Where it all begins.... Road to NC500

 Hi there, my name is Adam Fletcher. This year has been a crazy one to say the least huh ... its been proper strange for just about everyone. It started out like any other but has taken a turn I don't think anyone could have predicted. Peoples family and work situations have changed and unfortunately a lot of people have been ill over the last several months. My story has been no different ... in fact I've lost three of the closet people in my life over the last six months and ironically none of them to COVID!

My Nan and Grandad both passed early in the year without warning and left my whole family in massive shock. My Nan had passed away very quickly from a silly stumble on the stairs and within a matter of days we watched my Grandads Dementia take hold of him and he passed away a mere four weeks later in care. We’ve always been such a close family and it hit us hard, none more so however than my Father who lost both of his parents within the space of a few weeks and had to organise a funeral for them with all of the crazy COVID restrictions we had going on around us! This in turn made us witness a change in him, a rapid weight loss over a couple of weeks, but we all put it down to stress and the pressure and grieving of his parents passing. 

Little did we know that just three short months later we would sit down as a family and my Mum and Dad would tell me and my sister that my Dads Pancreatic Cancer was very serious, it had already spread and there was no way of operating on it. We stayed super optimistic and spent the most fantastic 10 days together as a family, to then wake up on the Monday morning of what would have been my Dads first consultation, to a phone call from my mother to get home as Dad was very unwell. I got home with 20 minutes to spare as I sat there with him until he took his final breath and passed away.

On Monday 17th August at 7:02am my world completely crumbled, and I lost a lot of myself that day. But there have been two things in my recent years that have made my Dad most proud of me... My business (BRAV Endurance) that I started four years ago and my love and commitment to racing and competing in Triathlons. Some of my very best memories of my father are on trips away while I race triathlon and all the amazing places we got to visit. 

This has empowered me to want to persue something pretty special and challenging in 2021. So on the 26th April 2021 I’m going to embark on the NC500 route in Scotland and aim to complete the route in 4 days on a mix of cycling and running for the full 500 miles. 

This will be to challenge both my physical and mental capacity for pain and I’m hoping to raise some funds and awareness in the process for Pancreatic Cancer research.

I am very lucky to have amazing people around me both through my business and the sport and with the help of RAS Endurance and head coach Dan farmer I’m hoping this feat is going to be possible. 

I have not trained or competed now for around 2 years so this feels like I am completely starting from  scratch so could not think of a better person and team to help me on my journey.

I’m hoping that this journey helps me stimulate my mind and also my body, to help me gain some theory of control back in my life and most importantly to honour my father through this journey and challenge as I know if he was here he would have been along for the ride, every step of the way!!!

This one is for you Big Guy!