Mitchell's 4x4x48 Challenge for The Royal Marines

My name is Mitchell Jay, I'm a 16 year old sports enthusiast who has been interested in the idea of ultra running and other sports challenges to push myself to the limit ever since hearing about David Goggins and reading his books back in early 2022. I have also been drawn towards joining the Royal Marine Commandos ever since watching Channel 4's Hunted back in 2019 and hearing of it from Matt Mason when he was on the show.

Around November of 2022, I heard of the 4x4x48 challenge created by Goggins, where the runner must run 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. Ever since hearing of this, I knew I wanted to do it. After recovering from a few recent injuries I decided my Easter break from school, just before my GCSEs, was the perfect time to do it!

How The Running Went

I started my first run on Friday the 7th of April at 15:58 then went on to run 4 miles every 4 hours for the next 48 hours. Having to run through the night, getting up at midnight and 04:00 running in the pitch black. I had to run through the night twice and would have to say the second 04:00 run was definitely one of the hardest runs I have done in a while, as the tiredness was catching up with me and by this point I had already run over 36 miles and my legs were becoming extremely achy especially my calves.

I ended up finishing my final 4 miler at 12:01 on Sunday the 9th of April (Easter Sunday). However, I did not feel this was enough to honour the commando spirit and after totalling up how far I had run and seeing I had just under 4 hours left of the 48 hours I decided I would try to take it to 2 marathons (52.4 miles) in 48 hours. I managed to accomplish this goal having finished 52.5 miles in the time of 44 hours and 39 minutes, this included 2619 ft of elevation throughout my runs.

The number of times I had to push through a barrier while running and keep going was more than I could count especially on my later runs when tiredness had set in. What drove me to finish every run was that I always had in my mind the amount of mental suffering and torment marines have to go through to achieve their green beret and how much more some must go through when experiencing the terrible life of a combat zone. That's what kept me going to always push through the tough times during the runs.

About The Royal Marines Charity:

In recent years (2001-present) the charity has been there to assist members of The Royal Marines as they have come back from tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. This was necessary as although the Marines only make up 5% of the total British Forces they sustained 13% of the overall deaths and 16% of the serious injuries. This has meant a force as small as the Marines has had to deal with a large number of injuries and changes amongst their ranks. This is why I have chosen to support the Royal Marine Charity, as they support so many of those who have suffered both mentally and physically while fighting for others and because of my admiration and aspirations to join their ranks as a Marine.