A Day on a Treadmill - Mark Cooper's 24 Hour Challenge

Some of you may recall that I spent a week last year in France supporting Mark Cooper as he ran from Amsterdam to Barcelona, the equivalent of 50 marathons, in 56 days.


Last Thursday, 28th July, Mark continued his epic running feats by attempting to break the world record distance, of 160 miles, on a treadmill over 24 hours. The event took place in the opulent surroundings of the Corinthian Club in Glasgow and commenced at 6pm.

I couldn’t believe the sight at 7:30pm, when I turned up to support him.  Rather than the relaxed runner that didn’t even break a sweat in the hills and heat of Southern France, here was someone working extremely hard with sweat pouring out of him.  There was no way that, even, Mark could maintain such a performance for 24 hours.  I couldn’t believe it when Mark advised me that he was running at 10 kilometres per hour and I was right not to, as it transpired that he was actually running at 10 miles per hour.  He had run 20 miles in 2 hours, the fastest he had ever run!  Knowing that this effort would have dire consequences, as time progressed, a normal person would have quit there and then but Mark is no normal person and instead of throwing in the towel, he placed it over the treadmill screen and continued on his courageous challenge.

Despite this set back, Mark was still in fine fettle when I popped in to see him on my way to work.  However by lunch time, I heard that he was really struggling and was in need of physical help.  I popped in to see him to discover that his right knee was clicking with every step that he made.  Thankfully Pamela Andrews was on her way and she administered some relief as we gave him words of encouragement.  Patched up he was back on the treadmill and somehow remained focused on the task ahead.  There were less than a handful of us supporting him at this stage but various people, including the fantastic Corinthian staff and local office workers would pop in during the afternoon to express their amazement at his endurance. 

I knew that his reappraised target was 120 miles but as the final hour approached, Mark managed to dig deep into his reserves and increase the pace. The number of supporters and media representatives increased during those last 60 minutes and by the time the clock counted down to 00:00:00, there was a great atmosphere in the room. To loud applause he finished his inspiring journey and was rewarded with an ice cool pint of Guinness.

He had run a total of 129.2 miles, nearly five full marathons or the distance from Glasgow to Sunderland in 24 hours! He had run though physical and psychological barriers that most of us couldn’t even begin to imagine and he deserves our utmost respect for doing so.

Well done Mark! 

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