Fundraiser ‘excited’ to run to every capital in UK and Ireland over 10 days

A man aiming to run to every capital in the UK and Ireland within 10 days, covering a distance of 900km (559 miles), said he is “excited” ahead of the challenge.

Jonny Davies, 31, told the PA news agency he will run approximately 90 kilometres (55.9 miles) per day, which he said will take between 12 and 14 hours a day, to raise money for charity.

Mr Davies, from London, will be setting out from Edinburgh in September, before getting a ferry to Northern Ireland and running to Belfast, then on to Dublin before getting a boat to Wales to run to Cardiff and finally to London.

The long-distance runner, who ran the length of the London Underground in 2023, has been training for the challenge for more than a year and intends on doing practice runs on sections of the journey “just to be a bit more familiar with those places,” he said.

He is most looking forward to running from Belfast to Dublin due to the “beautiful scenery” and is anticipating that traversing Wales will be challenging because of the hilly terrain.

“I’m feeling great, I’m excited,” he said ahead of the challenge.

The runner will be applying lessons learned from running the London Underground in 11 days to his new endeavour.

He said: “There were so many lessons learned from running the Tube that really helped prepare me, so I know what I’m in for on these 10 days, in the sense that, when you ask yourself to do something, there’s always more in the tank.”

He was uplifted and inspired by the “amazing people” who supported him during his London Underground challenge and he intends to replicate that camaraderie this time, by issuing an “open invitation” for people to join him for sections of his run.

“When I ran the London Underground last year, the thing that I look back on the most, that I’m almost most proud of, was actually the people I met during the challenge who came out to support me,” he said.

“Obviously, during the sections where I’m running between the cities there will be far fewer people but once we go into the cities, meeting all these people coming up to support me from all over the United Kingdom and Ireland, I think that’s quite a special element to it.”

Mr Davies is taking on the challenge to raise money for mental health charity CALM and hopes to bring people together during his challenge.

Talking about his motivation to run, he said: “Whether it’s running or other parts of life, sometimes our main biggest factor is our lack of self-belief and actually when you put yourself out there and do challenges that test you, you really see what you’ve got deep down inside you.

“I’ve always found it fascinating how people can push themselves to do incredible feats of human endurance and I never thought I was a person who was going to be able to do that myself.

“Through years of improving my physical and mental health through running, I thought: what better way to almost thank the sport that has helped me than by using it as a way to raise money and awareness for something that is close to my heart?

“When we face challenges together, they’re far easier to deal with.”

Following Mr Davies’ fundraising efforts, he has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Endurance Fundraiser of the Year category in the GoCardless JustGiving Awards 2024.

Pascale Harvie, president and general manager of JustGiving, said: “Words cannot describe how impressive Jonny’s challenges are and we are absolutely delighted to have him as a finalist in our Endurance Fundraiser of the Year category.

“We wish Jonny the very best of luck in his next mammoth fundraising challenge and we cannot wait to celebrate all his achievements at our awards ceremony in September.”

To vote in the JustGiving awards, justgiving.com/hub/happening-now/justgiving-awards