PENOLA may be home to a new world record in the coming weeks, as Kate and Justin McDonald attempt to run a half marathon every day for over 60 days.
Not only will they be the first in the world to do so on record, but are also using it as a way to raise funds for the Love Mercy Foundation.
The husband and wife duo are now on their 53rd day of the challenge and show no signs of slowing down.
Their aim is to run the 21.1km distance for at least 75 days straight, to ensure they safely set the record.
When asked what led them to the attempt, Kate said she had followed the journey of a woman who had tried it overseas.
“Probably about a year and a half ago I saw someone attempt it in Canada,” she said.
“When she was attempting it and I was following it on Instagram, I said to Justin ‘I can do that, I want to do that’.”
Justin decided to jump on board as well and the couple filled out the paperwork for the Guinness Book of Records in January, before their crazy journey kicked off on April 1.
To their current understanding, nobody actually holds the record, as the Canadian woman did not wait for the required paperwork.
However, the McDonalds are taking no chances and aim to beat her attempt just to be safe.
“When we applied they made contact with us and said in order for the record to be recognised we would have to do over 60 days,” Justin said.
“This woman in Canada claims she has the world record and she did 74 days, but the Guinness Book of Records has no knowledge of that.
“We are assuming she was unable to verify her attempt.
“Between us we have planned to do 75 days just to make sure.”
The parents of three both work full time, but have slotted the commitment into their daily schedules through thorough time management.
“We have really had to be committed to either running early or at a specific time,” Justin said.
“We both work full time hours and Kate may work early mornings.
“If we are both not working in the morning, we run at about 5am so we are back in time to get our kids ready for school.
“If Kate works, I will still try to run in the morning, then Kate knocks off early enough to try and get her run done before the kids finish school.
“Otherwise if we miss those times, we have a night run which we try to avoid.”
Although a half marathon a day seems daunting, Kate and Justin are no strangers to long-distance running.
They have ran at least 5km a day for over two years and live active lifestyles.
“Back on the 27th of December 2016 we began running 5km a day,” Justin said.
“We have maintained that through to now which is over 870 days.
“Then from January 1 this year we thought we would try to increase that to 10km a day, which we managed all year.
“Obviously we are now doing 21km.”
Sharing their journey on social media, Kate said she was amazed by the response they received straight away.
“At the start for the first week, I did not realise the attention it would get,” she said.
“We thought we will put it on social media and try to get some support like that, then it just went a bit crazy.”
That added some extra pressure in the early stages, especially in the first week.
“Probably for the first 10 days we were both a bit anxious about it,” Kate said.
“Then our bodies got used to it and our minds got used to it.
“Now it just feels the same as doing a 5km every day or a 10km.”
Food was one of the main factors which they stressed about early on, as they did not want to sell themselves short by not consuming enough nutrition.
“At the beginning we were very conscious of our nutrition,” Justin said.
“We did not want to make a trivial mistake, like not eating enough carbs or protein or something.
“I think that was part of the cause of being quite anxious.
“Then 10 days or so into it we started to realise we eat pretty well anyway.
“We over thought things a lot at the start.”
Kate and Justin are officially on the home stretch and had their course signed off by a surveyor last week to confirm the distance, which they made 21.4km just to be safe.
They said their children have been supportive throughout the journey and look forward to a celebration run on their final day, where they will invite people to complete the final distance with them.
