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Nick Butter Running

Ultra Runner, Endurance Athlete, Adventurer & Motivational Speaker

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Tel: 07754 328 355

Email: nick@nickbutter.co.uk

Twitter: runatthefront

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Running The World 196

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Recent Posts

Week 11 – Days 71-77 – The gift of a hat in Paraguay, sunrise in Chile, battling altitude in Bolivia and more sunburn in Peru
Week 10 – Days 64-70 – A friend arriving in Brazil before Marathon 29 in Argentina and experiencing wind in Uruguay, ending in Paraguay
Week 9 – Days 57-63 – Gambling with finches in Guyana, feeling ‘tyred’ in Suriname and running in Rio, Brazil
Week 8 – Days 50-56 – Exotic birds in Costa Rica, the Panama Canal and Marathons 24 and 25 in Colombia and Venezuela
Week 7 – Days 43-49 – Carbon offset in Guatemala, my first million steps in Honduras, great support in Nicaragua and dodging traffic in Costa Rica

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Day 259 - Marathon 76, Austria 🇦🇹 Vienna - RUNNERS HIGH. - Actually day 259 🙈👌🏼 - A runners high. Runners you know what it’s like to feel bloody great when you run. Today was one of those days. I was cursing. My legs floating over the ground, my heart steady, the heat on my face and the wind in my hair. I feel sorry for all those non runners out there. Go and run you’ll love it; eventually. - Although I’ve been here for less than 48 hours, this city is such a great place. The atmosphere and general ambiance is spot on. Apparently this place has been voted the most liveable city for the last 7 years. I can see why. A decent financial sector, good economy, brilliant town centre, and today I discovered a fantastic running route around the quieter sides of the capital. - This morning my foot was noticeably not the same as usual, but I’m sure 99% of that was my tired brain giving me an excuse to stay in bed a bit longer. - Once I finally made it out of the hotel and pushed the start button on my watch I was anxious not to do any more damage and made the decision that if I was struggling to run or walk before 10 miles then I’d call it a day and revisit later in the trip. - Gladly, my foot, with a little TLC and some pain relief, it felt fine. By the time the run was over and the pain killers had worn off, my foot felt virtually normal again. It just goes to show that a bit of positive thinking and carrying on regardless can sometimes work. Not always but sometime. - Run complete and feeling great. I tucked into a super tasty chicken, mushroom, and broccoli risotto. A huge portion but I still had some room for chocolate cake after. Obvs. - I’m getting into bed tonight with a feeling of accomplishment and relief that my foot wasn’t too bad and that there’s not been another hick up yet. The more marathons I complete the more I’m desperate to nurse my body and mind to the end. It may not always be obvious but 9 months on the road, a dog bite, a mugging, 28 African countries later... this hasn’t been an easy journey; and I’ve still got a lot ahead of me. Thanks for the support guys and girls. #adventure #running #runner #run #runnersofinstagram #hot

Day 258 - Czech Republic 🇨🇿 Prague, to Austria 🇦🇹 Vienna. - Caption competition on the last photo... scroll along. - Today’s breakfast was like yesterday’s, and the day before and the day before that... Average to poor breakfasts has become my life. Old pastries, machine hot chocolates, small European style ‘toast’, tiny rock hard packets of ‘butter’ and UHT milk. Don’t get me wrong this is far better than an Africa breakfast; I’m just craving a proper fry up. Give me some pork and apple farmer’s market sausages and some runny eggs, maybe some crispy smoked streaky bacon. Oh and baked beans and huge helpings of hand made hash browns please. Top it off with a fresh thick cut white loaf and perfectly soft Devon butter. Ahhh Cravings. The comfort of home. - Anyway, my breakfast rant aside, today consisted of my 18th train journey and another 4 hours of cracking on with admin on the train. Before we knew it we arrived in country 76. Austria. Vienna. - My experience of Vienna before now was only of skiing, so I wasn’t expecting such a beautiful and flat city. Later we headed to a chilled out man made beach area on the river bank. Burger bar, deck chairs and some deep house music. The locals were flooding in after a hard day in the office. - Despite the sore foot, Dani and I wanted to explore the city a little more. We have now just got in from a night on the town. One of my favourite bars I’ve ever been to; a 50s theme only playing jive music, Elvis, Jerry Lee, etc. Everyone was in great spirits and after 5 hours of dancing/hobbling like idiots (yes even on my bad foot), we have just got back to the hotel. My clothes, including my underwear and jeans are so wet with sweat I can literally ring them out. Yep! That’s a whole lot of shaking going on. Once again, my ethos of squeezing every last second of the day has been a success. I’ve just gotta get up in 6 hours to run another marathon. I hope my foot is happy tomorrow. #running #run #runnersofinstagram #marathon #weekend #adventure #travel #travelling #osprey #bags #interrail #nickbutter #injury #vienna #austria #runner #hot #runningtheworld196

Day 257 - Czech Republic 🇨🇿 Prague Marathon 75 - Injury 🙈 - Marathon 1 for Nik without the ‘c’ and an injury for me. It’ll be fine! I hope. - In terms of the city, Prague was better than expected. I knew about the gothic architecture and the various stag do nightlife but not a lot else. The buildings are beautiful and the river has so much going on. High marks from me Prague. Although I could do with less cobbles please. - This morning I started late. I enjoyed a long lie in followed by a very filling yet average breakfast and before I knew it my trainers were on and it’s time to run again. - Anyway Breakfast rant aside today’s run was great! Right up until some fibres in my right Achilles started to fray. It’s the first injury I’ve had on the expedition so far that was directly caused by running and where I felt I needed pain relief. - I ran with a brilliant guy called Nik. Full name Domink, he is 16 years old and before today has never run a marathon. Well now you have Nik. I was amazed at how he coped. Hot, cobbles, and was entirely fine up to 20 miles. Needless to say I think Nik learnt the lesson about salt intake. Salt lines covered him; and therefore with 6 miles to go, calf, ham strings, groin, guads, and every other lower half muscle was cramping and spasming. I was limping and rather sore at this point, but we made it to the finish together and smiling. So proud and inspired by the grit of a 16 year old. I wish I had that mental strength at that age. Impressive. - Mile 17 my right heal, within 10 minutes, went from sore, to hardly walkable. Not a pain I’d had before but I’d had worse... a quick stop in the pharmacy and job done, painkillers and some anti inflammatory gel and it began to feel better. I delved into my metaphorical sack of positivity and pulled out a winner. I’m pretty proud of my mind... it’s not always been strong but it is now. Thanks to tens of thousands of painful brutal miles, training and racing. Runners you know the drill. The more it hurts the better you get. Let your mind control the body not the other way around. - Some ice this evening and lots of rest, i just hope it’s not too sore for Austria 🇦🇹 tomorrow. #running #run

Day 256 - Germany 🇩🇪 Berlin to Czech Republic 🇨🇿 Prague. - A little teaser of the behind the scenes filming of the first stage of Europe. Phase 5 of the expedition takes me through 16 countries in 4 weeks. 4 marathons per week starting in Barcelona and working our way east utilising the Interrail network. I am yet to return to Africa and complete the last 25 countries of the continent, I also still have to begin Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania. Only 17 months left to go 😴 - By the end of the year I should have completed 100 marathons which takes me just over half way to completing 196 by November 2019. Every country in the world plus I’m running all the Major’s too. - We are shooting a documentary, writing a book, and launching a world wide photography exhibition of the journey. Everything is to raise money and awareness to help fight against prostate cancer. - Today I left my 74th country, Germany and past through the countryside to the Czech Republic. Dani is only with me for another week sadly, but we’ve had a blast. Once Dani returns to the U.K. I’ll be on my own again. - This evening we wandered through the streets of Prague. The high gothic architecture all around us, nibbles on some delicious spirally pastry things filled with ice cream and Nutella, of which I forget the name, and settled down in a small Irish pub for some live music. - Here’s what the next couple of month looks like! - ICELAND Reykjavik 30 Sept 2018, USA Chicago 4 Oct 2018, USA San Francisco 9 Oct 2018, IRELAND Dublin 16 Oct 2018, CROATIA Zargreb 19 Oct 2018, ROMANIA Bucharest 22 Oct 2018, NETHERLANDS Amsterdam 25 Oct 2018, BELGIUM Brussels 28 Oct 2018, USA New York 31 Oct 2018, SWITZERLAND Buchs 11 Nov 2018, LIECHTENSTEIN Vaduz 14 Nov 2018, LUXEMBOURG Luxembourg 15 Nov 2018, DENMARK Copenhagen 17 Nov 2018, NORWAY Oslo 20 Nov 2018, SWEDEN Stockholm 23 Nov 2018, FINLAND Helsinki 26 Nov 2018, RUSSIA St Petersburg 29 Nov 2018, - If you’d like to get involved in anyway please let me know. Run with me, give me a bed for the night, donate, or help with The 196 Foundation please comment and tag below. Cheers #adventure #running #run #runnersofinstagram #marathon #runningtheworld196

Day 255 - Germany 🇩🇪 Berlin, Work Day - NEW VIDEOS COMING! GET YOUR QUESTIONS IN. - A heads up to everyone... in the coming weeks I am launching a new You Tube channel. I have thousands of hours of videos and snippets of the trip so far for the documentary Spark Media are producing for various broadcast channels... but it’s worth sharing some bits and pieces so far; with 17 months still to run, I have had some hilarious, scary and simply odd things happen to me. My hope is that you guys will enjoy seeing some behind the scene footage of the trip. - REQUEST! Please send in your questions. I’m going to do an initial Q&A video to help answer all the questions I assume everyone may already know about the trip. If you have anything you wanna know about me, the trip, the organisation, the running, injuries, please comment below. - Today. I won! Connect Four that is. It’s a surprisingly tough game when played tired post marathon. That said i can still win, 4 times. #loserdani - This morning I met up with Dan P. Dan work for Pro Direct and Do Sport Live. Two significant sponsors of mine. Everyone at ‘Pro Direct’ and ‘Do’ are fab and have supported for years. Thanks folks. Dan and I shot some interview stuff and presented me with yet more kit; including my 7th pair of trainers this year. - Dani and I managed to see some sights today; The Berlin Wall and of course Check Point Charlie was a must. We spent some down time working and chilling in the Charlie beach area. A brilliant concept of a small sandy beach surrounded by small food and drink outlets right in the centre of Berlin. Historical and so brilliantly contrasted to the 30 years prior. Let’s not build another wall trump. - After a very long and entirely inaccurate game of darts, we ate some tasty oversized chicken wraps while avoiding all wasp attacks; later we headed back to the hotel to begin some proper work. - Laptops out, photos organised, emails checked and 4 hot chocolates later we showered and ventured into the city one last time. Dinner, drinks and a few bars. It’s now time for bed. Tomorrow we move on to the Czech Republic for marathon 75. Prague. #adventure #running #run #ultraboost

Day 254 - Marathon 74 of 196, Germany 🇩🇪, Berlin Marathon - This first photo captures what it’s like to enjoy a marathon 👌🏼 - People say running is an individual sport. I say it’s not. I hope you would agree? Thoughts people please! Runners compete individually but race together. Be it a short run like a city marathon or a big multi day ultra everyone gets to the finish line with the collective effort of support from family, friends, other runners, and spectators. - Today was a great example of how to enjoy a marathon. Over the past few years I’ve ran a lot. I’ve ran to Paris, ran the Sahara Desert, raced around islands and numerous countries, trained hard for months on end, competed all over the world, and ran multiple 24 hour training days. In total I’ve now ran over 40,000 miles in my life. - We all have the rainy mornings at home when it’s dark and we desperately want to roll over and snooze the alarm till midday... it’s likely that if you’re reading this, perhaps you don’t snooze the alarm that often. Make today count. - Initially I learnt to run for fitness, then I progressed to run to compete and race, and now I run for fun, (at the moment anyway). I love running because it clears my mind, it sorts my body out, and gives me a boost of encouragement in life in some weird way. - Today was a brilliant run, I cruised through the entire course in second gear, no pain, no effort, no soreness, and the finish came around pretty quickly. I’m not gloating; I’m making the point that it’s a long journey to properly enjoy a run. It’s also the combined affect of training and making the decision to run hard or not. Most of the runs this year I won’t be running hard because I need to survive injury free for 2 years but also because I enjoy a longer slower run. - I met a great girl called Katrina during the race who I believe managed to secure her PB, I ran with a good friend Kip and even bumped into Dan during the race. A big well done to everyone taking part and to everyone who worked hard and reached their goals. The best thing about not reaching your goals though, is that you get to run again. Loved today This is what running is all about #run #runnersofinstagram

Day 253 - Germany 🇩🇪 Berlin - Bib Collection - Any running expo is fascinating. Here’s my top 10 of ‘what to expect at a running expo’. - There’s always: - 1️⃣Oversized blowup objects not related to running (beer, cars, footballs) 2️⃣Poorly organised everything, especially queues 3️⃣Huge selection of different nationalities, shapes and sizes. Fab! 4️⃣A whole array of different personalities (you know what I’m talking about - the boasters, the newbies etc) 5️⃣Weirdos that wear their running kit to the expo (no offence, but come on guys, why do you do that?) 6️⃣Everyone wearing fluorescent clothing 7️⃣Over complicated one way systems 8️⃣About 20% of the toilet facilities required for clean sanitary use to thousands of people 9️⃣Everyone queuing for things they wouldn’t usually want, let alone queue for. 1️⃣0️⃣And obviously the most important, everyone must leave the expo with lots of flyers for races that they have no intention on attending. - I had a lie in today. After yesterday’s long journey and going to bed without really washing or brushing my teeth, I treated myself to some body admin. A long shower, some decent breakfast, a double mouth wash and teeth brush combo and then a stroll to the official Berlin Marathon expo. Woo - It’s so nice to be in a city full of runners. The bling of runner drips off them like sparkly gold. Some try to disguise their natural runner look, and some simply don’t bother. I love it. Whether it’s people wearing causal outfits with obviously new trainers, or perhaps the oversized running watches latched to small runners arms. - The running community is great. Walking around the expo for a few hours I collected up my bib, perused the stands full of more gear and gadgets I most definitely don’t need and walked away with a big Berlin poster, lots of safety pins (for Dan), and several selfies of people that recognised me and wanted to chat about the trip. So nice! Thanks guys. - I’m really grateful for the support from everyone online and in person. Please keep sharing the journey; it’s going to get tougher. Tomorrow is marathon 74, Germany! Another major. Woo. #run #berlin #berlinmarathon #berlinmarathon2018 #marathon #expo #running

Day 252 - Italy 🇮🇹 to Austria 🇦🇹 to Germany 🇩🇪 - New friends, brilliant chats, many trains, currywurst, and lots of time scratching my head wondering if I’m in the right place. - This morning we left Rimini on our 9th train of the month to Berlin. 14 hours and 15 minutes later we arrived... and then fumbled around Berlin train station trying to find the exit. Sleepy brains 🧠. - 04:30 - Alarm 🚨 05:00 - Pack Bag 🎒 05:30 - Breakfast 🍳 05:45 - Wait for Taxi 🚕 06:00 - Realise Taxi isn’t coming 😡 06:15 - Call new taxi 🚕 06:30 - Arrive at train station 🚂 06:45 - Realise we left GoPro in taxi 🚕 06:46 - Panic 😳 07:00 - Call taxi company 📱 07:05 - Taxi returns with GoPro 🎥 07:06 - Run for train 🚂 07:10 - Train leaves for Bologna 🚂 08:00 - Sleep 😴 08:10 - Funny photos of Dani sleeping 🛏 08:14 - Arrive in Bologna 🚂 08:15 - Find platform for next train 🚂 08:40 - Drink hot chocolate 🍫 08:45 - Board train to Bolzano 🚂 09:00 - Edit footage for video update 🎬 11:17 - Arrive in Bolzano 🚂 11:30 - Lunch in nearby McDonalds 🍟 12:00 - Nap on platform with nice view 🌅 12:15 - Pushups on platform (weird looks) 12:34 - Board train to Munich 🚂 13:00 - Fall asleep 😴 14:00 - Remain completely asleep 😴 16:00 - Meet Johanna a train friend 👱🏼‍♀️ 16:25 - Arrive in Munich 🚂 17:00 - Currywurst with Johanna 🥘 17:45 - Go for a wee🚻 17:54 - Board final train to Berlin 🚂 18:00 - Very busy train, standing 👥 18:45 - Chat to Johanna 🗣 20:00 - Still chatting 🤳 21:00 - Still chatting, very sleepy 🙋🏼‍♂️ 21:30 - Meet new bunch of friends 👨‍👨‍👦 22:29 - Arrive in Berlin 🚂 23:00 - Still not escaped huge station 🗺 23:15 - Taxi to Hotel ✅ 23:45 - Arrive at Hotel 🏢 24:00 - Get into bed 🛏 00:15 - Need more food 🥘 01:00 - Finally Sleep 😴 - So that’s that. Thanks to Joanna and everyone we met on the trains. It’s quite a day when you go through three countries, sleep in multiple places without meaning to, and generally not really know where you are. Finally in bed and ready to turn off the light. I pick up my bib tomorrow for the official Berlin Marathon. #run #train #runner #marathonguy #runnersofinstagram #berlinmarathon2018 #adventure

Expedition Finish

Running The World 196November 11th, 2019

13 months to go.

RTW196 Closing EventMarch 30th, 2020

18 months to go.

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