The Story So Far

I remember running my first marathon in 1981 at the tender age of 18 and vowing never again .. little did I know what was to follow!

When I look back I feel incredibly fortunate and indeed privileged to have achieved all that I have from the sport of extreme multi marathon running and although this has given me a great sense of personal achievement, the greater reward has come from being able to inspire others and also help raise money & awareness for various charities.

Towards the end of 2012, I realised my lifetime ambition of completing 500 official marathon races all under 3hrs 30min, but I also reached another landmark, my 50th birthday! So what next? 

Around the same time, my wife Teresa volunteered her services to the nursing bank of Kate's Home Nursing, a charity based in Gloucestershire which provides palliative home care for patients in the latter stages of terminal illness. In an ideal world, you'd probably expect this service to be readily available to all through the NHS, but unfortunately this isn't the case.

The specialised care and support which facilitates the process of allowing terminally ill patients the dignity and indeed comfort of reaching the end of their life in familiar surroundings at home in the company of loved ones is a service that only charities such as Kate's can provide. It is therefore reliant on the kindness and generosity from both public and corporate donations.

Now I'm not sure how much longer my body can withstand the brutality of racing 26.2 miles on a regular basis. However while I'm still able, I would like to dedicate my running to supporting Kate's and try to raise much needed funds to help them continue providing this special and indeed valuable service to everyday people like you and me who never know what's around the corner!

Having now run over 710 marathons, I don't mind admitting that my motivation to remain dedicated to an intensive daily training regime has waned slightly despite several people in the running community suggesting I should pursue the 1000 marathons record! For now though I have to consider that particular target an ambitious dream and take it one challenge at a time.

To that end, between 17th - 23rd March 2014, I attempted the 'Enigma Week At The Knees' 7 marathons in 7 days challenge' to help kick off my fundraising efforts for Kate's Home Nursing. The challenge involved running 7 consecutive 26.2 mile races at three different lakeside venues around Milton Keynes amounting to 183.4 miles in total.To make things more interesting I set myself 3 personal targets for this event. 

1) Most important, to hopefully complete all 7 marathons. 

2) Attempt to maintain an average finish time of under 3hrs 30min for all 7 marathons which would be a V50 age category record.

3) Attempt to run every one of the 7 marathons under 3hrs 30min which would be the icing on the cake. 

My part of the deal was to train extremely hard throughout the winter months and then run myself into the ground over the 7 days to try and achieve those 3 targets. To help put that into perspective, I would have to average 8 minutes a mile or faster for every one of those 183 miles to achieve both the 2nd and 3rd targets!

In the end I achieved all 3 targets that week for which I was  very pleased, even more pleasing though was being able to raise over £5500 for Kate's to help kick off this fundraising campaign.

However, the journey towards running 1000 marathons in the fastest average finish time now continues. Will I be able maintain the disciplined daily training regime week after week, month after month, year after year, to sustain the level of fitness required to run a marathon almost every week in these kind of finish times? Who knows! For now though, all I ask in return is to consider supporting us by making a donation to Kate's Home Nursing. 

All contributions however small are truly appreciated and can be gift aided at source.You can donate online via this justiving page, or by texting KTSN77 £nn to 70070 (where nn is any amount between £1-£10), or I have special gift aid envelopes for anyone wishing to donate cash, please let us know. 

Web links to Kate's Home Nursing.

www.kateshomenursing.org

Thank you visiting our page today and reading our story. More updates to follow.

Steve & Teresa Edwards

Email - teamedwards@hotmail.co.uk

Tel - 07756 444693