Running for 24 hours straight isn't an easy task, but Tim Gambles knows others are doing it worse.
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Set to take on the almighty feat from 12 noon Saturday on his self-constructed, one-kilometre Riverside trail, the 22-year-old is raising money for the Love Your Sister charity, chosen by a family friend who is battling cancer.
Named Ange's 'kickin it' 24-hour run, Gambles came to the decision to take on the challenge after wanting to raise awareness and show support for his friend Ange.
"I've always loved running - I'm a full-time musician, which kind of goes a bit weird with the running thing but when I need a break from playing, I go for a run and I love being out and about running," he said.
"From that, I just thought I love to push myself and endurance is my favourite part of running so it just sort of happened.
"I've just managed to squeeze in a kilometre, you'd be surprised at how many twists and turns I had to put in.
"It's about four acres here, which is a good size, but not that big to get one kilometre of track out of."
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
Building the course during COVID-19 isolation as a way of getting his trail-running in while many were closed, the former Deloraine High School and Newstead College student has spent hours on end training for this particular weekend.
"We've spent weeks on that [track] - weeks and weeks. Full big days from seven in the morning to sundown kind of thing, we've really put a lot into it.
"But then the training side of things too, I've been trying to train seven days a week, once or twice a day. I've actually funnily enough put on weight training for this because I've tried to be stronger for the endurance.
"Most people lose weight for runs, whereas I've put weight on. I've been doing gym, running up all the closest mountains I could, I've been running heaps on this track, I've been running with friends and I've had heaps of good support with people going for runs with me - particularly Amy [Lamprecht] and Jono [Claridge] from Ultrain."
Lamprecht and Claridge, both phenomenal distance runners in their own right, have consistently assisted Gambles through the preparation period with their business sponsoring the event.
They will continue to be on hand during the 24 hours, supporting him along the way both physically and especially mentally, which Gambles says is something that he has thought about regularly.
"The thing that will happen and my experience with this stuff is that my brain will stop working, I can't make good decisions after a while.
"So they are there to say 'Tim, you haven't eaten for the last hour, you really need to eat something' or 'it's getting cold, you may not feel it yet, but you need to put this on', so something doesn't go wrong."
While his support crew can help him externally, internally Gambles has two strategies to help him through the early hours of the morning - which could be the toughest times.
"I'm a musician, so music makes a bit impact on me, so I have very particular playlists and I have them for different times and different feelings and it will help me, it will make a huge mental difference.
"There will be times where I just need to not talk to anyone and chuck in my headphones.
"But the other side of it too, and I started doing this by accident, it wasn't something that I thought 'this will help me'. When I've been training on here, the first thing that comes to mind is Ange going through what she's been going through.
"I've had other friends too that have gone through similar things and 24 hours doesn't seem that bad anymore.
"Going for a run, I get the choice to do this whereas they didn't and for me, that motivates me more than anything."
Gambles' trials and tribulations will be live streamed, with his fellow musicians playing tunes along the way and supporting him through the literal ups and downs, something that he says means quite a lot to him.
To watch the live stream or donate to the worthy cause, visit the Ange's 'kickin it' 24 hour run event page on Facebook and follow the respective links.
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