10 Dec 2019

Pushing yourself to the limit and achieving great things

Derek Stewart is a survivor, an extraordinarily driven individual and a thoroughly lovely man. I met Derek at our recent conference, he had no idea we were going to ask him to talk to the room about his 200-mile Tahoe endurance run and his remarkable commitment to Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres, but he stepped up to the challenge and delivered a fascinating and inspirational talk about his incredible achievement and his determination to raise as much money as possible for Maggie’s.

I was really touched by Derek’s dedication and achievements and wanted to write about his approach to life and limits. Derek has been raising money for Maggie’s since 2008 when he entered his first triathlon and he has stayed true to his objective ever since.

The challenge & the end result

Derek is 58 and lives in Strathhaven. He’s a Financial Advisor and married with three children. In the last 7 years, Derek has run a total of 772 miles in 8 major events. In September this year he faced his biggest challenge and ran over 205 miles in the Tahoe endurance run.

The challenge

205.5 miles with 40,200 ft of ascent and 40,200 ft of descent in under 100 hours.

The result

65^th out of the 215 who started (66.5% of participants finished the race)

Total time: 3 days 13 hours 16 mins (target beaten by 4 hours & 46 mins)

Running time: 2 days 21 hours 33 mins

Average running pace: 3mph

‘I am so proud to have finished the race and beaten my projected time. They talked about discovering yourself on the race and I’ve certainly been to places in my head I didn’t know existed. You only get to those places by pushing the limits and this is about as close to mine as I have been. I think we’re all interested in seeing just how far we can go – our minds give up before our bodies. I’ve always believed we’re all capable of so much more and I have treated this journey as an experiment’.

Read the full, unabridged version of the race on Derek’s blog:

www.derekmissionironman.blogspot.co.uk

Money raised for Maggie's

In memory of his late friend Carol O’Docherty, Derek’s goal was to raise £10,000 for Maggie’s and he reached an outstanding £9497! The collection at our conference, matched by RSMR, and matched again by Sir Boyd Tunnock as part of the Caramel Wafer Match Funding Challenge, made a total of £7460 taking Derek to an incredible £16,957.

The ground-breaking model pioneered by Maggie’s has been developed to meet the practical, emotional and social needs of people with cancer. Maggie’s complements what a hospital does but is also very different. A hospital’s focus is on tasks, whereas Maggie’s is about starting from the point of view of the patient and responding to their situation. The Centres are warm, friendly, inspiring places, which are full of light, contributing to the continued wellbeing of an individual as they progress through cancer treatment. Help is offered freely to anyone with any type of cancer at any time.

https://www.maggiescentres.org/