Apollo’s 300km charity mission ready for lift-off

Chrissy Burns, Ryan Carson, Chris Ward and Philip McNally will take on the ultimate running challenge in August, when they cover 300kms in 48 hours - non-stop.

The launch pad for the Apollo mission will be Portstewart strand, on the morning of Saturday, August 9.

From there, the runners will follow the coastal route around the Antrim coastline, taking in the Ards peninsula and crossing the finish line at Newcastle beach.

It was Ryan Carson who came up with the idea for the challenge, in memory of his in-laws, Roy and Evelyn McVeigh, who both sadly passed away following courageous battles with cancer.

Apollo Fitness owner, Chrissy Burns, explained that the team have been following a gruelling training programme in preparation for the endurance test.

“It’s pretty non-stop, but there’ll be checkpoints along the way to regroup and refuel.

“A couple of physios will come and meet us at those different points, rub out the legs or anything else we need done.

“Basically it will be a quick stop and then move on. There’s no sleep involved, we aim to be moving the whole time.

“We’ve been following a specific programme and we’re now on week seven.

“It’s accumulating distance over the week. On week seven, we’re now clocking up 100km over the course of the week.

“We split that up over five run sessions, we have shorter runs and then longer runs at the weekend, back-to-back.

“Over the next number of weeks the distance will keep going up, so on the peak week we should be up to running 140km. Then we taper back down.

“Ryan, Chris, Philip and myself are the four main runners, and we will be doing the full route.

“Then we have friends and family and different members from the gym, and people from outside the gym as well, who are going to jump in along the way - they might run 5k, 10k, 20k or 50k - just to give us a bit of moral support.”

The gym monthly challenges started at the beginning of the year - with members putting their fitness to the test.

“The challenge we did in March was running from the gym to the top of Slieve Donard, which was 60km,” Chrissy explained.

“Ryan’s wife Julie had lost both her parents to cancer and she had said, why don't we do something to raise a bit of money for charity.

“We decided we would do the August challenge for Cancer Focus NI - and this is what Ryan came up with.

“Julie’s dad’s birthday is on August 9, so that's when we’ll be starting the challenge.

“Ryan has run different ultra-marathons and done a couple of races that followed sections of this route.

“He’s been out driving along the route and planning all this out, so there’s been a bit of work behind it.

“We've got loads of support with people wanting to help and sponsorship coming in, which we really appreciate.”

Chrissy admits that the 300km challenge is taking the runners into unknown territory.

“I think we will definitely be slightly nervous - you are going into the unknown.

“Even in the training sessions, you don't know how your body is going to react to it all.

“But we just have to keep in mind what we’re doing it for and stay focused.

“The four of us have been running together for two or three years, on the mountains and doing different runs and competitions together.

“We motivate each other and keep each other accountable. With work commitments, we’re out on our own during the week doing the training sessions.

“On the weekends we’re more flexible with our time, so we go out and do the runs together.

“If we’re doing some of the longer runs, so as not to affect family life, we’re up at 4am and starting our runs at 5am, and that gets us back into the house for 10am.”

The Apollo owner said the poignant reason behind the challenge would spur them on to the finish line.

“There’s very few families that haven't been affected by cancer. Everybody has a story.

“We've set a fundraising target of £5,000 on our Justgiving page - and we would love to exceed that for a cause so close to so many people’s hearts.”

Chronicle readers can support the runners by visiting: https://www.justgiving.com/page/apollochallenge

Cancer Focus NI cares for families affected by cancer with family support, counselling and other care services.

The charity also does important cancer prevention work in schools, workplaces and communities, and funds ground-breaking research. All the money raised stays in Northern Ireland.