David Jackson: Meet the ex-rugby pro running 100 ultra-marathons in 100 days for brain injury charities

Going beyond the traditional marathon distance of 42.2 kilometres is not for the feint of heart, however, one man is currently in the midst of running 100 consecutive ultra-marathons across the United Kingdom. This epic task is all in effort to raise money and awareness for two life-changing brain injury charities - Head for Change and Headway UK.

Meet David Jackson, the former Nottingham Rugby player who was forced into retirement in 2013, after a career of concussive impacts led to a training-pitch seizure which ended his playing days. Jackson lost two weeks of his memory following the event, that saw his Nottingham teammate Alex Shaw put him into the recovery position, before medics rushed to the scene.

Seven years after hanging up his boots, Jackson ran his first marathon in 2020, and now six years after that, he takes on a Guinness World Record challenge that has never been done before.

"So, we're doing the Guinness World Record, it is a minimum of 50 kilometres a day. We need to keep maintaining that, for the record is currently 80 days, so I need to do 81 but I've got 100 days set in my schedule." Jackson told RUCK.

"A big part of this is about trying to raise awareness [for Headway UK and Head for Change] and give people that hope. I remember just not being given or having any hope, as to what my recovery would look like. You're just told hopefully you'll recover. We don't know how long it'll take, and we don't know how much of recovery it will be."

The former Nottingham Rugby man has called this mammoth running journey 'Mission In-Possible', with the 100-day epic out to raise awareness for the two fantastic brain injury charities, that he wished he knew about all the more sooner.

The man known as 'Jacko' to his friends, navigated the uncharted waters of uncertainty alongside his wife Catherine, as there was little to promote the work of his two chosen charaties some 13 years ago. The crux of this journey is how Jackson wants anyone facing a brain injury to know that help is in-fact out there.

"When I had my brain injury back in 2013, there's a lot of question marks about what would be possible for me and my recovery [or] what my life would look like after that." He added.

"I've been very fortunate, and I'm very grateful to have made the recovery that I've had. This challenge was about trying to do something that may seem or feel impossible, but showing what, in fact, is possible, or what is 'in-possible', in that we can achieve more than we think.

"When we were going through my recovery, I didn't know about these two charities. Me and my wife navigated that recovery on our own. We had just got married two months before the injury, and I wasn't the man that Catherine married.

"That is exceptionally challenging, and we just don't want anyone else to go through a brain injury without the support that they can get from Headway and Head for Change, these two amazing brain injury charities. We didn't find out about them until we wanted to start doing some fundraising."

Upon researching his quest, Jackson discovered how his seven-year saga to run his first marathon after recovering from his brain injury, drew some unexpected comparisons to the fabled Marathon Monks of Japan.

"I stumbled upon it, when we were starting to think, 'can we do two marathons a day for 100 days?' As it started before I got injured, it was like, 'has anyone else ever actually done this?" Jackson revealed.

"So, I'm searching the internet, and seeing there's these marathon monks of Japan, they spend seven years building up to doing two marathons a day for 100 days in their seventh year, it's like a spiritual journey to enlightenment. The records are a little bit sketchy, but it's something in the region of about 40 [monks] have done it in the last 2000 years!

"I can confirm that it's very close to being impossible. They do it in a monk's robe with sandals, no sports nutrition, no support, not like my wife cooking my food - they just drink some soup at the end of the day and do a lot of fasting whilst they're doing it. Then they pray - it's unbelievable what they do. A bit of me wanted to have a little taste of what that might feel like."

Running a total of 5,000 kilometers is exactly as hard as it sounds. Jackson would simply run out of land to cover if he ran from one end of the UK to the other, given how his target distance stretches the equivalent of Lisbon to Moscow, across the entire European continent.

Jackson's colossal mission across the UK mainland currently brings him to Newcastle, on Day 29 of his immense running journey, where he has navigated the injury with an adapted running style. Whilst the challenge is not done in the traditional 'Lands End to John O'Groats' sense, he instead brings together a fantastic running community at each of his stop-points, with 50 kilometers clocked up around multiple loops of popular running circuits.

With such an epic feat of endurance, over-use injuries were always on the cards, and Jackson expressed how he has already battled through the set-backs of a significant tendonitis issue in his shin, which slowed his pace for 10 brutal days.

"I originally was trying to do two marathons a day, which is 84 kilometres, one for each brain injury charity. I did that for 13 days, and then I got injured on day 14. I limped my way around for 12 and a half hours, but managing to clock up the minimum 50k that I needed for Guinness World Record.

"Since then, I've just been nursing this injury back. I walked for maybe like eight, nine, 10 days. So 10 days from injury, to day 24. I managed to do a tiny bit of running. and now I'm back to nearly running a similar amount and pace to what I was before."

Tendonitis in the tibialis anterior muscle is one of the most feared injuries that ultra-distance runners face.

"Every time you lift your foot off the ground it [tibialis anterior muscle] has to work. It's a breaking muscle for when you go downhill. It came on gradually, on the evening of the last half marathon, on day 13. It started to cause me some problems. I felt it. I actually felt it more when I was walking than running, so I sort of ran the last half marathon on day 13, but I knew it would be bad.

"It was the same feeling that I had last year in September, when I did the whole West Coast line of Wales in six days. That required me to have 10 days of rest with no running, doing acupuncture and rehab exercises from physio, so I was very worried that I would just have to stop the whole thing. I was very grateful to be able to limp and hobble around for 12 and a half hours to do that, minimum of 50 kilometres, what Guinness World Records classifies an ultra marathon."

This injury was very nearly the undoing of the mission, as Jackson shared an honest recollection of when he was at his closest to throwing in the towel. However, a rather timely intervention reminded the runner of what he's fighting for, as he continues to put one foot in front of the other, and fly the flag for Headway UK and Head for Change.

"I got about four kilometers into day 14 in the Lake District, and I couldn't put up with the pain of walking anymore.I had someone with me, and I sent them back to get my wife, because whenever I've been in this position before, she always knows the right thing to do, so she comes and finds me.

"I've just been hobbling around for about 45 minutes, and I actually started almost crying a bit uncontrollably. In my head I'd just given up, I was like, 'I just can't do this'. If you could have teleported me home, I'd have taken it. But, interestingly, a car pulled up before my wife got there and the man said, 'you alright?', They could see that I wasn't.

"He was like, 'do you want a lift'. But for the Guinness World Record, they're tracking on your watch all of the distances that you're moving. I just knew I couldn't get in a car. I thought I wanted to give up, but I obviously didn't, because I refused to get in the car. I knew that would really be it over.

"So, my wife found me, and consoled me, and then just got very practical. She was like, 'you're not giving up yet, because we haven't tried anything, and this is our first major challenge.'"

Having started the quest in Caernarfon, North Wales, he has since taken his mission to Chester, Manchester, Keswick, Glasgow, Cairngorms and Edinburgh, before arriving upon Tyne-side. The journey continues all the way down to St Ives in Cornwall, before yo-yoing back up through the West Country and returning into Wales, with the final legs set for his return to Caernarfon, from September 2nd to 5th. Jackson hopes to raise a staggering £1 million for the two fantastic charities, and has been overwhelmed by the support he's witnessed so far.

"It has to be said, my wife, and a really great community of runners in the Lake District, were just amazing. They just came down, people walked with me for hours and hours and hours. I felt really bad for not running, because I thought they wanted to run, but they were just wonderful.

"It is a mental challenge, but I don't want to take the credit for it. It wasn't my mental strength, it was all the people around me, who gave me some much love and care and support and belief that, it [leg injury] would get better, and gradually we've seen some improvements, and amazingly I'm back running!"

With an unrelenting desire to succeed, Mission In-Possible becomes all the more achievable through Jackson's perseverance built up from his experience as a professional sports breath-work coach. An accomplished author of 'Breathe Smarter, Run Stronger', he has previously worked with an assortment of top rugby sides and helped the likes of England stars George Ford when recovering from injury. Jackson is excited to return to the England camp for the South West London leg from the 24th to 27th of July.

Having previously worked inside the Bagshot base, he's taught the top stars how to maximise their on-field output by managing their breath-work. Whilst the Surrey stop falls after the ongoing Nations Championships, it is a section of the journey that Jackson is looking forward to, as the luxurious Pennyhill Park breaks up the hard-going van life.

"I've done a couple of workshops down at Pennyhill Park, and worked with some of the players whilst they're injured, or worked with them individually. I've worked alongside the medical team, with Bob Stewart, the physio with England, and then with a few other teams as well. I've worked with Sale Sharks for quite a few years now."

"The rest of the time we're in our camper van, roughing it, so I think we deserve one stay in a hotel!"

1. Caernarfon // 29th May to 1st June

2. ⁠Chester // 2nd to 5th June @the.farm.club

3. ⁠Manchester // 6th to 9th June @kickbackcoffee

4. ⁠Keswick // 10th to 13th June @the_health_barn

5. ⁠Glasgow // 14th to 17th June @activscotland

6. ⁠Cairngorms // 18th to 21st June @glenmorelodge

7. ⁠Edinburgh // 22nd to 25th June TBC

8. ⁠Newcastle // 26th to 29th June @__trainingclub

9. ⁠Harrogate // 30th June to 3rd July @move360_harrogate

10. ⁠Leeds // 4th to 7th July @reyt_sauna

11. ⁠Sheffield // 8th to 11th July @outside.co.uk

12. ⁠Nottingham // 12th to 15th July @spox_official

13. ⁠Northampton // 16th to 19th July @theicebath.co

14. ⁠Harpenden // 20th to 23rd July @marchongyms

15. ⁠West London // 24th to 27th July @pennyhill_park

16. ⁠Horsham // 28th to 31st July @south_lodge

17. ⁠Bournemouth // 1st to 4th August Swanage

18. ⁠Exeter // 5th to 8th August TBC (get in touch)

19. ⁠St Ives // 9th to 12th August @covecafehaylebeach

20. ⁠Barley Wood // 13th to 16th August @vivobarefoot

21. ⁠Bristol // 17th to 20th August @sivowellness

22. ⁠Bath // 21st to 24th August @marchongyms

23. ⁠Newport // 25th to 28th August @celticroyalhotel_official

24. ⁠Aberystwyth // 29th August to 1st Sept @the_gym_aber

25. ⁠Caernarfon // 2nd to 5th September – Castle