take up running has become a pleasant unexpected side effect of Ali’s running challenges: “Quite a few people have come up to me in the last year and said the things I do have inspired them to actually get out and moving, and run their first half marathon, so that’s quite cool,” he said.

And to anyone considering taking on their own challenge, however big or small, for My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, Ali’s advice is simple: “Just do it. It’s incredible. It’s incredibly fulfilling.”

Ali’s North Coast 500 challenge will be a remarkable undertaking - a true test of endurance, drive and determination. Above all, his story goes to show we are all capable of achieving great things for others, if only we put our minds to it.

To donate to Ali’s fundraising page, see here: https://givestar.io/gs/nc500-in-7-days