Gavin, who lives in York, started his challenge on June 28 and is well into his 350 planned kilometres.
He started fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy UK after 2004 when he lost his younger brother Matthew, aged 15, to muscular dystrophy.
He said:
2019 marked the 15th anniversary of Matthew’s passing and it would have also been his 30th birthday. I decided to take on the GNR again, having previously run in 2009 (5th anniversary), 2010 (because 2009 was so slow!) and 2014 (10th anniversary).
I felt really disappointed when it was cancelled as my training was going better than ever before and I’m in as good physical shape as I’ve been in a long time. It will hopefully be even better by 2021!
For the GNR Solo, my original plan was to run a total of 175km over the 78 days with 40 runs – the distance from York to my hometown of Crewe, where my brother is buried.
But after the first week I decided that this was too easy and so I have doubled it to a total of 350km – so I’m running from York to Crewe, and then back to York. It is going really well and I am on target to complete it by the actual GNR date of 13 September. On that final date I will run the whole half marathon which is the GNR distance.
Gavin is married with two daughters (3-year-old Lily and 4-year-old Evie). He’s a passionate supporter of Crewe Alexandra, his hometown football club.
Ironically, Gavin has found training much easier throughout COVID-19 as life is more flexible with the current situation of working from home.
I have found it incredibly beneficial for my mental well-being too during these really challenging times and have found running to be much more therapeutic than before. You can’t beat just getting out and having a bit of time to yourself – don’t feel guilty, just do it!
Gavin knows from personal experience about what a difference MDUK makes to the lives of so many families.
He said:
I just want to give something back to the charity. My ultimate goal is a cure for MD and any small part I can play in that is good enough for me. My personal plan to try and run the GNR in under two hours and now that is becoming a possibility!