Ray Matthews turned 75 and marked the occasion by running 75 marathon distances in 75 days. Ten years on, the 85-year-old from Rotherham has set his sights on something considerably bigger: the Bigfoot 200, a 200-mile ultra-marathon through Washington State's Cascade Mountains next August.
"I feel I can do it. I know I can do it," Matthews said. "What I need to do now is to knuckle down and start big time training."
Matthews is no stranger to extreme distances. His achievements include a 124-mile run in the Sahara. The Bigfoot 200, which covers 322 kilometres across rugged mountain terrain, represents a different kind of test, one that would challenge runners half his age.
Age, Matthews insists, has never factored into how he thinks about activity. That attitude recently landed him an unexpected payday. His wife, Maureen, spotted a social media call from an insurance company looking for people over 70 who could demonstrate impressive fitness, energy and determination. Matthews assumed it was a scam. He sent in a video of himself on a treadmill along with his running history anyway. The company asked him to fly to Thailand to appear in a television commercial.
The six-day round trip to Bangkok paid well. Matthews describes the fee as "just crazy". The filming process, however, came with its own challenges. Going through wardrobe and make-up proved memorable for the Yorkshireman.
"As a Yorkshireman, it's something a bit strange when a six-foot-three guy in a dress walks up to me and starts faffing about with me hair," he said. "Then he sat me down and he's using a powder puff. Well, I could have sat there trying not to pee myself for laughing."
The commercial opportunity came about because of the same drive that has defined Matthews' running career. Fundraising has always been central to his efforts, with two causes especially close to him: Age UK Rotherham and Newman School, a local school for young people with special educational needs and disabilities aged between two and 19.
Matthews has raised significant sums for the school over the years, including a £30,000 haul from a previous marathon challenge. He regularly visits schools to talk about his achievements, keen to pass on a simple message about the value of staying active.
"This is where it all starts from, from kids, that movement is medicine," he explained. "You've got to keep moving. Sometimes it's not easy, but you've just got to tell yourself that you need to do that little bit every day, at least make some movement, because if you don't move you lose it."
Matthews' approach to extreme endurance events is methodical. The race itself, he says, is only part of the equation. The preparation matters just as much.
"The events are the icing on the cake," he said. "It's that lead-up. It's that work that takes place beforehand that gets you ready to be able to do these things."
With the Bigfoot 200 now firmly in his sights, Matthews has begun ramping up his training. The race, which takes place next August, will see him navigate a 200-mile route through the Cascade Mountains, a course that includes significant elevation changes and unpredictable weather.
Matthews' running career has already spanned decades and taken him to some of the world's most demanding environments. The Sahara desert, where he completed a 124-mile run, stands among his previous accomplishments. The Bigfoot 200, with its mountain terrain and extreme distance, will test him in different ways.
He remains characteristically confident. At 85, with a 200-mile race ahead of him and a training block to complete, Matthews is doing what he has always done: getting on with it. The commercial shoot in Thailand was a detour, a profitable one, but the real work starts now. As he puts it, the lead-up is where the race is won.
According to Yahoo Sports.