Eve Davies
For most people, one marathon in a lifetime is an astonishing achievement. For most serious runners, an occasional one suffices but endurance athlete Kate Jayden wanted more. Within 101 days, she ran 101 marathons. 26.2 miles every day, accumulating 2,646 miles between New Year’s Eve and the 10th of April.
Jayden is a compliance consultant from the Peak District who awoke at 4:30am most mornings during the challenge to run a marathon before commuting to Manchester for work.
This meant that she was not only running a marathon every day, but she was running them in conditions that were not ideal. For the first six weeks of the challenge. she ran in the pitch black and grim weather.
Jayden completed the challenge with a mixture of road and treadmill runs. She documented her journey on social media. Sharing details about her runs, she mentioned her impressive pace which sat between 8:30-9:50 minute-miles. She also shared video footage and images from her journey.
“My motto throughout has been ‘don’t let anybody ever tell you that you can’t make a difference’.”
Jayden began the challenge at the Liverbird marathons held on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day 2021/22. She crossed the finish line of her 101st marathon on 10th April at Brighton’s annual marathon event. Upon completing this feat Jayden said: “I’m feeling geriatric mostly.”
“The mental grit and tenacity have got me through and to pick myself up and go again each day. My motto throughout has been ‘don’t let anybody ever tell you that you can’t make a difference.”
The 35-year-old British runner from Derbyshire smashed the Guinness World Record previously set by US runner Alyssa Clark, who ran 95 marathons in 95 days. While securing this record is a remarkable achievement, Jayden’s main goal was to run the distance between the UK and Syria to pay homage to the hundreds of refugees who make this gruelling, treacherous journey every day.
“For my privilege, I am grateful and want to make more space at the table for others in 2022.”
Through sponsorship, Jayden raised £26,000 for the Refugee Council, Trussell Trust, and the Hygiene Bank. Jayden set out to raise these funds to provide humanitarian aid and mental health care for refugees and asylum seekers.
She stated on Instagram: “It’s only by virtue of the fact I was born in the U.K. that I am safe and have no more right than anybody else to know a safe place to live, in peace and with love. For my privilege, I am grateful and want to make more space at the table for others in 2022.”
She also said: “Because I have done a lot of endurance challenges, I keep pushing further and further with each one I do.”
“I do it to encourage other women into sport and also to be representation for the LGBT community because having that visibility is important.”
When asked what her diet looked like during the challenge, Jayden said: “I ate around 4,000 calories a day. More front-loaded towards the start of the day.”
She also discussed how her diet took a change with physical issues during the challenge saying “When my marathons took much longer in the 2nd half due to my knee issue, I ended up having to have meal shakes at night to get my evening calories as I finished so late in the evening, I couldn’t get a heavy meal in.”
Discussing her eating habits Jayden revealed, “I’d often eat Greek yoghurt and granola or toast and marmite for breakfast with coffee. Then snack throughout the mornings with things like fruit-and-nut-based energy balls, skyr yoghurts for extra protein, cereal bars, wraps, sandwiches, cottage cheese, smoothies, juices, and treats like chocolate and crisps. So, it was a balance of what I fancied alongside a fair nutritional diet.”
“I kept running for others.”
Jayden was transparent about the low moments of the challenge stating, “Day 47 I hurt my knee so had to try and figure out how to carry on. I went from below four-hour marathons to it taking 6 to 6 and a half hours daily. It was exhausting as I balanced that alongside a full-time job. I took it day by day”.
Reflecting on the most difficult Day, Jayden voiced “Day 63 was my lowest point when I struggled to weigh bear. The first mile took over 32 minutes. I made it with 3 minutes to spare before midnight.”
Jayden overcame these moments of doubt by focussing on the reason she started the challenge. She said: “It was all about the charity fundraising and raising awareness regarding the issues refugees face. It kept me going every time anybody donated or another discussion took place around refugees, food banks, or hygiene banks. So, I kept running for others.”
Jayden’s leading mantra is: “Just because you can’t change the world, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and change somebody’s world.”
Featured image courtesy of Kate Jayden with permission.
evedaviess
Eve is 22 years old and lives in Swansea. She has recently graduated from Cardiff University with a BA in English Literature. Eve's main interest is in lifestyle writing, particularly health, food, and travel.