Kate Jayden ran the historic distance of 4,216-km run to signify the distance that a refugee covers travelling from Aleppo in Syria to Dover in Britain
Through her runs, Kate Jayden has raised over GBP25,000 for charities dedicated to helping refugees. Image Courtesy: @decajayden/Facebook
The movie Forrest Gump had those iconic lines ‘Run, Forrest, Run’ and it seems that Kate Jayden, a British woman, took those lines very seriously in her life.
An endurance athlete, from Derbyshire, Kate has run 101 marathons in the past 101 days — breaking the record for completing the most marathons in consecutive days.
While securing the world record is an incredible achievement, this wasn’t the main goal for Kate. Through her historic 2,620-miles (4,216 km) run, she has raised over GBP25,000 (Rs 25 lakh) for charities dedicated to helping refugees.
Here’s what we know about her and this feat of endurance and grit and the purpose behind it.
Kate’s fantastic run
A compliance consultant, Kate began this amazing journey on 1 January 2022. Initially, her plan was to run from Aleppo in northern Syria to Dover in Britain, as this is the most common route taken by migrants travelling to Britain.
She then realised that the distance, around 2,569 miles, comes to the length of 100 marathons and that’s how she got the brainwave of the long run.
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She said that the run would also help in breaking the previous Guinness World Record, held by US runner Alyssa Clark, who completed 95 marathons in 95 consecutive days.
Speaking to Mirror, she said that she tries each year to do something off-the-scale to raise money for charity and this was just something different.
She documented her entire achievement on social media and posted various images and videos from her gritty and enduring feat.
At first, she would wake up at 4.30 am every day to run a full marathon before commuting to Manchester where she works. She kept at her job too, which only shows her mental fortitude.
It was going well until day 47 when her plans almost came to a screeching halt due to an injury. “I did something to my knee and I was terrified that was the end of the challenge,” she told ITV.
This is when her marathon running transformed into a hybrid format — on the treadmill and outdoors.
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On her achievement
On Saturday, Kate completed what seemed to be an impossible task after completing the Brighton marathon.
When asked how she felt about it, she was joked to BBC, “I’m feeling geriatric mostly.”
She is ecstatic about the money she has raised — over GBP25,000 Bank for humanitarian aid, mental health care and food — for charities such as the Refugee Council, Trussell Trust and The Hygiene Bank.
She said the one thing that she wanted people to take from her run was — ‘Don’t let anybody ever tell you that you can’t make a difference.’
She told ITV: “There’s something quite metaphorical about taking that journey and representing that of a refugee, and as I came towards the end of it I was repeatedly told these wonderful things about being inspirational.
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“I thought if people could see that in me, maybe they can understand that a refugee has all those qualities in even greater abundance than I do, because they take a similar journey, but in real conditions and real terms.”
What’s next for Kate?
Kate will only take a week off for rest and some TLC (tender loving care), before she begins her training for her next challenge: a deca-triathlon that involves a 24-mile swim, 1,120-mile bike ride, and 262-mile run.
“I’ll take this week off to rest and recover and slowly introduce the bike and swims back in again and focus on that for a while,” she told BBC.
With inputs from agencies
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