After a gruelling weekend, we’re saying a huge ‘congratulations’ to Charles Balcombe, who has spent the past 48 hours testing his endurance to the limit by successfully completing the ‘David Goggins 4x4x48’ Challenge!
Charles trained incredibly hard for many weeks in preparation for embarking on this mammoth task, which usually consists of running four miles, every four hours for 48 hours. However, due to a spinal condition, Charles adapted the challenge to involved doing a 45-minute high intensity interval training (HIIT) session every four hours for 48 hours.
This equated to 12 HIIT sessions in two days, with highlights including over 1,764 push ups, 6,480 jumping jacks, a total of 47 minutes in a plank and just three hours sleep across the two days.
We are in awe of Charles’ stamina and his ambition to raise vital funds for the charity, which was prompted by his own experience of a life-altering spinal injury. He has undergone six spinal surgeries since 2013, which you can read more about on his JustGiving page and whilst fortunately the sixth surgery made his symptoms less debilitating, Charles still grapples with pain on a daily basis.
Neverthless, he has slowly rebuilt his life thanks to the support of his family, friends and various brilliant healthcare professionals, as well as through physical exercise and mental resilience.
It was this that largely inspired Charles to tackle this particularly infamous challenge, as David Goggins himself is an incredible athlete, ultramarathon runner, ex-Navy Seal and motivational speaker who is an exponent of both these things.
So far, Charles has raised a phenomenal total of over £5,000 for Horatio’s Garden which is a testament to his fantastic achievement.
There’s still time to show your support too, so if you’d like to donate and help him to reach his fundraising target, please give whatever you can.
We are enormously grateful to Charles and to everyone who has sponsored him, whilst we also very much hope that he’s resting well in the wake of a formidable weekend!
