Make mine a beer! Dad finishes 365th marathon in a year
FIREWORKS, wild cheering and his first beer for 12 months yesterday greeted Gary McKee as he finished his 365th and final daily marathon run of the year.
Gary, 53, has raised £1million for Hospice at Home West Cumbria and Macmillan Cancer Support in memory of his late father’s battle against the disease.
Every weekday after his morning 26.2-mile run from home in Cleator Moor, Cumbria, he would clock in for a full shift as a team leader at Sellafield nuclear plant.
As he finished yesterday with his three young children and 200 locals in support, he called their cheers ‘a little overwhelming’.
He added: ‘People assume I must be shattered but I’ve built up resilience to the point where it’s easier to keep going than it is to stop.
‘Not once did I think I wouldn’t bother, I just kept going even when it was cold, wet and dark. During those times I would think about people who’ve completed their chemotherapy who say that rain falling on their face is the nicest rain in their life.
‘I picked up a hamstring injury in July and was running as if I had a dead leg, but that was nothing compared to what people I’m raising money for go through.’
The distance he covered is 9,563 miles – the length from his home to Australia. He averaged four hours running a day, fuelled by a high protein, high carb diet. He burned 1.6million calories and wore out 30 pairs of trainers.
In the past two decades he has climbed Kilimanjaro, hiked across New Zealand, cycled across Brazil, run from Land’s End to John O’Groats, completed the Three Peaks challenge in under 24 hours, jumped from planes, walked across hot coals and he ran 110 marathons in 110 days in 2021.
Last night he said he would probably embark on another crazy challenge before long ‘because that’s what I’m good at’.