The 401 Challenge - Calderglen Country Park Friday 25th March

On Friday 25th March, Calderglen Harriers will be assisting with a truly remarkable endeavour here in East Kilbride. Ben Smith is on his way to running 401 marathons in 401 consecutive days primarily to raise awareness and funding for anti-bullying charities but in the process setting a world record. You can read the full story and background on Ben's web site The401Challenge.co.uk where you will also find links to his Facebook and Twitter presence.

As he travels around the UK in his motor home, local clubs have set marathon routes for Ben to run. Our "Calderglen" marathon will be the 207th consecutive marathon and this will start at 9:30am outside East Kilbride Sports Club. You can see the full route in the marathons menu on Ben's web site (note that Ben will stop when his Garmin says 26.2 miles; we may have to circulate the Tor Trail once or twice to complete the distance). We would appreciate if as many Harriers as possible could give up some time on the day to run at least a little of the route with Ben to keep him company and also to keep him on the right course. Please leave your name here if you can run a section. Names we have so far are here. Ben will be running at quite a slow pace (11 minute miles) and will stop often for snacks:

Ben really looks forward to company on the runs, so please if by adjusting the route you can encourage more to join that fine with us. So your not surprised, he usually stops on route for a quick snack at any convenient place.  He eats just about anything and is not into fussy diets etc.  If there is no where on the route you plan, just let us know so he can pack some food in his camelpak before he starts.

 Company on the Day. Ben does not have a support team that travel with him.  He is doing this as a one-man band, just him and his motorhome.  If anyone from the club wants to join Ben on the day, he would be very grateful for the company - even if it’s just for part of the distance - not least to help him with the navigation!  He is running around an 11 min mile pace as the Challenge is about endurance rather than speed.  His planned start time will be 0930.

Alan