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Video: Jack Denness'
marathon trip

by Keyan Milanian

kmilanian@thekmgroup.com

A seventy-five-year-old man walks 135 miles in temperatures
exceeding 45C in less than 60 hours.

An incredible achievement reduced to just a sentence.

Part-time school caretaker Jack Denness, from
Rochester, became the oldest Badwater Ultramarathon competitor
to complete one of the world's most difficult running events in
California's Death Valley last month.

Now you can watch his incredible achievement unfold in
our exclusive video above.

I told anyone who would listen that I had written
about Jack a number of times and how he had previously
completed an astonishing 13 other Badwater races.

But it was only being a member of the team, supporting him for
about half of the 59 hours and 13 minutes it took him to complete
Badwater, that I realised how amazing this achievement really
is.

I walked with Jack, of Canon Close, on his final night for
a few miles but that was in more comfortable temperatures. My legs
ached when I sat down to rest and I fell asleep.

When I awoke, Jack was walking. It was the same for three days.
When the support team went to sleep, Jack would be walking. When we
awoke, Jack was walking.

He slept for about three or four hours during the entire
challenge, mostly in the support van used by myself, Karen
Dockwray, Mark Hughes, Alan Le Good, Daria Kelley, and Jack's wife
Mags Denness. Our job was to keep Jack hydrated through the 60
hours, giving him water, gels and powders, and spraying him down or
offering a cold, wet flannel.

At one stage, between the first and second checkpoint on the
first day, Alan and I had to get Jack through one of his most
difficult periods, at the point at which the temperature is at its
worst and Jack has been walking since 6am.

Instead of the usual one-mile gaps between Jack's stops, we had to halve them to allow Jack to
recover. He did finish though, despite having to visit the medical
team on his first night.

Speaking immediately after the event, he said: "My feet are in a
bad state and I feel knackered but what takes the pain away is the
medal. I'm very proud of it but it's going to be my last. I'm not
going to do any more."

Jack hopes to have raised about £5,000 for CPC Kent with the
help of his sponsor Seven Seas. He will be returning to Badwater to
help the organisers next year.

To help support Jack, join the Facebook group Help Death
Valley Jack get more fans than Usain Bolt!!!