Multi-marathon man sets grand fundrasier goal

Curro, 54, plans to run 1,000 kilometres in off-road races of over 100 kms apiece to raise funds for research into rare degenerative illness

A GATA man in his 50s plans to run 1,000 kilometres in a series of punishing double, treble and even quadruple marathons to raise funds for a rare muscular condition his daughter's grandfather suffers from.

Fernando Arabí, 54 – known as 'Curro' to his friends and family – got the idea when he was laid up with plantar fascitis, a painful inflammation of the sole of the foot very common among athletes.

Fed up with being unable to run, Curro suddenly realised he could be a lot worse off – and decided that as soon as he had recovered he would do something for those who are.

His daughter's granddad suffers from glycogen storage disease type II, otherwise known as Pompe disease, a recessive metabolic disorder affecting glycogen storage and which causes progressive muscle and nerve damage throughout the body due to excess storage of sugar.

It is currently incurable, very rare and can eventually be fatal.

Curro hopes to raise €10 for every kilometre he runs, and has already completed the first, the Botamargens 65-kilometre (40-mile) mountain endurance race.

Known colloquially by participants as 'ultras', these gruelling trials involve steep gradients over rocky, hilly terrain and make the London Marathon look like a school egg-andspoon race.

As an example, the shortest of these on Curro's list to complete is the Benissa Perimetral race at 73 kilometres (45 miles).

He will then run the equivalent of the distance from Gata de Gorgos to Valencia airport at the GR-10 Extrem (100 kilometres, or 62 miles), the Costa Blanca race (103 kilometres, or 64 miles), and the Penyagolosa trial (108 kilometres, or 67 miles).

Others of similar lengths await him across the Marina in Ondara, Confrides, Llíber, Orba, Jalón, Calpe, Benialí and Senija – but the toughest of all is the Ehunmilak, a whopping 170 kilometres (106 miles).

But after having been competing in these extreme competitions since his early 20s, Curro is used to it.

All funds raised will go to the Marina Alta Science, Health and Environmental Research Centre (UIMA) for specific investigation into Pompe disease.