BLAGSS runners stay on track

Two BLAGSS running convenors, Tommy Martinsson and Roy Haines, have embraced lockdown restrictions by turning them into a positive opportunity to enhance their fitness and endurance. Both have signed up with Conqueror Events for the Virtual Icelandic Challenge which involves logging their running distances across Sussex within a system which also automatically moves them along their virtual challenge course; a circular 1,332.5km route of Iceland’s entire coastline! This challenge tests their endurance and speed and both runners are well on target to beat the average completion time of 357 days.

Using the Conqueror app, Tommy and Roy have created a small community of old and new friends who have taken up this challenge. Participants can see how far everybody has got on the map of Iceland and Tommy asserts that this is something that definitely spurs him on and he claims that he has done more running on this initiative than when he was marathon training. There are also environmental benefits; every 20% of the route a runner completes guarantees a donation from the organisers to cover the planting of a tree in one of the Eden Project’s reforestation programmes.

Tommy said: “I’d highly recommend this challenge or similar initiatives. It’s got me out of the house a lot more than I would have otherwise during the lockdown. It’s easy to get demotivated and once your exercise regime decreases you end up in a negative spiral where your motivation gets even lower. Considering how mental health has decreased, I’d say anything that gets us out of the house is worth it. It also gives you something to talk about with the people in your virtual community.”

For more info on BLAGSS, visit: www.bhssrfc.com/