TWO Islanders ran from London to Brighton as part of a 100km-ultra-marathon-fundraiser – amid a record-breaking heatwave.
Aaron Cowen and Josh Cullinan took part in the London 2 Brighton event recently to raise money for Youthful Minds – an offshoot of Mind Jersey made up of young people with the specific aim of supporting 11 to 25-year-olds.
The ultra marathon took them around 17 hours, with a stop for rest, food, and drinks around every 25km.
As the UK was experiencing a heatwave at the time of the ultra marathon, temperatures reached between 26 and 33 degrees in London and Brighton, with many runners dropping out of the challenge early.
Aaron (22) only took up running as a hobby last year and has since taken part several long-distance events, but nothing on the scale of the Brighton 2 London ultra.
He said: “My friend who I did it with [Josh] did a year sober last year, and he turned to fitness. He convinced me to get into fitness and get into running, and it was just a healthy way of seeing my friends. We continued to do that and kept setting little goals along the way.
“It started off with a challenge to run 10km to a half-marathon, then within a month after doing a half-marathon, doing a full marathon, and being a bit lost over the winter period, we thought ‘what’s the next challenge?’ And Josh found this crazy 100km run from London to Brighton.”
The duo started the marathon at 7am and completed it by around midnight.
“The heat made it much more difficult,” Aaron said. “Along the way, I was just having to drink so many bottles of water, and cover myself with water, as well. There was also people with hose pipes outside their houses along the way.
“It’s all about endurance – about having a mental willingness to keep going, trusting your body just to keep pushing through, even though you feel like everything hurts.”
The pair told themselves this would be their “last big challenge”, although Aaron said that they are already thinking about the next one.
“This has been our whole thing for the past year. He pushes me, and I push him just constantly, on the day as well. So, it’s quite a mutual achievement,” Aaron said.
“It’s very hard to say something about one of us without mentioning the other. We couldn’t have done it without each other.”
Before setting off for the challenge, Josh and Aaron set up a fundraising link for Youthful Minds, which is already at over £1,300. The fundraiser can be found on JustGiving, by searching Joshua Cullinan.
