I’m running Hastings Half in chain mail – and aiming for world record

Nick has experience of making and wearing different types of armour through his work with Hands On History – but has never run any significant distance in it. The existing record is 2 hours 16 minutes set at Silverstone in 2017, but having begun an intense period of training he hopes to beat that.

He says: “I have been approved by Guinness World Records to attempt to break that and they have given me a target of 2 hours 10. I know that this would be a very respectable time at Silverstone – where the total climb is around 200 feet – but it’s over 900 for Hastings!”

After one of the regular Wednesday Hastings Runners night runs Nick had cause to look more tired than the rest of us. Except he didn’t. Remarkable considering he’d been wearing a 10kg waistcoat over his running top. This though, is only a taster for what he will have to endure on 24th March.

“Chain mail provides amazing protection against sharp-edged weapons but it comes at a cost. The thousands of individually riveted rings in a shirt add up to anything between 11 and 16kg. But that’s just the shirt – the Guinness record requires gauntlets and a coif to be worn, too!”

Hastings Runners are less demanding and are supporting him all the way.

“I have genuinely been inspired by all at Hastings Runners,” says Nick. “By day they’re managing families, running private hospitals, building businesses… Yet they still have the discipline to go out and train then compete – all the time supporting each other and being incredibly welcoming.

“I also have a great source of inspiration in my friend Sam Barker who passed away several years ago, far too soon. He was an incredible human being, a great runner, historian and all-round friend to everyone. I’m hoping to organise a fundraising element around this challenge to support the charity that did so much for him and his family in his last few months. At the start of every race or event I always ask him to look over me and he hasn’t failed me yet.”

Training so far has seen Nick lose over 6kg in weight and shed three inches from his waist. In the race the challenges will mount up: the extra effort required simply to breathe, the padding worn to prevent the “cheese greater effect” of so much moving metal – and the extra body heat generated by every step in the armour.

So, dare we ask? “No, I won’t be wearing chain mail underwear.”

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