New Forest 60 year old aiming to complete 60 marathons for Naomi House and Jacksplace

He's already started the challenge

Author: Jack DeeryPublished 9th Oct 2022

A 60 year old from the New Forest is aiming to complete a rather remarkable charity challenge.

Steve Radjen is trying to complete 60 marathons, aiming to raise £600,000 for Naomi House and Jacksplace.

He first began on August 17th, with the aim of doing 60 marathons in 60 days.

Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen virus/illness, it came to a heart-breaking end during the 9th mile of marathon number 5 when he was battling severe cramp and sickness and physical exhaustion.

He collapsed in tears.

Steve completed the London Marathon last Sunday

Steve said:

“I’ve never experienced anything like it, it was horrific. I’d built an enormous pressure bubble around this challenge, and when it finally burst I was physically and mentally overwhelmed. My coping techniques didn’t work and I was wracked with the guilt of letting people down. Defeat was overpowering.”

During his runs he would experience painful cramp and couldn’t hold down fluids as that would make him sick, when he got home he was exhausted but couldn’t sleep or eat and completely had lost his appetite.

In the 5 days between marathon number 1 and marathon number 5, Steve had lost one and half stones.

Steve says he went into a depression after the challenge had to come to a stop, calling it the lowest point of his life.

However, Steve has now restarted the challenge, with a few tweaks.

The runs won't be consecutive, but he will aim to complete 60 marathons while he is 60 years of age.

He's completed 21 of them so far, with the latest coming at last weeks London Marathon.

So far he has raised over £16,000 for the charity.

He's doing all this while also working full time.

Steve added:

“I’ve learnt that hiccups and bumps in the road don’t mean that I’ve failed, I’ve given myself permission to reshape the challenge and I’ve come to terms with what happened.”

you can support Steve by going to his Just Giving page.

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