Lancashire Dad Takes On Year-Long 5K Challenge For Mental Health Charity

Ste Tabiner has taken on a gruelling year-long daily running challenge to raise money for Lancashire Mind.

He wanted to test himself after he turned 35 so took on the tough challenge:

“It started with me turning 35 and I just thought what could I do that’s a bit of a challenge for myself this year, So I decided to run 5k a day for a full year until my next birthday.”

Not wanting to let a charity down, he completed the first month to be sure he was ready:

“At first, I didn’t want to do it for anything else just in case I failed so I did it for a month to see if I was in the right mindset before committing to a charity. With it being such a mentally draining challenge I thought it would work perfectly by doing it for my local mental health charity.”

Ste has been putting the work in but has faced a few setbacks along the way which haven’t stopped him:

“I’ve now done the challenge for 69 days and everything was going smooth until last Wednesday when I was hit by Covid. I’m currently doing my runs on a treadmill at home. This has tested me to the extreme as I’ve been ill but also treadmills are boring.

“I’ve also had my fair share of rain to deal with already and it’s been our summer, so the winter months will be fun. I will be doing it on Xmas day too and even if I get away on holiday I will be taking my trainers. I’ve always been a good runner but it’s not something I did regularly before the challenge.”

The messages of support and people offering to join him have spurred him on:

“What is very rewarding to me is that I’ve had quite a few people message me asking to come on the runs with me, which I’ve happily accepted. My Partner Samantha has come along on many of them.

“I’ve set an initial target of £365 to raise but I’m hoping to exceed that over the year.”

You can help Ste raise as much as possible for Lancashire Mind by donating to his fundraising page here.