Innes hits pain barrier but promises a rerun
After running 32 miles in sub-zero temperatures while suffering extreme pain Oban ‘gym guy’ Innes Hughes was forced to put the brakes on his latest fundraising challenge in the early hours of Wednesday morning, December 30.
The personal trainer had planned to run from Oban to Fort William and back - 100 miles, including two loops around Creagan Loch - in 24 hours to raise funds for Martyn’s Monday Club but had to stop almost a quarter of the way in when pain from a recent gallbladder operation became unbearable.
Even then it took a bit of persuasion from friends and family to get him to stop.
‘It’s a bitter pill to swallow and one I was trying to fight my support team on, but I had to accept that I would just have done damage to myself had I continued and unfortunately the decision was made,’ said Innes, who called a halt at 1am having left Oban at 5pm on Tuesday December 29.
‘Taking into consideration the time between the surgery (October) and now it just wasn’t safe to keep pushing through the pain. The drop in temperature to below freezing didn’t help either. With all of us falling and sliding during the first part of the run, it just wouldn’t have been safe for me to push on to Fort William on my own.’
Innes has received great support since calling a halt to his effort and, at the time of writing, had raised a fantastic £1,255 for Martyn’s Monday Club. He intends to keep his JustGiving page open and slowly build himself up to giving it another go.
‘Thank you so much to everyone who donated and, of course, the donations will still go to Martyn’s Monday Club and, once I can, we’ll run back at it!’
To donate towards Innes’ challenge visit his 100 miles JustGiving page, www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ innes-hughes-100miles.