News - 1000 Mile Challenge Update!
On Friday 19th June at approx 7pm, Richard Dunwoody reached the half-way – 500 mile – mark of his ‘1000 Miles in 1000 Hours’ Challenge.
To this point Richard has now been walking for a total of 130 hours, 15 minutes and 46 seconds with his fastest mile at 13.15 and slowest at 17.09.
The last 100 miles have been his quickest so far. Apart from struggling from the lack of sleep, Richard remains in good physical shape as he faces another 24 days of walking a mile every single clock hour.
Celebrities to join Richard this week include:
• Jilly Cooper, novelist
• Mark Foster, 5 times Olympic swimmer and Strictly Come Dancing star - Mark is taking time out of his hectic training schedule, learning wheelchair dance sport, for a groundbreaking new series for BBC 3 which will be shown later this year
• Gail Emms, Olympic badminton silver medallist - Gail has just received an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours and is currently mentoring 2012 badminton hopefuls
• There will also be a SPARKS charity day on Tuesday 23 June, where the Hollywood model, actress, Bond girl (Die Another Day), and martial arts expert Rachel Grant will beat Richard with a stick recreating Captain Barclay’s 607th mile, where he was asleep on his feet and had to be beaten by his manservant…
About the 1000 Mile Challenge
• In 1809 Captain Robert Barclay was bet 1000 guineas that he couldn’t walk 1000 miles in 1000 consecutive hours and this was hailed as ‘one of the greatest human feats ever attempted’
• 200 years on, from 29th May to 10th July 2009, Richard Dunwoody is recreating the challenge, and will walk one mile every single hour for 42 days – from the Bedford Lodge hotel in Newmarket, up the Bury road and back again
• This means Richard will walk 24 miles in 24 hours, and can only have a maximum of an hour and 15 minutes sleep at any one time
• He aims to finish the 1000 miles by walking the last mile on 10th July at approx 2.20pm up the home straight of Newmarket racecourse on Darley July Cup day
• The four Charities that the 1000 Mile challenge supports are Racing Welfare, Alzheimer’s Society, Sparks and Spinal Research
• The challenge is supported by Barclays, Paddy Power, the Bedford Lodge Hotel, Nike, The Jockey Club, Tattersalls, Newton Investment Management, University of Ulster, the Charities Aid Foundation, Newmarket Racecourses, Lucozade, Hilton Water, British Horseracing Authority, Wild Frontiers and the Race Walking Association
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