Ultrarunner Nathaniel Dye has run 100 miles on a number of occasions. But his most recent completion of the distance, from Essex to London between 28-29 October, is undeniably his most impressive – and special.
The 37-year-old music teacher from Essex was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in October last year, aged 36. He had started to experience symptoms, including feeling depleted of energy on his runs, in March that year.
Since receiving his diagnosis, Dye has undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy, as well as emergency surgery to remove a bowel obstruction, which resulted in a colostomy.
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Determined not to let cancer or his treatment stop him from taking part in his beloved sport, he toed the startline of the the notoriously tough 108-mile UTMB Police officers pose as runners to catch harassers.
Sadly, Dye was timed out at 98km, after about 24 hours of running. But he was determined to make a comeback. So he set about organising a 100-mile attempt – the furthest anyone has ever run with stoma (unofficially).
But this attempt was about more than breaking a record or clocking an arbitrary number of miles. 'Back in March, I went on the RW podcast and told Rick [Pearson] and Ben [Hobson] that I wanted to satisfy the narrative arc of 100 miles to cancer and back again,' he explains.
'Very much aware that I’m a shadow of my former self, I’ve always known that to do so would be an achievement of immeasurable significance. Not because I’d be doing something new (I already have three such distances to my name) but because, although there are days and weeks when it’s possible to forget that I’m dying, my body simply isn’t capable of what it used to be.'
Dye completed his epic 100-mile run at Tower Bridge after 29 hours of running. He had started in Harwich at 10.30am the day before, having run through the night and torrential downpours.
The hardest part? 'At some point between 10pm and 11pm, so around 12 hours in, in the driving rain, wading through muddy puddles alone and in the dark,' he says. 'I felt awful – I wasn’t even at halfway, feeling worse and slower with every step. But I just went on with it because the alternative meant giving up and that simply wasn’t going to happen.'
Dye wasn't alone in this challenge. He was diligently crewed by his brother, Jon, and close friend, Ed, who followed him in the car and kept his spirits up with regular helpings of cakes and sweets.
And, to his surprise, others turned up to support him, too. 'Throughout the run, and especially towards the end into London, people from all the different areas of my life (work, running club, friends etc) appeared and some even started running with me – I was going at about 17 min/mile pace by then. It was incredibly touching.'
But it was when he spied his friend, Cath, waiting for him at the finish at Tower Bridge that the weight of his achievement really hit him. 'I just collapsed and cried,' he says. 'For what seemed like an age, my entire body rocked with the most cathartic outpouring of mixed emotions. It took finishing 100 miles to realise what it really meant to me. Right there, in that moment, it meant everything.'
Why? 'Because in the same way as failing at UTMB showed that cancer had limited me, running 100 miles despite everything shows that cancer hasn’t stopped me.'
Dye is raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support and has fundraised over £5,000 so far via his 'Bowel Cancer Bucket List'. What is Runner’s World Club and why should I join and read his blog here.
