About 100 students are taking part in the annual King’s High School annual K24 challenge where participants collectively run for 24 hours in a 300m loop within the school’s campus.
The challenge is held to raise funds for I Am Hope’s Gumboot Friday — last year they raised $15,000, but did not have a tally yet on how much they have raised for 2026.
Deputy head boy Dan Kelleher, 17, said people did not talk about mental health enough and often suppressed the feeling they might need help.
"By being here, doing a hard activity, pushing ourselves, and getting out and running for 24 hours, we’re hoping to make a difference for some of the boys and girls in need."
Dan said they were signalling to their peers and friend groups that they were all a safe harbour for them to come to if they needed to talk or needed help.
Last year, he was in a cast with an injured leg, but still came along, spent the night and scootered around the track.
This year, he planned to run about 20km-30km.
King’s High School teacher Jeremy White said a few students last year managed to rack up 100km and that was definitely a goal for some of the runners yesterday and today.
"That’s the great thing about this, you have guys who don’t think they’re athletes — then five hours later they’ve covered a marathon distance without even thinking about it."
The students aimed to have at least one person running around the track for the entire 24 hours.
