Battered ft pounding the sandstone ridges of the Brecon Beacons, Jack Scott was working not for his life, however from it. From the lies, from the betrayal, from the hiding within the bathroom at 2am as he blew one other pay packet betting on soccer, horses, greyhounds – something.

Again then, six years in the past, working was each self-punishment and a masks for Scott’s all-consuming playing habit.

It had taken maintain in his late teenagers throughout rowdy weekends bouncing between the pubs of his hometown – Stone, in Staffordshire – and the terraces of close by Stoke Metropolis FC. By his early 20s he was uncontrollably hooked, and any effort to self-exclude from native betting outlets had been rendered futile by his discovery of round the clock on-line playing.

“That’s after I actually began hurting myself,” he remembers, grimly. “It wasn’t even in regards to the cash: it was the sorrow, and the anguish I used to be placing myself by means of.”

Playing virtually his total weekly wage inside hours of getting paid, Scott would limp alongside till the following payday rolled round, and promptly do all of it once more. “I used to be simply demolishing my future – it was a fucking whirlwind,” he says. “I couldn’t see previous 50 years previous, I believed I’d be in jail or useless.”

As a once-promising centre-midfielder, Scott’s frantic tempo on the soccer pitch had earned him the nickname Duracell Bunny’ and at 23 years previous, on a whim, he turned that power to racing a half marathon, ending in a powerful 90 minutes. 

Inside months he was progressing by means of marathons to 50 and 100-mile ultras, however any sense of success was at all times overshadowed by the crushing actuality of his habit.

Even shopping for a home with-long time period companion, Jess – now his spouse – didn’t curb his compulsion. “I’d advised myself as quickly as we obtained our personal 4 partitions and a roof I wasn’t going to gamble. This was my likelihood,” he says. “However I couldn’t do it. I most likely lasted three weeks.”

Scott’s Highway to Damascus second got here virtually 5 years in the past on the 180-mile Offa’s Dyke Path, the long-distance path alongside the Welsh-English border, when he gained and broke the document for the King Offa’s Dyke Race.

It’s a life-changing app. I’d completely advocate it. It lower the top off the snake

“I realised I’d obtained an opportunity, that I did wish to change,” he says. “And each time there’s an opportunity, identical to with playing, you fucking take it.”

12 weeks later, in December 2019, Scott registered with Gamstop, the free self-exclusion service, which bars members from on-line playing websites. “It’s a life-changing app. I’d completely advocate it,” he says. “It lower the top off the snake.”

Since then, Scott, who’s now 29, has landed a sponsorship take care of British all-terrain sports activities model INOV8, and has labored intently with a psychologist to show the darkish power he as soon as fed with betting slips right into a working tremendous gas.

“I’ve a black spot in me, an space of the mind or the soul, which is ruthless, egocentric, unrealistic, and harmful,” he says. “All I’ve performed is taken that out of the bookmakers’ palms, nourished it, obtained fitter and launched it in working.”

That black spot was pressed into service final month when Scott obliterated by an unimaginable 10 hours a document many within the endurance-running world thought unbeatable, ending the 268-mile Montane Winter Backbone in a history-making 72 hours and 55 minutes. 

Operating the Pennine Approach from Derbyshire to the Scottish borders in brutal winter situations, Scott slept for a complete of 54 minutes over the three days, surviving on energy naps. At occasions, hallucinating by means of sleep-deprivation, he satisfied himself his closest rival was respiration down his neck, regardless of having opened a 17-mile hole between them. 

I’ve a black spot in me. All I’ve performed is taken that out of the bookmakers’ palms, nourished it, and launched it in working

“I can’t be harmed by something that working can throw at me,” he says. “The locations I’ve been and the issues I’ve performed, the psychological turmoil and psychological warfare I’ve been by means of – all for no final result – working can’t put me wherever close to that.”

To anybody else struggling to interrupt freed from an habit, Scott recommends they shut of their social circle, and depend on the folks closest to them. Which may imply, as in Scott’s case, leaving dangerous friendships behind. “Be type to your self, and don’t be afraid to fail,” he says. “I went on Gamstop perhaps 10 occasions earlier than I clicked the button – and that was that.”

And whereas his Backbone race has secured him a spot within the endurance working corridor of fame, he insists he’s nonetheless simply plain previous Jack Scott from Stone. “I by no means was the individual you may belief,” he says. “I by no means was the one that was a shining gentle. I by no means was the one who you may depend on.

“Now, I’m all that and extra to folks – and that’s a very powerful factor in my life proper now.”

For assist with playing habit, contact the nationwide helpline – run by Gamcare – on 0808 8020 133. Discover out extra about Gamstop and register right here.

Photographs: INOV8