Fitness
Meet the man who commutes a marathon to work
As part of training for a world record attempt for running the length of the UK, TV worker James Williams ran 30 miles to the office every day. Here's how he did it...
Your alarm rings out. It’s dark. You can hear the rain hammering against your window. Only one thing for it: hit snooze and grab another 10 minutes of sweet slumber.
Not for James Williams, though. He was up an age before your alarm went off, pounding the streets of West London a good four hours before taking his seat at work.
Leaving his house in London's Putney, the senior controller extends his 10 mile run to Sky TV's HQ in Brentford with a few loops of Richmond Park to achieve an overall active commute of around 31 miles (50k). As proven by his Strava profile, he’s run more than 2,500 miles in 2019 alone.
Not just good for water cooler talk, Williams' mammoth active commutes were part of training for an attempt to break the world record for running the length of the UK between Lands’ End to John O’Groats. While sadly he didn't manage to hit the landmark, retiring through exhaustion five days into the planned eight day run, his incredible training ethic almost deserves some sort of record itself.
Even more impressive than running to work daily, he managed to fit these runs into working a full-time job and being a husband and father to two small children. We caught up with the Saucony UK ambassador before his challenge to find out how he did it.
Williams lays his kit out the night before
James leaving Sky TV's HQ in West London
© James Williams
According to Williams, the key to heading out at 4.15am for a 50k jog into work is to lay everything out in your bedroom’s ensuite bathroom. “The night before I’ll lay out all my kit and food so I disrupt my wife’s sleep as little as possible. I get ready in the bathroom, where I put my kit on and drink a smoothie before I head out. No matter how quietly I tiptoe downstairs there’s always the worry I’m going to wake my 20-month-old daughter, which hasn’t happened too many times so far, so I’ve been quite lucky with that."
Funny comments from work colleagues have become the norm
“I’m generally quite quiet about the fact I’ve run a marathon pre-work until someone else asks me or mentions it,” says Williams. “In a meeting, someone might announce I’ve run a marathon before 9am, and that’s fine. I always say it’s all relative – now I’m in this routine and this is normal for me. But people have strange reactions. Some people who don’t run marathons and don’t understand the scope of it just say, ‘That’s cool’, whereas people who have actually run marathons are quite shocked by it."
He took inspiration from Ross Edgley
Williams sought inspiration from Ross Edgley's Great British Swim
© Saucony
“I listened to some Ross Edgley interviews after his Great British Swim and he said you have to believe in yourself and know that when you’re swimming for 12 hours a day it’s the work that you have to put in,” says Williams. “It’s all about throwing yourself back in the water when you don’t feel like it, no matter how bad you feel. So for me, getting up at 4am every day is what it takes to even have a sniff of breaking the world record."
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He runs about 200 miles a week (really)
"My coach is currently the female Lands’ End to John O’Groats record holder, Mimi Anderson,” he says. “I’ve been working with her for almost a year, and she has experience from a coaching perspective but also from personal experience, which is what I need for this challenge. She’s been concentrating on getting me to run back-to-back on subsequent days. So since January my weekly mileage has been fairly constant, but it’s all about getting my body used to time on feet.”
Which means he sees a lot of British society...
“Usually, when it’s early on Saturday morning and people are coming back from the pubs and clubs, I get a few shouts if they see me run by in my backpack or comments about breast implants if they see my water bottles. But other than that, they’re usually positive comments.”
He claims his work performance has improved
“Doing this training has had a positive effect on all elements of my life, from work to my personal life. Being out running so much does mean that when I’m with my children I’m really present. You notice when other families are together the adults are on their mobiles – we don’t do that. And at work, it’s definitely had a positive impact. I’m more focused and I’m better at prioritising things, as I have limited time."
Williams has even resorted to eating baby food
James Williams clocks up a distance of 200k running per week
© Saucony
“My diet is high fat, low-carb, similar to the ketogenic diet. No bread, pasta or rice. I’m eating lots of meat, cheese, eggs, avocados, nuts. My smoothie is my secret weapon, it’s a blend of almond butter, cocoa, salts, almond milk – really easy to get down with lots of the right calories. It’s important to get the right things into your body. Although I just ran 160 miles over two days, and when you do that it’s more about getting the volume of food into your body. By the end I was just getting in whatever I could, which included pouches of baby food. They’re easy to get down.”
Cheesy music gets him through low points
“I have a Spotify playlist which is filled with the cheesiest songs you can imagine, things like S Club 7’s Reach For The Stars, Steps, real singalong stuff. During a 100-mile race last year I was feeling low during the night while running through a little village, so I put the playlist on and found myself singing Robbie Williams’ Angels at the top of my lungs. Not sure what the people in the houses thought. It’s a last-gasp method to pick you up from the bottom."
Yoga and regular massages help him avoid (most) injuries
“I do yoga regularly, which I have seen huge benefits from. Despite always being the least flexible in the class, I’ve got over that embarrassment now. I have regular massage, too. Most people should have a regular session with a good masseur. You shouldn’t be getting it reactively when you have a problem, because, by then, it’s too late.”
He keeps his mind on his goal
Williams is hoping to run 800 miles in less than 9 days and 2 hours
© James Williams
“I use a number of tips and tricks to help me prepare mentally, things like visualisation, which could be the end point of your race. My mantra is ‘stronger with every step’, I can’t remember where I heard it from but it’s appropriate.”
James Williams is a Saucony UK athlete and wears the Kinvara 10
