City fan Rob runs 500 miles for Chloe
Rob Mullen set himself the goal of running 500 miles of races over the last year to help raise money for little Chloe.
Born 10 weeks premature, weighing under three pounds and having suffered the tragic loss of her twin sister, Phoebe, Chloe had a difficult start. Although born with little sign of life, she was thankfully revived but had suffered a considerable brain injury. She spent the first few weeks of her life in and out of hospital undergoing surgery and was soon diagnosed with Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy and Global Developmental Delay. Chloe’s incredible family work hard every day to incorporate into their lives the many therapies required to keep Chloe well and happy: physiotherapy, speech and language therapists, occupational therapy and neurology – to name just a few.
Rob is nearly at the end of that running journey, which culminates in the Marathon des Sables (Marathon of Sand). Popularly known as the ‘toughest footrace on earth’, it covers 160 miles across the Sahara desert with everything you need carried on your back (about 10kg). Pretty tough without considering the 40-50 degree heat, monster dunes, spiders, scorpions and snakes. He is due to fly to Morocco on the 1st of October to begin the journey.
So far Rob has run 411 race miles, including 3 marathons, 6 half marathons and 5 ultra marathons. The training has been extensive and almost a daily commitment. To do that he has run over 2400 miles in training, with 104,000ft of climb achieved (over 3.5 Everests)… and in doing so destroyed lots of pairs of trainers.
You can follow his journey at Ultra Marathon | I Would Run 500 Miles. His race number is 704, so you can follow his progress when he starts the race on the 3rd of October. You can support him and Chloe by donating to this wonderful cause and/or raising awareness of cerebral palsy as well the fantastic but challenging role of the carers in our communities.
