Support team news

I received the following update from John on the support team today. “The hard training work continues, my tutor, mentor, life guru and wife gave me a C minus for this effort, she said it would have been a B but I concentrated so hard on the eggs that I burnt the toast. My heart rate though on the final miles was an encouraging 120 bpm”. 

This, of course, is related to the fact that one of my staple foods during a long tour is an omelette (or scrambled eggs if they don’t turn out too well). Some of those guys on the support team have been practising. 

As I’ve said many times before, I don’t have very high expectations with food on the tour. Mind you, if there is toast to accompany that while I’m running in the USA, then I will see that as an absolute treat.  

Thanks to John for his efforts in perfecting his omelette/scrambled egg making skills. In all seriousness, it’s amazing to think that there are people out there going to such lengths to support and feed me in a few month’s time.

While on the subject of the support team, I received an update from Geordie exile Phil in California today. Next Sunday he’s planning to drive the final 2 weeks of my route (in reverse) from Huntington Beach to Death Valley then onto Shoshone. This is very much a scouting mission. Phil will be checking out places to stay overnight on highway 395. It’s very sparse there and options are limited in the desert. 

Also on his list is to find places that sell water and ice. We’ll be passing through that region during the height of summer and to have some pre thought out options will be very useful. The campsite options at Shoshone and Olancha which sit either side of Death Valley will be scouted. 

Finally, Phil will be looking to attract the support of the hotel at Furnace Creek where he is booked to stay next Sunday. I don’t have a budget for such accommodation during the run. Having a room there will be hugely beneficial but it relies on the kinds of the hotel. That’s Plan B. Plan A is to stay in the motorhome overnight in Shoshone or Olancha as we progress through Death Valley. 

We are unable to take the motorhome into Death Valley. Plan A, therefore, involves a lot of driving to and fro between the various points. Also, having a relatively nearby air conditioned refuge would be very welcome from a safety point of view.

The image below is some of the route that Phil will be driving next Sunday. It’s a picture that I took in 2019 while on holiday. I’ll be running up and over the mountain in the distance and into the valley you see in the picture on day 93 this year. That’s August 1st. It’s a 31 mile day from Stovepipe Wells to Panamint Springs (just out of sight at the end of the Panamint Valley). Day 94 is a 45 mile route from Panamint Springs to Olancha. That will involve running up that huge mountain to where I took the photo from (Father Crowley Point) and then onto the 5200ft summit before the final long push to Olancha. 

Thanks to Phil for his scouting efforts and the expense that incurs. 

£10,000 barrier smashed for St. Benedict's Hospice

After a flurry of donations this week, I'm very pleased to report that the charity fund for St. Benedict's Hospice has surpassed the £10,000 barrier. There is still a long way to go (and a heck of a lot of miles to run) to hit the £60,000 fundraising target.

A huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far. If you'd like to sponsor the run across the USA then please visit justgiving.com/page/rungeordierun2025 to make your donation.

Support Team Meeting

I had a good online video meeting with the support team on Sunday. Phil, based in California, joined the call from Newport Beach and treated us to views of the Pacific ocean! 

We talked about the various points on the route where the team would join, leave and handover. That plan is well established. There’s only really Carlton and John’s handover in Wheeling to fine tune. 

One of the big topics of food. I was keen to stress that I have very low expectations of what I expect from the team’s cooking. Generally, porridge and eggs (which are very expensive in the USA currently) are my staple diet. “If you can’t cook it in 10 minutes then I don’t want it” was an expression I may regret saying. That will certainly be the case for breakfast and lunch but the final meal of the day certainly doesn't have to be like that. Particularly when I have a 2 hour slot to write a blog and edit and upload content to YouTube. 

I talked about trying to find consistency in everything we do. Same departure time every day. Same daily mileage/time targets every day. The dream scenario is to be in double figures of miles before 0900 each day, for example. As much as I’d like to start running at 0800-0900 every day, that’s simply not going to help me get the miles in and do all of the social media etc around the run. I have much more thought to give to this topic and communicate to the team. That’s what I’ll call Plan A. As Donna later reminded me, there are numerous things that disrupt Plan A. The main one is of course the weather. Lightning has the power to stop running altogether. While I’ve ran in many a monsoon, torrential rain has the knack of absolutely crushing my spirit.

There is very little margin for mileage error in the USA run so I expect to push on in all kinds of conditions. I’m reminded of this by my blog on day 51 of the run across the USA in 2011 “Today was an extremely tough day. I started running in very windy conditions. I was only a mile down the way when I got an absolute soaking. By the time I got to the first stop for breakfast at 5 miles I was wet through! I waited an hour until the rain subsided before continuing on. The challenge this time was a very strong wind. Sometimes it was a full on headwind and other times it was a cross wind. It was very difficult to run in and sapped what little energy I seemed to have today. I got to the 10 mile point and told the Support Team that enough was enough. For the 4th time in 51 days I had hit the wall. More mentally than physically on this day I think.”.

Back to the support team meeting and I also talked about recording the calorific ins and outs every day. I’m keen to try and pinpoint what works best in terms of recovery and performance. It’s always been a mystery to me why some days on my big runs have been far better than others. It’ll hardly be under laboratory conditions but I believe we’ll be able to come up with a decent formula for good running days hopefully in the early part of the USA run. I know from my experience of running across Europe in 2016 that full rest days are hugely beneficial. That’s one luxury I won’t have in the USA this year however. 

One of the topics of conversation, while seemingly trivial but very important really was around the contents of the motorhome. One of my first tasks (the day before the run starts) will be to stock it up. I’ll need to buy a basic supply of plates, glasses, cutlery, pans and so on. On the subject of shopping, Phil offered to post his Costco card for use in NYC. I immediately got flashbacks of doing the same in 2016 and the huge boxes of porridge the had!

All in all it was a good meeting. As a team, we are in constant contact via a common WhatsApp group but it’s nice to get everyone on the same video call.

A chance meeting with a familiar face

As I was walking to the Newcastle match on Sunday I had a most extraordinary encounter. Having a beer outside the Trent House pub was none other than Geordie exile Nick Davison. He was instrumental in helping me prepare for the last USA run at his home in Huntington Beach in 2011. He also ran the first few miles with me back on May 1st 2011 as I set off from his hometown across the USA. Of all of the many routes I could have taken to the match today I would have thought that there was more chance of a lottery win than literally being face to face with Nick. We recognised each other straight away! 

I was sad to hear that Nick was over visiting the UK for a funeral. Within a few minutes Nick was talking about finish line plans and the possibility of an organised celebratory drink at a local ale house in Huntington Beach on 9th of August. Watch this space for that. 

It was so good to see Nick and I came away from our meeting on cloud nine. It was another reminder of the support for Run Geordie Run. The USA 2025 run dominates the thoughts in my head. It can be a lonely place. I live, sleep and breath it. As a consequence, when others get involved, it feels really reassuring to me. I no longer feel alone.

USA 2025 - New Kit Sponsor

I’m pleased to announce that the UK’s largest independent travel agent, Hays Travel, have been kind enough to take a space on my running shirt for 10 days. If you’re from the north east, you’ll probably be familiar with the company and it’s very humble beginnings. In fact, it wasn't too many miles away from where St. Benedict's Hospice is now. Like many of my other sponsors, the business is family owned and has a reputation for supporting charitable causes. 

In summary “Hays Travel began in 1980 when John Hays started selling holidays from a laminated dressing table in his mum’s babywear shop in Seaham, County Durham. The company expanded steadily with new shops and call centers, and in 1995, it created the Hays Travel Independence Group, allowing members to retain independence while benefiting from shared resources. In 2013, Hays Travel acquired Bath Travel, expanding into southern England. The company grew further with franchise acquisitions in 2014 and later expanded after the Thomas Cook collapse, re-employing thousands of staff. 

In recent years, Hays Travel continued expanding with strategic acquisitions, including branches from Just Go, Travel House, and Miles Morgan Travel. They also opened new branches and focused on sustainability and retail strategy. Hays Travel is committed to youth development, offering apprenticeship schemes that have earned them numerous awards. 

The company emphasizes its high buying power, state-of-the-art technology, and impartial advice, maintaining full financial security through ABTA, ATOL, and IATA bonding. Hays Travel is recognised for its in-house training program and high rankings in apprenticeship lists.” 

I’ve been aware of the Hays Travel Foundation for a few years now. It’s incredible to think that they have donated over 1.8 million to good causes and schemes. Hays Travel support will contribute towards the cost of the motorhome that will house myself and the support team for 100 days in the USA. 

A huge thank you again goes to Hays Travel for their very kind support.

USA 2025 Kit Sponsorship Available

The 3200 mile coast to coast run across the USA from Coney Island, New York to Huntington Beach, California is just 3 months from getting underway. It will take an unprecedented level of effort (and good luck) to get across the continent in just 100 days. 

With a fundraising target of at least £60,000 for St. Benedict's Hospice (Charity No. 1019410) an event of this magnitude requires a huge amount of kind support.

The long term partnership with Chapman Ventilation saw them confirmed as main kit sponsors last year. I'm also very grateful to  D-Line, Hadrian Healthcare and Vigon for their backing as shirt sponsors.

There are still prime spots up for grabs on my USA 2025 running kit. 

What parts of USA 2025 running kit are available for sponsorship? 

There are two spaces available for sponsor's logos on the front of my shirt and a one on the back. 

To accommodate different budgets, kit sponsorship is available in blocks of 10 days. The run across the USA will take 100 days to complete, therefore there are 10 blocks available in total. It is entirely possible for any individual company to take as many blocks as required. If a company wanted their logo on the back of my running kit for 20 days, for example, that would cost £2000. 

Can you tell me more about where the Run Geordie Run shirt and sponsors logos will be seen?

Run Geordie Run has a presence on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, TikTok and YouTube. The real jewel in the crown, is arguably this award winning blog at www.rungeordierun.com. All channels will be used to very good effect, providing the audience with many accessible ways to follow the run across the USA on a daily basis.

Cutting edge technology such as an autonomous drone and 360 degree camera will be used to capture and produce daily content while running across the USA. The event will see a far greater use of the Run Geordie Run YouTube channel than ever before.  The daily update on Youtube is expected to bring the run to life and aims to become “essential viewing” for the 100 days and 3150 miles that the run spans. There will be a shorter "bite size" daily update across the other channels.

The media's insatiable appetite for extraordinary achievements has always helped to bring Run Geordie Run to the attention of a worldwide audience. This next transcontinental effort provides an exciting opportunity to raise the profile even further through online channels as well as mainstream TV and radio home and abroad.

Where else will sponsors be able to integrate their brand? 

 

Sponsors logos will be included in the weekly "insider" email that gets sent to sponsors, support team and key supporters. There will also be numerous opportunities to incorporate sponsor's logos in engaging content right across the Run Geordie Run social media "estate".  

What is the next step to becoming a Run Geordie Run USA 2025 kit sponsor? 

Running 3200 miles across the USA in just 100 days will be a relentlessly demanding endeavour. Endless stretches of open road, varying terrains, unpredictable weather conditions, and the sheer magnitude of the distance will all conspire to test the limits of physical and mental endurance. 

While this may seem like a solo journey, it will require the kind support of so many to succeed. It’s really just as important as a pair of running shoes in ensuring running 3200 miles across the USA is a success.

If you are interested in becoming a Run Geordie Run kit sponsor then please get in touch via email at sponsorship@rungeordierun.com in the first instance.