My story begins in 2012. In 2012 I visited Ukraine to watch the European Championships with a group of friends. In 2012 in Dnipro, I met my beautiful wife Anna.
I need to be thankful to Elldis, the old camper-van that we drove all the way from England. Elldis couldn’t cope with a combination of old age and Ukrainian roads and was mostly driven from one mechanic to another.
As we waved goodbye to it (and our beds) once again, we were unsure where we would be staying. As luck would have it our mate bumped into an old school friend he’d not seen for 30 years outside a train station in Kyiv, who on hearing our predicament invited us all to stay with him in the flat he’d rented in Dnipro. A 6-hour train journey later we were in a city I’d never heard of and it was that night I met Anna, a journalist from a local television channel who was out with her friend.
We were married 15 months later. In 2014 she moved to England. We have two daughters and live in a messy house in Portslade. This could have been the happy end and no running for me!
2022 changed it. Days after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Anna started to ask our friends and family for donations. Ukraine (and a few neighbouring countries) was already empty of essential medical supplies and Anna and I wanted to help.
We started the Run2Ukraine fundraiser, and so my running began. I was overweight and unfit, but I bought new running shoes and I decided to run the exact distance from Brighton and Hove Albion’s Amex Stadium to the Dnipro Arena. This distance is 1569 miles. I thought I would complete it in a couple of years or so, I thought I would be running a marathon every fortnight!
But progressing from a 10K to a marathon was challenging. I was stepping up my distance in each training run by 2.5K while also running at organized events like the RunThrough Battersea Park and Goodwood Half Marathons to help raise awareness of our fundraiser. I’d gotten up to 20 miles solely through doing this when it all went a bit wrong!
I tried a 20miler with a friend who has done multiple marathons, in the middle of the heatwaves and having hardy eaten for the last day. Needless to say it ruined me! Maybe it was a good thing in the long term though as it gave me the push I needed to use a proper training programme which, crucially for me, included core work.
I started from scratch and 14 weeks later I had run my first marathon in 4hrs25. Since then, I have run another 4 marathons, including the RunThrough Goodwood Marathon in February where I got my PB of 4hrs15.
Ultimately I decided that my distance and challenges are only little.
Ukrainians are facing a real challenge and Anna and I will do what we can to help. As for the beginning of March 2023, I have run just over 500 miles for Ukraine, and over 30 runners run with me during different events. I have signed up for the RunThrough Goodwood Marathons in July and December of this year. Please get in touch if you can run with me and donate if you can!
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Check out…
Anthony Seddon’s Instagram about 1569 mile run for Ukraine
Run2Ukraine fundraiser on Gofundme
Run2Ukraine Facebook Group of upcoming race details.