Karen writes: Anthony the running podiatrist

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Anthony from the Whitiora diabetes service visited the team other day while I was out of the office to drum up support for his latest scheme.  Anthony is a specialty podiatrist and he wants to buy a piece of important equipment to help out with providing footcare for patients with diabetes, so he is undertaking an amazing challenge to raise awareness...and money.  When I first heard of his plan I thought I had made a mistake, he wants to run 1000km in 10 days.... no, cant possibly have heard that right!

So I went over to his clinic to buy some of his raffle tickets and just check up on the facts.  Yes, he is running 1000km in 10 days, no, he doesn't think it is a big deal.

Not...a....big...deal.  From my own perspective I couldn't cycle 1000km in 10 days!  It took me a whole 4 months to run 1000km according to my sportband thingy and I was pretty impressed with that. Some little things to consider...1000km is a long life for a pair of running shoes...running at 5 minutes per km it would be around 8 hours a day of running and the amount of energy burned to run 100km is likely to be in excess of 6000 Calories...every day!!  Yes, I am using a lot of exclamation marks here, its an exclamation mark kind of thing don't you think?

But then Anthony is the kind of guy who when I asked him a few years ago about what was the minimum amount of running needed to maintain half marathon distance fitness, he started talking about what he did which was things like 3 hour runs before breakfast at paces impossible for me to imagine, giving the impression he wouldn't get out of bed for much less than a marathon.  Perspective huh?

So you go Anthony, what a great idea, and good on you for being proactive about improving the care you provide to the patients of South Auckland.  We are behind you all the way, wish you an enjoyable and challenging run and successful fundraising in December...but maybe we aren't too likely to try to emulate you on this one...

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