The MDS is one of the most iconic ultra races in the world. It's the one race that a lot of multi day ultramarathons base themselves on. The margins are so small on whether you finish or don't.

It's renowned as the hardest foot race on earth.

There is always a risk that something could happen. You have to make sure everything is in place just in case.

Every part of me wants to stop. I mean, I can't I can't pull down. There's one goal, and it's to get from a to b as quickly possible and ideally not die halfway through it.

One simple mistake here, your race is over.

Everything's about extremities. One of the major symptoms for me is this all or nothing approach. Basically, the more I mess myself up, the longer I feel better. One of the downsides of ADHD is that it can make you so intent on getting to your objective that actually there can be... It can be difficult for people around that when you're fully you're fully hyper focused.

There's a lot of problems that Simon will face with ADHD but actually when preparing for these sorts of events, there are a lot of things that could fall in his favor. The focus and the obsession with something is definitely gonna help him. It's definitely helped him in the past. When you have three children.

And then holidays when they're not at school is quite hard. So I think actually to start with I was a bit like, well, it's a bit of desperate measure to take a break from your family.

I'm not sure that I would be able to do these events on a number of different levels if I wasn't supported in the way that I am at home. You know, I'm very fortunate in that way and my children, you know, have learned from Faye. I think Faye acknowledges that I'm a better better person. I I... I'm not made to feel guilty for for needing to do this.

Now he's done a number of them. It's a bit medicinal really, I think.

All you've got to do for seven days, eat, sleep, and run. What an existence.

Ready? Two, one, two... I mean, for me, it just sounds treacherous to be honest. So I can't imagine why he wants to go out and do this. People fall very ill and sometimes die on these things.

My brain was bouncing around a bit last night. I think I'll feel some sense of anxiety probably when I see a sand dune even if it's two meters high. It'll probably make me feel a bit a bit peculiar. So that gives me anxiety. That thing. It is a sand dune, but it's not a mountain.

I have my own objectives because I'm looking to discover myself. I wanna understand me and how... What makes me tick and how I operate. But actually, it's becoming far more than that. I want to help people open up a dialogue. ADHD should be looked at as something that can enable people to provide positivity to the world, not blocking them off and not listening to them because they don't hit a certain criteria that we've become used to. It's getting gradually hotter, so I'm trying to be really sensible, not gun it. Probably get halfway through tomorrow and then start thinking about taking some paracetamol and trying to be careful with it with water.

I think there needs to be a lot more information about ADHD and what it is and what it isn't. I think some people have a very stereotypical view of somebody with ADHD and they think they might be that loud person at school or that person that sits and fidgets all day. But there are different versions of it for different people and people will adapt differently. Predominantly hyperactive is only fifteen percent of people with ADHD.

It's a significant proportion of women and girls and so the idea that it's just a boy running around is just wrong. People often ask me what ADHD is and it's one of the ways in which people can be neurodivergent.

So neurodiversity means basically brain based difference and it means that you experience the world in a different way. How you feel about the world, how you think about the world. So it's really common and ADHD is about one in twenty adults.

I have ADHD. I try to explain it to people by saying it's like when you have your laptop open for most, you know, kind of typical thinkers. If they have too many windows open, it it drives them crazy. I always have that many windows open. You can get very you can get very charged up or very drained. I think just a bit more easier than than others.

And it's it's difficult to prioritize sometimes. There isn't one size fits all with any condition. There are general symptoms. Some may be positive, some may be negative, but how a person generally handles it is up to them. We're all unique individuals plus ADHD.

I think he he would he would hold his hands up and say that he he struggles with his mental health and actually running is one of the things that helps. Such an odd thing to try and explain to people that actually the running itself is the therapy.

Coming here, it's like a complete swap of of mental capabilities and responsibilities. Especially when you have ADHD, if you push yourself to extreme limits, it is actually recharging the batteries. And you go back saying, there was an enormous challenge, and I did that. I am capable.

He potentially uses ultramarathons as a way to keep him in training. You know, training and getting out and exercising is basically medicine, and is what keeps you kind of focused, your endorphins above, know. Ultimately, it's a dopamine deficiency problem, right, and and exercise raises that dopamine level. I think it's almost a bit of an addiction probably on his part in terms of the fact that he needs to do it and it's to say I've got this ultra marathon in the diary and kinda use it as a as a bit of a way to manage his day to day life really.

Last 15 k's will be hard. It's alright. My feet are a bit... Need a little bit of tension, I I really am okay.

I will put a 150% and more. Leave nothing on the table whatsoever. I don't think that's always healthy. When it's over, this brain fog kind of ensues. At the time that that you're going through these periods of brain fog, it seems to be after periods of extreme hyper focus. You just you just run out of energy. It's almost like your mind is trying to get some rest. It's extremely frustrating and it is it's like a form of depression probably, but without it taking you down those roads. One of the reasons I love ultra running is it gives me a chance to go away and turn off from all these things. And when I come back, the brain fog has lifted.

And actually I have then complete clarity of thinking that it's just complete peace and straight line decision making. It all makes sense. If it's everything into context, seeing a desert and, you know, just things in in their complete natural space without any interferences from us whatsoever. That that to me is peaceful. That brings peace to the the noise that sometimes comes into my brain, I think.

There is an additional challenge with his ADHD where he's gonna have to really focus on some certain areas to to be successful. He's gonna have to quieten that noise quite a lot.

Today is a long stage. We're starting at six. Run for about three quarters an hour in the dark. So it's quite it's quite a slog to do 85 kilometers. Yes. It's getting hot now. Hard work getting over the ridge. I've I've felt been in reasonable spirits up until now. The next two stages will be quite big for me.

A lot of the focus is on the extreme temperatures with these things. But people forget that they're still running 150 miles over five days even in temperate conditions you'll still get repetitive strain injuries hips, knees, ankles.

And you have to pay attention to that as well. I'm a volunteer here at MDS. I was a late diagnosed ADHDer. I always think things end up into buzzwords, know, and ADHD is a superpower. Well, do you know what? I suppose it's advantageous sometimes, but it's also a hindrance because it's very nerve wracking sometimes when you just wanna be organized and you wanna stop fighting with yourself. Grabbing hold of hyperfocus.

Is a wonderful thing, and it's wonderful if it's the right thing, and it's terrible if it's the wrong thing. You can't always just hyper focus on what you wanna hyper focus on.

Like, happens, and you have to do this, this, this, this, and screw everything else that you were supposed to do because you're hyper focused on this. We have a a huge problem that it's part of human experience to have a problem with focus, right, to procrastinate.

Before something, potentially to struggle to focus every now and again. That is not the ADHD experience. The ADHD experience is having a debilitating impact on your life. It's exactly the same way that depression isn't sadness, that chronic anxiety isn't anxious on a first date, that OCD isn't a tidy kitchen. Like, they're wildly different things.

I think one of the reasons I do this is to try and exercise discipline. I struggle with it. You know, you're your head, you're like, stop, stop, have a break, stop. Just gotta keep going, keep going. Every part of me wants to stop when it's like that, but I I won't. My biggest problem right now is overheating because my my head starts to throb. I mean, I can't I can't cool down. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Hot.

Hot. When you're racing in extreme environments, it's not not always about the race. It's about the conditions that you face when you're there. Someone can be fine to need a medical extraction within the space of twenty minutes.

I'm honestly, I'm... I really am broken. I think smiling and being jovial is kind of my my way of placating certain things. You know, normal stuff. ADHD at school, played the full, disruptive. Yes, it got got me attention of some kind which I was attracted to. And that's kind of like stuck with me throughout throughout my adult life too. I do think that's a defense mechanism. It would be good to help myself and people like me not feel like they have to repress their emotion. I found today that after a long stage like that, I've had a chance to kind of think about how clear it is that most people have got something. Having.

A neurodivergent condition such as ADHD has its challenges. Getting help with that or getting other people to relate to you better, knowing better how you tick, how you can pass exams, talk to people, socialize, all the things that some people take for absolute granted. Some people with ADHD really struggle with. There is an increased suicide rate, and that could be possibly addressed by helping people earlier. It does seem to be a common denominator that.

Women feel like they're not talked about enough in in regards to ADHD because of the way that they seem to develop when they're young. It's just the void between the two genders, I think, just less clear because boys seem so much more immature and it just comes to the front earlier. We have a massive problem in the under diagnosis, full stop.

But we have a bigger under diagnosis problem in girls. That stereotype, are you a little boy running around and are you disruptive? Whereas a little girl is more likely to be disruptive really to herself. And on top of that, a lot of the research has been male only. And so.

That understanding of women and girls has not been researched properly and needs to be. Basically, you should be able to talk about whatever you wanna talk about with whoever you wanna talk about with, and that's the bottom line. The mind that I need to tame periodically feels like it's at, you know, a relative peace for the moment. I kind of found my own ways of treating myself. It's it's very severe, but you know, I'll feel good for months, not days. You got such a huge calorie deficit. Your body's just eating itself. That was very difficult.

We're talking... We're choosing to talk really openly about it. Most people don't have that and they're just locked off to it, you know, to the point that it's really alienates themselves from their own life. I see my son who's got ADHD and I see myself as at his age. He can't help it. You know, it's just it's just electricity coming out of his his every pore at different points and he doesn't know what to do with that. We know that 76.

Of ADHD can be described genetically. We've seen that through a lot of studies, particularly twin studies. Almost every case, if one identical twin has ADHD, the other has ADHD.

The desert is a beautiful beautiful place but it's it's ruthless. Training of the mind, pick yourself up, go again, don't lose your focus and your temper, take things in a in a balanced way and then then eventually you get what you want, more jeans. I had a horrible night sleep. Mentally, I'm choosing not to be very positive right now, but the fact is, we've got one last push. It's been an amazing experience in some respects. It's been incredible just to talk to people so openly about ADHD. It feels like it's almost a relief for people to open up and talk about it and perhaps we're assisting in creating a bridge to allow that to happen.

There's nothing more valuable than actual examples of people who have got ADHD. People just don't like talking about it until it impacts them or there's a or there's a kid in their family who who's got it. Being more open talking about it and then knowing that having ADHD doesn't necessarily limit you from doing something. It can be addressed far earlier and before it gets a chance to develop into something a bit more suspect it can be blocked off and rediverted. That really is where this goes but that isn't a quick fix.

I think it's really important to help people find a diagnosis early. A diagnosis turns the lights up.

And suddenly you can see your mates, can navigate when we talk to people, we know how life changing it is for them. There is a sense of coming home, being understood.

That's really common when somebody has an ADHD diagnosis, is sort of coming to understand why they are the way they are. It's like a light bulb.

You're so happy because you're like, I knew something was wrong. That explains everything.

I think he just was happy to go, yes, I do have that. Where he comes into his own though, it provides you with hyper focus, especially around things that you're genuinely interested in. And so the enlightenment of actually knowing is life changing.

You've got the keys to the car. You can seek help for that. You can get medication for that. You can look at sport groups. You can start to really play to your strengths and manage your weaknesses in a way you just couldn't before. Knowing how you tick helps you function. I think it could just lead to a happier, more informed view, which essentially is what we're around you for. It's a piece of ourselves.

This is a realization of how far I've come. I've used something that I've probably known I've had for a long time as an extremely positive influence on many, many things. There's absolutely no doubt that it's meaningful and powerful if it can be understood. But that's different in every single child and adult and that's why it can't be just labeled. It has to be broader.

Can see the finish line.

Yes. Yes. Yes.