TWO men from Frome are close to completing a mammoth challenge of running 10 kilometres every day for a whole year to raise money for charity.
Neil Taylor and Jim Plunkett-Cole started their challenge on the 1st January this year, with the aim of running the six miles (10km) distance every day for the 365 days throughout 2013. Now, they are just days away from completing the gruelling challenge.
The challenge called 10kx365 has captured the imagination of many in the region as the runners have got involved with community events and races throughout the year. The pair have also been joined on the challenge by Jim’s dog Alfie, who is also on course to successfully complete the challenge.
The trio are raising funds for four charities in total. They are Positive Action on Cancer, The Cystic Fibrosis Trust, The Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance and Happy Landings Animal Shelter. So far, they have raised £8,000 although with a final push it is hoped that figure will grow significantly. The charities were chosen from local ones and suggestions by friends. The animal shelter charity is in recognition of Alfie the dog’s involvement.
The 10K distance equates to 6.25 miles each day and the team recently celebrated running for 345 days consecutively, clocking up thousands of kilometers on the way – if they ran in a straight line, the trio would currently be running through Syria in Asia.
The idea was dreamt up almost a year ago when the idea was mooted by Jim before, he says, his friends suggested he do it otherwise. Jim was joined by Neil and Alfie and 10kx365 was born on January 1st 2013.
As the epic challenge reaches its conclusion, Jim spoke to Frome Times about the undertaking saying, “It’s absolutely fantastic to get this far as with this sort of challenge you never know how it is going to go. But it has been a lot of fun and an amazing experience.
“The support we have had from everyone is massive and we have 900-odd followers on Facebook who track what we are getting up to and we are grateful for the response we have had from people.
“I think people have enjoyed the way we have gone about the challenge as we have got involved with community events and races and made everything as fun as possible.
“There hasn’t been a single day where I have thought I don’t want to do this. The inspiration and support we have had has been enough to keep going and I can’t say enough how much we all have enjoyed it.
“The only bit I feel I could have done more on was the fundraising. As I think I could have done more to ensure we have raised more by now but we will give it a big push in the last few weeks to raise as much as possible. To those that have sponsored we are extremely grateful and the support we have had from Positive Action on Cancer based in Frome has been fantastic throughout in giving us a push and we are so thankful to them.
“We have a raffle with great prizes and we have also decided to end with a 47-mile Green Mile race around Bristol, starting at 6.00am and hopefully finishing around 6.00pm!
“What this challenge has taught us is that all these so-called experts who say rest is vital are wrong. We feel great and we are running better then ever, so I think we have proved a point there that rest isn’t as important as some experts say.
“Our improvement can be shown in a recent Sodbury Slog race where I finished first in the veteran category and overall only young men in their early twenties who run for Team Bath beat me.
“When the challenge finishes I hope to keep going as I want to see how long I can do 10k a day for, but until the end of the year I will be doing my best to raise as much as possible.”
For more information regarding the 10kx365 challenge, the raffle or how to donate, visit the team’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/10kX365
