PYLLON ENDEAVOUR 2021

1 in a Thousand.

The Pyllon Racing team are aiming to run 1,000 miles in 1 week as a continuous relay. Whilst we’ll have to run alone, we’ll run as a team, with one of us covering every hour of our 168-hour endeavour, to raise awareness of the benefits of running and community to mental health and well-being.

The Challenge

Ultra running is a challenging sport. We spend hours alone trying to improve. Working hard when others don’t see it - just to know: that in that moment, that session, that race or that day, we’ve tried our very best.

If we are lucky, we have good people around us who understand. Who support us through the tough times and are there for us when moments are golden.

At Pyllon Racing we share that deep level of understanding with each other. We strive to be the best we can and we know that when we get together to tackle big challenges, amazing things can happen. Like it did on our previous Endeavour’s where we were bold in our ambitions and unrelenting in spirit.

Magic things happened on our double West Highland Way in 24 hours. And again when we tackled the entire Scottish National Trail in winter, in just 5 days. We experienced human connection in ways that still affect our normal lives. We connected with others. Shared moments of kindness and giving, and found unity and calm in an evermore troubling world.

Why?

As we move beyond 2020 and hopefully into a world less consumed by pandemics, we want to re-connect with the people that supported our last event and inspire others to start their own ultra journey. We want to use this challenge to have open and public conversations about mental wellbeing at a time when it’s never been more important. We want to demonstrate how running has become our way of managing the challenges of living in a pandemic - the isolation, the uncertainty and worry, heightened stress levels and fear - in the hope that it may help many others.

Mental Health and Well-Being

January 2021 might be the most difficult time of year for many people in Scotland. It’s widely understood that the 3rd week of any year is the lowest time for many, with Depression and anxiety at it’s highest. Add to that the continued lockdown conditions and Covid fear, we feel it’s especially important to offer signs of hope and humanity returning. As we all know too well - many people suffer mental health problems without ever asking for help. So we will again be running to support our local mental health and wellbeing charity SAMH. They do incredibly important work, and we hope to raise awareness of what they do, the support that is available to people who are struggling with their own mental health and raise vital funds for them to continue their work. To donate please have a look at our fundraising page.

What is the Challenge?

Our 2021 Endeavour, will be different. As much as we would love to get together physically as a team again, the pandemic means that we’ll have to take on this challenge from our own locations.

Our challenge is to try and run 1,000 miles in just one week as a continuous relay. Once we start, we will always have one person running - who will carry the ‘virtual baton’ for the team. There will be just 9 runners. We’ll run day and night for 168 hours and since we will not have access to run across the length of Scotland and our beloved mountain trails, we’ll make the challenge even more difficult by including an ascent target of 100,000ft (more than 3 x the height of Everest).

The event will run across the most depressing week of the year. We will start on Monday 18th January at 00:00, and will continue until 11:59:59 on the 24th. Details of the schedule and updates will be posted here and across social media. Please get involved if you can. You’ll find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and using the hashtag #PyllonEndeavour

Who is running?

There will be just 9 runners and the relay will run continuously. We are aiming to hit 1,000 miles and 100,000ft of ascent - but we will be at the mercy of the weather, conditions and government lockdown conditions. If you want to follow your favourite runner we’ll post full information here before we start.

How you can help

We have some very clear aims for the event and we need your help if we are going to succeed! Here’s how you can get involved:

• RUN: you can support us, just by donating some Endeavour Support Miles of your own. It would motivate us if our community could get close to (and beat) 1,000 miles across the week. Just let us know how many miles you run by posting on social media, tagging @pyllon and using the hashtag #PyllonEndeavour - you can also log your miles on our Strava club - Pyllon Endeavour.

• TALK: it’s not always obvious when people are struggling or suffering mental health problems - so ask, and listen. Just creating a safe space - free of judgement for people to talk about how they feel can be life changing and life saving.

• FOLLOW: we’ll do our best to update you on the event through the website and across social media. We’ll have someone running at all hours day and night for a full week

• SUPPORT: we’d love it if you could send us burritos again. We’re joking - we haven’t eaten another since the last event! We will be running for 168 hours straight - so feel free to send some messages of support at any time. It’ll make all the difference at 2 in the morning to know someone is following!

• SHARE: clearly we cannot get together in person, so if you do want to support us please share our messages, leave comments and likes on social media and let others know more about why we are doing this challenge

• DONATE: SAMH are our charity partner again and we are hoping to help them continue the great work they do by raising funds for them - awareness of mental health saves lives. So if you can spare any money, we know it will be used wisely, and it will make a difference. Donate now.

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