Mark Bruce
I’ll start this blog with a sentence I’ll finish it on – go outside please and try your best to look ahead of yourself and put one foot in front of the other.
18 months ago I was very, very unwell both mentally and physically. I was very overweight, I smoked and I drank excessively. I very nearly gave up and that is something that really scared me at the time and still scares me now, but I have learnt to harness the fear and make it a positive thing. Fear is good, it means you’re living. I hit a rock bottom when I awoke with no idea where the last 2 days had gone and no hope left. I knew I had to make a change. I got back on my bike and I decided to get to work.
It was awful, for months it was so hard, but I kept the pedals turning. That really was one of the things that made it all manageable, just turning the pedals one more time. I used to ask myself the question ‘Can I turn
the pedals one more time?’ the answer was basically always yes.
If you can break whatever you’re tackling down to one simple question I think it can make it all a lot more manageable.
Nature is so healing and getting to be outside with the elements made me feel more alive than ever, I realised very quickly that I wasn’t made of sugar and how much I could accomplish if I could keep being consistent with it and keep
showing up for myself.
You’ll be a better friend, partner and general person if you are taking some time for you to get outside and get your blood pumping. I have had more of a buzz off of seeing the world on two wheels than from anything
else.
Being outside early in the morning really sets a day up I think, you get a feeling of smugness you’re one up on the world and that feeling is so strong if you can harness it for the rest of your day.
My cycling went from 10km where I had to stop and push to Everesting. Everesting is where you pick a hill, and cycle reps up and down it until you reach 8848m which is the height of Mount Everest. They take me around 15 hours and 8000 calories to complete and I am doing twelve of them in 2024 for the Scottish children’s mental health charity Tiny Changes.
The charity was set up in memory of Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison who lost his life to suicide in 2018 and they are doing invaluable work with young people in Scotland.
An Everest is said to put the same stress on the body as running two marathons back to back but I find the mental resilience the part that needed the most training. There reaches a point in every attempt where you want to give up. Your body hurts, you’ve been battling the elements for hours and you feel sick from the forced fuelling it requires. I always go back to that statement – ‘Can I turn the pedals one more time?’
I think that is about as good a metaphor for life as you’ll find and I urge everyone to try and visualise it next time you are facing a struggle.
Anyway, getting outside and exercising saved my life. It changed who I am and I wish I had been more open minded about it’s powers ten years ago but that is all part of this journey I think.
You get one shot at this so you might as well give it all you have and see what your mind and body are capable of. They are incredible things if you can persevere and crack through the tough top layer.
So, go outside please and try your best to look ahead of yourself and put one foot in front of the other. Even if you have an awful time, you’ll learn something that will help you somewhere down the line – I promise.
Mark
*Since starting his A Dozen Everests challenge Mark has raised almost £2,000 for Scottish children’s mental health charity Tiny Changes … Mark Bruce is fundraising for Tiny Changes (justgiving.com)
