Downpatrick man’s world record attempt to raise funds for mental health charities

4 March 2020

JUST a few years ago, Downpatrick man Phil Martin was — in his own words — a broken man. On Monday he sets off for Chile on the physical and mental challenge of a lifetime.

The father-of-two will attempt to gain the world attitude record for running the highest long distance triathlon and the world’s highest marathon.

Phil has never ran a full marathon before and has only ever done two triathlons — a combination of swimming, running and cycling — to date.

Yet he is preparing to tackle this challenge on the Chilean mountain of Ojos del Salado. At 6,893m it’s the second highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas and the world’s highest active volcano.

This beautiful mountain, which runs along Chile’s border with Argentina, also boasts the world’s highest salt water later, Laguna Verde.

That’s where in just over four weeks time, the 37 year-old will start off his challenge by swimming in water temperatures of between 4-8 degrees centigrade.

Phil will be accompanied by 41 year-old expedition leader Rob Hill, who runs an outdoor adventures company, Falcon Outdoors, in Downpatrick.

Phil, an account manager for South Eastern Regional College, has called his expedition Brokenman: Beyond the Breaking Point and aims to raise awareness of recovery from mental health breakdown and suicidal thoughts.

Phil hopes to raise money for local suicide prevention organisations such as MYMY (Mind Your Mate Mind Yourself), LCCL (Life Change Changes Lives), Suicide Down to Zero and PIPS Downpatrick.

He explained: “Mental health and the issue of suicide is massive within our community, whether it’s locally or across Northern Ireland. It’s something that’s dear to my heart.

“In 2012, when I was aged about 30, just married with a child on the way, I lost everything overnight. I don’t want to go into too much detail but the turmoil and trouble that I experienced was tough.

“I got through my own breaking point by always believing there was better to come, by holding onto a vision that we are all get these challenges for a reason. You may not have asked for it, but you are given them to find out stuff about yourself and how strong you really are.

“Looking back now, I can see that by losing everything, I stepped up to the plate and did so many different things that everyone told I couldn’t do.”

Two years ago, Phil’s brother-in-law asked him if he wanted to help him out and do a leg of a charity triathlon.

He recalled: “I said no as I thought if I’m going to do it, I want to do the whole thing. It was a half Ironman event in Tyrone. I was only out of plaster for a foot injury and was told I would never run again. But I did it.

“I never realised that by throwing myself into something so big to me at that time, would prove to be a major distraction to all the stuff that was on going on.”

So began Phil’s road to recovery and to a love of challenging himself to attempt things he never would have dared to before he went through his own life challenge.

Now he is taking on this major physical challenge where he knows weather and environmental conditions may make it impossible for him to complete.

Phil will leave his wife and two daughters behind for four weeks while they and his parents, who also live in Downpatrick, will be hoping and praying that everything goes as expected.

He explained after after months of training every day at home, followed by weeks of effort on the Chilean mountain, he will face a day like no other when he will attempt his triathlon and follow it by running up and down this brutal mountain at a marathon distance.

“After Rob and I leave Chile on March 9, there’s three weeks of acclimatisation in the mountains, climbing various mountains,” said Phil.

“The final part of this will be to summit Ojos del Salado. We will be living out of tents and using a four by four in the Atacama desert in Chile.

“The whole point of acclimatisation is to get your body used to the lack of oxygen. If we can manage at 7,000 metres, then the hope is that once we come back down to 3,500 metres and stay there for a few days for rest and recovery, we will get the energy levels back up in my body. Then we go up to Laguna Verde, which is at 4,300 metres, and that’s where we will start the challenge.

“From there I start to swim. My distances that I will cover is open to debate. The reality is that if I do a 5km swim, followed by a 20k cycle and 5k run, that would hit the record but we are aiming for a lot more.

“There are lots of different lengths of triathlons but we want this to be a long distance one.”

Phil explained that the current highest altitude triathlon that Rob and he are aware of at the moment was undertaken at Lake Dillon in Colorado, which is just over 4,000 metres.

After the swim, Phil will get on his bike and will ride back and forth along the lake to the edge of Chilean border in 20km loops.

“The idea is that I’m never too far away from my team and camp as the problem in staying out in the desert is we need to bring everything with us our fuel,” said Phil. “It’s going to be particularly cold in the lake and particularly at night so we know there are going to be issues around that.

“Once I finish the cycle, it’s on to the run to do a marathon, 26.2 miles up the mountain, with 6,000 feet of elevation.

“I have to sound a word of caution here, I may not be running at any great speed so the pace may be brutally slow. The reality is that there could be wind chill of anything between minus 15 to minus 29 centigrade.

“Everything we are doing is massively risky. While I’m there, and I’ve made the effort to get there, I want to do maximum distances that I can. It would be foolish not to attempt the world attitude record for the marathon as I will be doing it anyway.

“The current world record was done in Mount Kilimanjaro, at about 5,890 metres. That was done by starting high and running down. I will be running up and down and further along in order to cover the marathon distance at 6,000 metres.

“Guinness Book of Records have accepted the application for the marathon but we didn’t apply for the triathlon. To get that, it’s all about how you evidence it so may prove to be tricky.”

Despite Phil’s relative lack of experience of undertaking any physical challenge at this altitude, his expedition leader Rob is confident he can do it.

“I do believe that Phil can do this,” said Rob, a former Royal Navy seaman. “He has been really training hard for it over the last nine months and has got it in his head that he wants to do it. I know a lot about determination and I think he has that as well.

“There are a lot of issues that we have to deal with such as coping with the altitude and managing his sleep deprivation and weather but if the elements play fair with us, then he has a great chance.”

Rob will be hiring a small team of guides once they reach Chile and he will be the one who will tell Phil the challenge is over if it things get too much.

Phil believes that he has already made peace in his own mind that he may not compete his challenge.

He’s financing the expedition out of his own pocket and he’s working with Belfast video production company, Stranger Productions, to produce a Brokenman documentary which he intends to show at a community screening event in Downpatrick in the months to come.

He adds: “The journey is not actually about setting any records, it’s more about me going on a journey of healing, seeking help and speaking to all the right people.

“I see the expedition as a visual metaphor for mental health issues. For instance going to somewhere which is super-isolated and there’s a lack of oxygen simulates how people can feel when they are in that situation of panic, stress or anxiety. But knowing that we can go somewhere were we can find a breaking point and always believing that there is something beyond that and recovery possible.

“The documentary aims to show how a man like me, who’s been there at breaking point, was able to use tools and to seek help not to take his own life by asking of himself some very basic questions, reflecting and believing that there was something beyond that.

“Regardless of whether I’m successful or not, it doesn’t matter as it’s about being brave enough to step up, move forward in your life and to set new goals.

“I hope people will connect with the fact that they do matter, they do have value and they do belong — that’s the most important thing for me that anyone takes away from this.”

Phil is upbeat and positive about his world record making attempts in Chile and says that failure is no longer a weapon he uses against himself.

“I’ve learnt that the outcome doesn’t matter. What matters is allowing yourself the freedom to say I’m going to attempt that. You learn so much about yourself going through the process.

If I don’t get the challenge done, and I do really want do, it doesn’t really matter.”

Phil would like to thank the following for sponsoring the Brokenman Challenge:

JCM Joinery Ltd; Shields Bricklaying Ltd;

Nutristrength.com;

Metabolics.com;

Robert Herdman Transformation Coach;

Advanced Sports Kinetics;

BushGear.co.uk;

Prometheus Design Werx;

Red Chilli Digital;

Barry Monaghan Performance;

Educo Childcare;

INMYND.

Phil will be blogging throughout his challenge at www.brokenman.co.uk and donations can be made at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/brokenman.

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