My race around the world... with Covid
You may recall that over New Year I was the lead in a challenge to # runaroundtheworldwithkev where runners and walkers aimed to collectively get 24,000 miles around the world in 50 hours.
It was always going to be a tough ask as the day before the start we only had 600 people signed up, which meant 40 miles each. However with some great media coverage, marathon organisers Ultra X managed to get us up to over 1,400 people and we walked, crawled and ran as far as we could.
While sadly we ended up 1,000 miles short, we achieved so much, with stories of people walking the longest they ever had, families going out late on New Year’s Eve to get extra miles in and people with physical and mental challenges motivated to push themselves. They improved their wellbeing, collectively feeling part of something amazing.
As for me, I did run three marathons in 44 hours, the last one started at 12.01am on New Years Day, my first of 2021. What I didn’t know, though, as I was awaiting results was that I had Covid so effectively did all the marathons while ill, which explains why I felt a little jaded! As I was isolating while awaiting the results, all my running was around my back yard so more than 1,500 laps – not the most inspiring location to spend 15 hours in.
The best news however was that we raised over €10,000 for Prostate Cancer UK, which will help other men get diagnosed early unlike me so that they may be cured rather than incurable.
I never believed we’d have much interest or raise much money but it goes to show what can be achieved when others are inspired. I hope in this lockdown you can find a way to be inspirational and help you and others get through to the other side. Until next week Kev
I did three marathons in my back yard while I was isolating