The first thing I always get is, ‘Are you not worried you’re going to wreck yourself?’ former rugby pro and now serial marathon runner Josh Patterson says. It’s a fair question. In 2023, the athlete, also known as JP, ran 76 marathons in 76 days in 76 UK cities – the latest in a series of challenges inspired by close friend Ben ‘Tano’ Tansley, who was paralysed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident in 2017. Tansley first tasked Patterson with completing the Berlin Marathon alongside him in a wheelchair, igniting a passion for endurance in Patterson that continued with setting a world record for travelling by wheelchair from John O’Groats to Land’s End and the monumental 76/76/76.
‘With every year and every challenge, I always have Tano in the back of my mind,’ Patterson tells Men’s Health. ‘He’s a constant reminder of how quickly things can change. I could go through life being incredibly wary and careful, not really living, and then – God forbid – something happens. You’re going to have so much regret, knowing that you didn’t do something when you had the opportunity.’
Patterson (right) with his friend Tano, who he credits as the inspiration for his endurance challenges