But Phil Yeardley is ready to run into a night of pain to help men’s mental health.
"The thing is it is not really my cup of tea. I’m not an attention seeker ... but it is my genetic makeup, I think. I really want to do something to help someone."
He said the idea came to him when thinking of something to do to help raise funds for mental health.
Mental health was front and centre in the community and males were still bottling things up.
The funds raised - he was aiming for $10,000 - would go towards Sir John Kirwan’s Mitey initiative, he said.
Mitey was an evidence-based, New Zealand school-wide approach to teaching mental health education to children in years 1-8.
"I have spoken to Sir John and he was really great about it. Thought it was a great thing I was doing. He is going to come down after the run and hopefully we will meet and give him the funds," he said.
First though the 100km have to be ticked off.
He is nervous, and more than a bit apprehensive about the task ahead of him.
"I’ve done five months of training. I did 55km around Mt Cargill, 2400m of elevation. Took me 11 hours, 40 minutes. I was cooked. Took me three weeks to recover."
The owner of a candle-making business, he had two pairs of shoes for the run, one slightly bigger than the other as his feet would get bigger during the run, he said.
The run would start at 1pm on Saturday and he estimated it would take 13 hours.
"I’ve done the Dunedin Marathon so know what that is about. But you get to 50-60km and realise it is another marathon to go.
"Then the final 10-15km that is going to be tough. It will be late, I will be tired and it will seem a long way.
"But I think I will learn a lot about myself."
