Phil Holdcroft: “If you can make your purpose bigger than your pain, you can do anything.”

In 2014, Philip Holdcroft, a man of unwavering determination and resilience, already had a deep passion for endurance sports following a successful 20-year Royal Air Force Pilot career. However, a significant hurdle appeared on his path when his young daughter was diagnosed with Leukaemia. 

To connect with his daughter’s journey through the pain and suffering of treatment, he began to use endurance sports as a tool as a way of understanding her experience while also raising money and awareness for the incredible charities that went on to save her life. 

In his own words: “It led to some crazy challenges; what I saw is right on the edge of the possible.” 

This included rowing across the Atlantic within a team of military pilots in 2022 and, most recently, running the Chester Ultra 100, which he won. 

“The Chester 100 was very much a selfish pursuit of my passion, trying to apply everything which I teach others in my job as a performance coach and try and walk the walk. Could I apply what I tell people to do and does it actually work? So it was a real skin in the game. Let’s see if I can practise what I preach.”

Now a high-performance coach, Phil focused on helping other athletes and teams achieve their endurance goals. One of Phil’s main mantras is ‘the power of purpose’ which he aligns to any endurance project he sets his mind too. He describes running as 30% genetics, 30% training and 40% psychological resilience. 

“I really noticed this when I started doing endurance events for my daughter; I found that rather than being really nervous, sick with anxiety on the start line, I felt brimming with confidence because it was no longer about me. It was about something so much bigger.”

While his daughter is now a “healthy and happy eleven-year-old” he found out his purpose for the Chester 100 just two weeks before the event when he got a phone call from Hawaii.