Dan Thompson's RUN THE WORLD Challenge - Introduction
It started, as these things so often do, with a drunken night out. More specifically we were out for dinner with Jon and Jane and the conversation turned to our previous challenge (doing every different Olympic and Paralympic event) and what we should do next.
It wasn’t a serious conversation – just a bit of fun. But someone came up with the idea of going to every country in the world and we started to discuss what this would mean. It didn’t seem enough just to visit each country – that’s been done before (albeit by very few people). We wanted something unique.
Eventually, the thought occurred that I could do a 10km (run or otherwise, on my own steam) in each country. I could even start at the Olympic Park in London and finish at the Olympic stadium in Tokyo. This would tie in well with the work we do at Gold Challenge to encourage people to be more active and would be in keeping with the sporting and Olympic themes from the previous challenge. It would also mean visiting, and having the chance to meet people from, every country we cover in GreatestSportingNation.
I started to canvass opinion and plenty of it was negative. This ranged from the generic it’s 'too much / dangerous / expensive / pointless', to the politely sceptical, to the out rightly critical 'It’s hare brained' and the classic 'Some ideas are so mad that they’re cool. This one isn’t.'
And, to be honest, even I felt there were good reasons not to proceed. It would mean being away from the family a lot. The logistics – travel, accommodation, visas, vaccinations – fill me with horror. I don’t enjoy the actual travel (I’m a tall, impatient insomniac who can’t handle jetlag). It’ll also cost a lot. And be dangerous. Not to mention the sheer number (200+) of 10kms.
On the other hand, some people were positive including my mother. ‘Mother supports son’ is hardly that unusual but this time it was particularly poignant as, during my deliberations, she’d been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Her enthusiasm meant so much to me and this is dedicated to her. (She’s also the reason I hope to raise some money for Cancer Research UK along the way.)
I’ve now done three trial countries (blogs to follow) and I think I’ve finally decided to commit. 2020 kilometres from London to Tokyo via every country in the world. God help me.
If anyone reads this and has any advice or contacts, or wants to take part in any way, then I’d love to hear from you.
