Running 220KM for Young Women's Wellbeing

Kia ora, I’m Fran! The Founder and volunteer CE of The Shift Foundation. Last year I took on a multistage ultramarathon across the Omani desert as a fundraiser for Shift and this year is no different (well, other than the fact I am keeping it local and have created my own multistage run in our beautiful backyard due to Covid19 travel restrictions!)

Starting on Saturday 5th December I’ll be making my way from Whakahoro back to Upper Hutt (my hometown), running approximately 220km over 5 days through some of the lower North Islands beautiful tracks and trails (plus a bit of SH1, forestry tracks, beach and rural roads!).

Why?! Because I am a massive advocate for the role that physical activity and access to green space can have on our wellbeing, and more importantly I’m 1000% committed to improving wellbeing outcomes for young women. My run will be entirely self-funded and any donations made will go directly towards the mahi The Shift Foundation does to improve the wellbeing of young women through physical activity, leadership and empowerment.

ABOUT THE RUN

When I realised earlier this year that there was no way I was going to be competing in an ultra adventure race in Sri Lanka, or taking on more sand in Wadi Rum Jordan, I resolved to focus my energy ‘locally’ - that’s what we do right?! I decided to create a ‘COVID can’t stop me’ multistage run as having something to train for and focus on has been great for my motivation and mental health. Each day I will be taking on a different distance, the shortest day is 35km (crossing from the Kāpiti Coast to Upper Hutt via either the Tararua Ranges OR Akatarawa Forest - depending on DOC slip alerts!) and the longest day is 50km. The total distance is approximately 220km (if you can trust ‘Map my Run’!) and the elevation gained over 5 days will be in 5,000s!

If you want to follow along on the journey, I will be posting daily updates on the @shiftfoundationnz Instagram and Facebook.