Dan Lawson is currently just over mid-way through his attempt on LEJOG (Lands End to John O’Groats). He left Land’s End on August 6th and today is his sixth day of running between about 80 and 100 miles per day in his quest to beat the recognised record of 10 days 2 hours.
Juggle, JOGLE, LEJOG
LEJOG, or JOGLE depending on which way you decide to go, is a much beloved route for cyclists, but running it is a whole different ball game. The most efficient route, of around 820 miles, involves a lot of busy A roads which can be scary for a slow moving runner. Dan first attempted JOGLE in 2018 (See our coverage here) and, while it started well, ultimately Dan’s body just broke down under the strain of the huge mileage and he was gutted to have to stop after 8 days. Then he was chasing the Andi Rivett record of 9 days and 2 hours which has been called into question (https://www.fastrunning.com/opinion/comment/doubts-cast-over-jogle-record-set-16-years-ago/20199). Now he’s decided to keep it real by going for the more recognised record of 10 days and 2 hours. It’s still a huge ask, but if anybody can do it, Dan can.
Follow Dan on his live tracker
We joined Dan yesterday in Cumbria and he was moving incredibly well for somebody who’s been on his feet for 16 hours a day for 5 days. He is keeping up a very steady pace and stops are at an absolute minimum. He will walk to eat, but otherwise he’s running and I witnessed him run all the way up the hill to Shap summit.
The last I saw of him he disappeared over the crest of the hill, chatting away with a background soundtrack of happy hardcore. Dan is so friendly to everybody who comes along to support him and he would really appreciate your support if you live along the route between Carlisle and John o’Groats in the next 4 days. You can track him here: https://live.centurionrunning.com/DanLEJoG2020
Stop shopping!
As well as trying to break the record Dan is using his run to try to encourage people to stop shopping for 10 days, the duration of his run. Dan, who is co-founder of ReRun, a community project which aims to extend the life of running clothing and shoes by encouraging people to wear pre-loved clothing and shoes, wants runners to stop and question whether they really need those new trainers or the new kit. He runs only in pre-worn clothing and is committed to trying to educate runners about the amount of sportswear we consume and what it’s doing to the environment. Check out the Rerun website (https://rerunclothing.org/) for some very sobering statistics and to see how you can support them.
