Back in February of this year it was the 25th anniversary of my Mam being admitted to St. Benedict's Hospice for end of life care.
Call it fate but that day I heard of someone training to run unsupported across Iceland. This immediately set my mind to work. It was the kind of mental reaction that led me to run John O'Groats to Lands End and subsequently across the USA and the rest of the world.
I think I've been quite impressionable from an early age. Plant a seed in my mind, no matter how improbable, and I'll come up with a plan to do it.
Call it fate but that day I heard of someone training to run unsupported across Iceland. This immediately set my mind to work. It was the kind of mental reaction that led me to run John O'Groats to Lands End and subsequently across the USA and the rest of the world.
I think I've been quite impressionable from an early age. Plant a seed in my mind, no matter how improbable, and I'll come up with a plan to do it.
Back to the Iceland event and I checked out the route that I'd heard was being undertaken. It turned out that it was a few hundred miles in the middle of the country. That was now irrelevant as I already had had it fixed in my mind that I would run it from west coast to east.
Within 30 minutes I had a potential high level route and a support team. I say support team as I don't currently have a sponsor and this would have to be self funded and done on a shoe string budget. Getting Chappie in and out of Iceland would not be something I'd be able to fund personally.
The support team would take the form of one person on a bike who would set up camp each day and cook porridge! I'm pleased to say that support man Carlton (pictured with me below) didn't hesitate to offer his services for this task when asked.
The initial route that I came up with was approximately 500 miles long running from the west coast to the east. At 38-40 miles per day it would take just less than 2 weeks to complete. That's a perfect duration for getting time off work and also a period where I know I can put those kinds of miles in without having access to a shower! I remember support man Stobbsy and I in such a predicament in the Outback during the run across Australia. That's him pictured below treating my feet after another long day of running across Australia.
The next step was to inform St. Benedict's Hospice of my plans as this is who the event would be ran in aid of. Their reply was "Sounds fantastic! Thanks once again for your support, we'd love to have your continued efforts in aid of the hospice so thank you.".
So as things stand we have the three basic ingredients needed for a trans continental run. Motivation, support and a great cause to run for. I'm now devoting time to research the details.
It's obviously pretty difficult at present to put an exact date in the calendar but I'm hopeful of being able to run coast to coast across Iceland sometime during the winter of 2020/21. Watch this space for further updates on that as soon as I get them.
If you or your company would like to be a sponsor of the run across Iceland then please get in touch at sponsorship@rungeordierun.com. This is a self funded run so all commercial sponsorship will go to St. Benedict's Hospice.
As has been the case in the past, commercial money may also be used to fund Run Geordie Run t-shirts to be sold to the public. This kind of initiative has raised over £33,000 for local good causes since 2009. Instead of giving a £1 to charity, £2.50 has been raised approximately.
So as things stand we have the three basic ingredients needed for a trans continental run. Motivation, support and a great cause to run for. I'm now devoting time to research the details.
It's obviously pretty difficult at present to put an exact date in the calendar but I'm hopeful of being able to run coast to coast across Iceland sometime during the winter of 2020/21. Watch this space for further updates on that as soon as I get them.
If you or your company would like to be a sponsor of the run across Iceland then please get in touch at sponsorship@rungeordierun.com. This is a self funded run so all commercial sponsorship will go to St. Benedict's Hospice.
As has been the case in the past, commercial money may also be used to fund Run Geordie Run t-shirts to be sold to the public. This kind of initiative has raised over £33,000 for local good causes since 2009. Instead of giving a £1 to charity, £2.50 has been raised approximately.
That's all for now. Next week, I'll write about the #runsub17 project and how it's very much alive and kicking. I've had to re-invent how I do things and I hope you'll find that interesting and inspiring.
As always, if you'd like to make donation to Run Geordie Run's chosen charity (St. Benedict's Hospice) please visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/rungeordierun.
