Running with the Brighton man doing 300km this month for Movember

I was joining Oliver Gooch, 32, who will have completed the astonishing feat of running 300km by the end of this month by running 10km every day.

Oliver, who lives in Brighton but is originally from Blackpool, is taking on the challenge in memory of his childhood friend Callum Fyall who took his own life aged 27 in March 2019.

Oliver takes part in fundraising efforts every year, along with friends and family of Callum in his memory.

Oliver with Callum, right, on a trip to see Blackpool FC (Image: Oliver Gooch)

Callum was described as someone with “lots of friends” who liked to be active.

Oliver said: “We went to school together, a few of the pictures were from our trips to Wembley following Blackpool FC.

“Cal was a bit of a runner, he did a marathon and liked to get out and be active.

“We became friends from around 15, we went on holidays, we were in Bali together and I saw him when I was living in Australia. That was the last time I saw him.”

The run is part of mental health charity Movember’s Move for Movember challenge.

People are being encouraged to run or walk 60km over the month for the 60 men we lose to suicide each hour, every hour across the world.

Oliver decided to take that one step further and do 70km every week.

Myself and Oliver, left, before the run (Image: The Argus)

The week before I caught a nasty cold so never got around to preparing for the 10km.

It was fair to say I had no idea if I would have the fitness levels to complete the run.

I had experience of running ten kilometres regularly in the past but had got out of the habit of running for the last ten months.

Going back to the run, the rain subsided as I walked up to his house near Queen’s Park in Brighton.

We set off from his house, down Edward Street, up Grand Parade, past the Christmas market and around The Level.

Back past the Christmas market outside St Peter’s Church, I could see the people wrapped up warm with their hot chocolates while we were only about 4km in to the run.

The route we took (Image: Strava)

We looped around the Brighton i360 and back towards Brighton Palace Pier chatting about Callum, the World Cup, our own mental health and more.

The home stretch was particularly painful as we began to ascend up to Queen’s Park.

But just like that, the run was over in a respectable time of 58 minutes and 49 seconds.

We then ended with a 100 metre sprint up a hill.

After we completed the 10km run (Image: The Argus)

After that, we decided it was time for a well deserved pint at The Constant Service in Islingword Road, Brighton.

Oliver has raised more than £1,000 which is double of his £500 target.

He is being joined by around 15 friends up in Blackpool who are all joining him for a 10km run today.

If you would like to donate to Oliver’s brilliant cause, click here.