Jack Brownie, who manages the resort outlet of his family’s 86-year-old mattress business with his brother, ran the distance of a marathon every day through November, equating to more than 1260km, along the way burning through three pairs of shoes and raising $10,000 for Movember. A donation from his grandfather as he neared the finish line got him to the target.
Inspired by fellow members of Industrial Fitness gym, which does a fundraising challenge for the men’s health awareness campaign every year, Mr Brownie turned 30 last month, so decided to complete 30 marathons in 30 days to bring in that milestone.
A "knackered" Mr Brownie, who was barely even puffing after his final run yesterday, said he was grateful his body held up throughout the challenge, despite some niggles with both of his Achilles tendons on day five and his quadriceps on Saturday night.
"I’m ready for 30 beers, I reckon."
Of his 30 marathons, seven or eight were completed at Industrial Fitness on a treadmill when wild weather hit — while his fastest time of about 3 hours 35 minutes was on the treadmill. That was "a bit of a cheat code" because he could go a faster.
The Queenstown Marathon marked his halfway point — he finished that one in 3:51.59, while others took much longer.
"Some of them, I’d be running for about four and a-half or five hours, but I’d be stopping at the bloody cafe and sitting there for half an hour contemplating life."
There was also a week where he could not start his run until after work — on some of those nights, he was still running at midnight.
"It doesn’t leave any time in the day. You can’t relax; your brain has got to be always working."
Mr Brownie said he would take a couple of weeks off now to rest and and try to put on the 4kg of weight he had lost over the past month "so I can go hard again" at the Hyrox Auckland Race in February.
As to what he might challenge himself with next November, "I won’t think about it just yet", he laughed.
