Andy runs 100 miles around home town
AN endurance athlete from Shepshed has raised £670 for a youth club with a 100-mile run doing laps of the town.
With help along the route from his wife Natasha and his eight-year-old daughter, Annabelle, Andy Barnes dashed his way to raising the total for Passion youth club, a group for 11 to 18-year-olds.
Andy said: “I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who joined me, helped out and most importantly donated, as that was the main aim of the challenge - to raise money for Passion.”
He also said: “My wife Natasha Barnes did a total of 15 miles with me during the challenge, with five of those being at 1am on Sundays.
“My amazing daughter Annabelle joined me for a total of six miles over the course of the challenge, she’s only eight.
“Elle Walshe was the first person to join me for a lap which really helped to get me going.
“Then Sarah Weston and Amy Dixon joined me at the 30-mile mark, which helped to break up the monotony of doing laps.”
The first 65 miles passed well but then Andy’s knees started to play up but he kept pushing on, with supporters Tom Hughes and Fraser Kline helping him through the night hours and making sure he never did a lap alone.
Andy said: “Huge thanks to those guys. Tim Montgomery joined me at 6.30am on Sunday and did three laps.
“By then I was getting pretty tired so having someone to talk to really helped to keep me going/awake.”
The athlete is in training to complete a ‘Shepshed to Sahara’ challenge by taking part in the Marathon Des Sables (MDS) in the Sahara Desert, but had to change his plans because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The six-day ultra marathon was originally supposed to be held in April but was put back to September because of the Covid-19 crisis - now it has been completely cancelled until 2021.
Determined not to let his training go to waste, Andy created the 100-mile dash around Shepshed in aid of the youth club.
He said previously: “Receiving the news that September’s postponed version of the MDS had been cancelled was disappointing but to be honest not really that unexpected.
“I’m not the kind of person that would let all the training go to waste so I needed something to focus on and aim towards.
“I completed a 50-mile run around the streets of Shepshed back in May just because I fancied a challenge so with the MDS cancelled the next obvious step up would be 100 miles around the streets of Shepshed.”
Passion youth centre in the Bullring Shepshed offers support and guidance to young people, and is a non-profit group run solely through fundraising.
For more information, visit the Passion Shepshed website.