Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. 

I am Miki Neant. A London based French and Japanese ultra-runner, a wife and the mother of a 16-year-old who is now starting to dream her own life path. 

I am aiming to support the charity Free To Run by taking up the challenge of running 6704KM/4166Miles throughout 2021. I actually started this challenge on January 1st and am aiming to finish at the latest on the 31st of December. In order for me to achieve this, I will run an average of 18.5KM/11.5Miles per day for 365 days.

I have now successfully completed my challenge. However, I leave this page open so that many of you could support this charity continuously. 

Here is my story,

I started running in October 2016 after joining Women Running the World (WRW) - a club that has over 100 active women in London and in which many members have friends living all over the world who love running. Throughout my time in the club, I have found many new friends. We all support each other.  I ran my first half marathon in March 2017 in Warsaw, Poland with them. The feeling I experienced when I crossed the finish line was indescribable!  Since then, I never stopped dreaming of running adventures.  I completed my first ultra race in October 2019 which was the Ultra London 55K. A month later, I  ran an epic but challenging night race, the CI 100 along the cliffs of Jersey island. I ran my latest ultra race, the Country to Capital ultra in January 2020 then 2021. Running is essential to me because that is truly how I connect to others and it brings many people together too.  Experiencing endless support from my fellow WRW runners and all of those in the running community has been something I cherish, almost like a treasure. Seeing people coming together through running, a common passion which many share, has been a great source of happiness. Running taught me the undeniable power of collective support.

From my perspective, running was always a solo sport where I challenged and competed with myself to achieve my  own goals. But I realized how wrong I had been all these years. Although sometimes I run alone, I never feel like I am lonely. I constantly hear the encouragements of my friends and fellow runners in my mind. Even when running up the steepest hills, torching my trail paths in total darkness and silence, I still experience a feeling of togetherness. I always had this strong support. My friends calling my name and cheering me on have helped me get through tough times. 

Due to the pandemic, group runs and other activities were compromised due to numerous national lockdowns, also followed by an injury. I started running again regularly at the end of May 2020. I completed a challenge similar to the one I am currently trying to achieve: running 4139KM/2572miles (the virtual distance between San Francisco and New York) in 6 months and 1 week. I started this challenge on the 1st of June 2020 and accomplished this goal by running the distance of half marathon almost every day, until the end of 2020. 

Freedom can most easily be defined as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. Unfortunately, in today’s society, not all women have the freedom and this needs to change. Freedom shouldn't be a privilege, it should be a right. Free to Run works to support women and girls in areas of conflict through adventure sports to build their physical, emotional, and social well-being; developing them into community leaders so they can bring people together across cultural, ethnic, and religious lines. This organization provides them the tools to succeed and also supports them to transfer those successes to their everyday lives. With your donations, Free to Run can organize activities, events, and educating sessions as well as sports sessions in regions of conflict such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

Many fellow runners buy a warm cup of coffee, tea or delicious hot chocolate after their runs from a coffee shop. If you faced two choices: spending £3.50 on a drink that will be finished in five minutes or donating £3.50, to make a difference in someone's life. Or you can share the comfort moment every time you buy your coffee by donating the cost of coffee?? Once I realized how I could change someone's daily life I decided to make this page so that hopefully many of you can make the same choice as me. Your cup of coffee can have a much bigger impact and allow women to have the chances they thought they wouldn't be able to have! 

You don’t have to be a runner, as a citizen of the planet earth, please support these courageous girls and women, we can stand for each other! 

Please donate today that price you pay for a cup of coffee or tea to “Free to Run”. Share your comfort moment with someone on the other side of the planet. Please help light up the lives of a strong group of women in Afghanistan and Iraq during this especially tough time. With a little contribution from each individual like you and your friends, we can make a great impact on transforming the lives of young females in regions of conflict. Together, we can make a difference.

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Here is the link to know more about Free To Run: https://freetorun.org/about-us

You can read about the progress of this organization here: https://freetorun.org/what-we-do

Watch my daily progress: https://www.myvirtualmission.com/missions/78369/running-the-length-of-london-to-kabul-in-365days-in-2021

My Instagram page, updating my running adventures and progresses: https://www.instagram.com/mikiruns/

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