Doubling the distance for Marlborough’s children

By Chris Valli

Woodbourne RNZAF Firefighters Eli Dalton-Harvey and Stefan Kahu are good mates and always up for a challenge. They are also passionate runners.

So what better ways to put their talents to good use than a ‘fund run’ for local charitable organisation School Start First Impressions Marlborough. SSFIM works to reduce the impact of poverty on the education of Marlborough children.

Eli says doing the run for SSFIM was a no brainer.

“We wanted to support a local charity so our efforts would be directly helping our community and after meeting with the people involved we were all in. School Start First Impressions works closely with the Stadium 2000 which is where this event will be taking place. That’s right, every single kilometre will be run on treadmills,” he says.

“Both Stefan and I are passionate runners and are always up for a challenge. I had just completed an 80km trail run and was looking for the next event, a challenge to train for.

They both got talking about an annual challenge called the David Goggin’s 4 x 4 x 48 run.

In the challenge participants run four miles (6.5kms) every four hours for 48 hours totalling 48 miles (78 kms) often in efforts to raise money for charity and to push outside of their comfort zones.

Eli says what makes this challenge so difficult is the fact that you can never get a good rest in between runs and just as your muscles begin to relax you are back out there moving again.

“I completed this challenge in early 2022 and although it was uncomfortable I didn’t find it particularly hard. After much discussion we decided we would double the distance and make it 13kms every four hours for 48 hours totalling 156km each (312 between us).”

Eli says the plan was implemented and after more discussion they agreed that the challenge was big enough that it could be used as a way to provide exposure and to raise funds for a charity.

“We have family and friends crewing the race as well as support from Stadium 2000. There will also be open treadmills next to us for anyone that wants to come along and run with us. If Stefan and I can help just one child it will all be worth the effort,” he says.

The run will be starting on Thursday, March 9 with the first run of 12 kicking off at midday (12pm). The final run will be on Saturday, March 11, starting at 8am.

The full time table is as follows; 12pm March 9th, 4pm March 9th, 8pm March 9th, 12am March 10th, 4am March 10th, 8am March 10th, 12pm March 10th, 4pm March 10th, 8pm March 10th, 12am March 11th, 4am March 11th and 8am March 11th.

To donate to the event visit the School Starters First Impressions website for more information on the charity and a link to their Give a Little Page.