Chirk man taking on 100-mile Chester Ultra challenge for Hope House

A Chirk man is running further than he has ever run before as he takes on the Chester Ultra 100 in aid of Hope House Children’s Hospices.

Dad-of-two James Blackmore has run as far as 40 miles in one go before. But today he will be taking on the 100-mile challenge which he must complete in 32 hours.

“It’s going to be an extremely tough challenge,” said the 33-year-old.

“I’m not sure you can fully prepare yourself for this sort of thing, and you’ve just got to hope your body reacts ok.

“Training has been tough, but I’ve been running home from night shifts and on tired legs after exercise to get used to it.”

James first decided to raise money in 2021 when he took on the Dave Goggins Challenge, which involved running four miles, every four hours for 48 hours.

“That was incredibly tough, but I think this will be even harder again,” he said.

James will have his wife Sian, who has family that has used our services at Hope House, on hand every 10 miles for support.

“Hope House is a wonderful local charity and does some incredible work in our community and I just want to try and raise as much as possible through doing challenges,” added James.

Cat Dowdeswell, Hope House fundraiser, said: “Without the amazing support from people like James we would not be able to here for every family that needs us.

“We wish James all the very best for this huge challenge! We’ll all be cheering you on.”

If you would like to sponsor James then you can do by visiting his Justgiving page.