The Cobar Roosters Senior Football Club president Chris Deighton is definitely an attention seeker after having recently announced that he will run from Nyngan to Cobar, a distance of 130km.
Deighton is planning to run the whole 130km in just one day (after next year’s footy season) with two charities, which are close to his heart, to benefit from his big idea.
“The Royal Flying Doctor has always been my charity, they do a lot of good out here,” Deighton told The Cobar Weekly.
“And with all the stupid stuff I do, I’m probably gonna need them one day!”
His run will also be in aid of the Cobar Miners Memorial project which will honour one of Deighton’s good mates, James ‘Hernie’ Hern who was killed at the CSA Mine in 2014.
Deighton said when he decided to fundraise for both causes he knew he would have to do something big to get people’s attention.
“The more outrageous it is the more likely they will give to the cause,” he said.
“I’ve never run this far before but I like running so I thought I would train for it.”
During the footy season Deighton runs on average about 50km per week.
“I’ve got to step that up a bit,” he said.
Deighton is taking the whole idea very seriously and has consulted Australian marathon runner Jane Fardell to help prepare him for the run.
Fardell, who has represented her country at an elite level for more 17 years in both triathlon and marathon events all around the world, has given Deighton a four month training plan to get him ready to run the 130km.
“I start off slow doing 15km and work my way up to doing 130km over the Saturday and Sunday the week before the actual run.
“The first time I will actually run the full 130km in one go will be on the day,” he explained.
The distance is the equivalent of just over three marathons and Deighton hopes to set a quick pace of 10km per hour. (He currently runs an average of 15km/hr but he won’t be able to sustain that pace over a much longer distance.)
He has a target to raise $5,000 and is looking for running partners to join him along the way, and is keen to get other local clubs get involved and sponsor part of his run.
Last week he approached the Channel 7 Sunrise TV Show to see if they might cover the event.
“I’m waiting to hear back from them,” he said.
