Peterborough dad’s incredible run from city to Hunstanton

Admitting the idea was a ‘little crazy’, Daniel was so determined to complete the challenge in aid of Werrington Primary School’s PTA to help refurbish the school’s swimming pool.

Despite originally setting the journey for April, he rearranged it to August due to Coronavirus. So with four weeks’ training and an attitude of: “I’ll be fine” Daniel embarked on the 60-mile mission.

Daniel had previously run marathons in 2018 and 2019 but had some doubts about his determination. He said: “I’m quite surprised I did it myself! I’ve had a few people who said ‘you’ll never actually do it’ and I definitely think that spurred me on, especially in the harder times. Like when we were in the afternoon in the beaming hot sun, it was far too hot for anyone to be doing a run, let alone this.”

At 6:10am Daniel set off from the start line at Werrington Primary School, with the help of support rider Matt Gale (33), from Woodston , who is Daniel’s best friend, and carried his water and food supplies. Daniel expected to arrive at the seaside by 7pm but didn’t get there until 9pm. Going off relatively without a hitch, Dan was hugely relieved to not have any injuries or blisters despite the huge journey but did have a 3km detour from a wrong left turn.

He said: “I didn’t do as much training as I should have. I was meant to do this in April and back then I was the fittest and healthiest I’ve ever been. It was too hot, it was at least 24 degrees on the day but at least I got a good sun tan! I had a cramp the entire way which was horrible.”

Keeping friends and family up to date on the way, Daniel filmed Facebook Live videos to show his journey and raised more than £500 on the run alone and in total has raised £1,860.

He said: “It’s funny watching them back as I started off really positive and then towards the end you can see the life is draining out of me!”

A special pick-me-up for Daniel was when his wife Elizabeth (31) and two daughters Isla (five) and Grace (two) stopped off to share more supplies and a sign that read “Go daddy!”

At the end of his journey, Daniel was greeted by his family and had originally planned for a fish and chips dinner but by the time he got there at 9pm all the places were closed.

He said: “It was so amazing to see all my family there when I finally got to Hunstanton. They are so supportive and have been cheering me on the whole time. Although by the time we were there the last thing I was thinking about was fish and chips.”

Daniel, who works in Specsavers, was straight back to work the next morning despite not getting home until 11pm, after he was driven home with friends and family. Having burnt over 8,000 calories in one day Daniel has decided it was definitely time to treat himself and had pizza the night after.

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