John Connolly
Pyllon Endeavour 2021
Fundraising for Scottish Action for Mental Health
Story
Our 2021 Endeavour, will be different. As much as we would love to get together physically as a team again, the pandemic means that we’ll have to take on this challenge from our own locations. Our challenge is to try and run 1,000 miles in just one week as a continuous relay. Once we start, we will always have one person running - who will carry the virtual baton for the team. There will be just 9 runners. We’ll run day an night for 168 hours and since we will not have access to run across the length of Scotland and our beloved mountainous trails, we’ll make the challenge even more difficult by including an ascent target of 100,000ft (more than 3 x the height of Everest)
January 2021 might be the most difficult time of year for many people in Scotland. It’s widely understood that the 3rd week of any year is the lowest time for many, with Depression and anxiety at it’s highest. Add to that the continued lockdown conditions and Covid fear, we feel it’s especially important to offer signs of hope and humanity returning. As we all know too well - many people suffer mental health problems without ever asking for help. So we will again be running to support our local mental health and wellbeing charity SAMH. They do incredibly important work, and we hope to raise awareness of what they do, the support that is available to people who are struggling with their own mental health and raise vital funds for them to continue their work.
The sport has done so much for each of us, so tackling this incredible challenge as a team, is our way of celebrating the challenges we face individually every day. We have already received many offers of support from our amazing running community and whatever the outcome of this challenge, we know that we will have created a more positive space for us all and we will each go on to tackle our own personal endeavours.