Teams from the four nations of the UK have helped raise over £45,000 for farming and rural charities as part of the #Run1000 challenge.
The 1,200 participants, which included hundreds of farmers and workers in the wider agriculture industry, clocked up 64,785 miles of running or walking.
They have raised £45,438 for five charities: The Farming Community, Embrace Farm, The Do More Agriculture Foundation, RSABI and DPJ Foundation.
The initiative’s founder and Captain of Team Scotland, Sheena Horner, was joined by Charles Anyan Captain for Team England, Emma Picton-Jones, Captain for Team Wales, Peter Hynes for Team Ireland and Jason Meadows leading the Rest of the World.
Sheena said their aim was to inspire rural people to take to the countryside to run or walk and to improve their mental health during the pandemic.
“We also wanted to give people a forum to talk, to compete and to have fun during the darkest months of winter," she added.
The popular initiative was launched on 12 October 2020 to coincide with #AgMentalHealthWeek.
The ‘mission’ was for each team to clock up 1000 miles by the end of January 2021. Each participant paid a £20 joining fee.
“We aimed for each team to run 1,000 miles and that the first team to reach the milestone would be the winner,” Sheena said.
"The involvement was so good, we blew that target in early January, so had to introduce some other winning categories.”
The first team to reach 1,000 miles was Wales; the 567 supporters also had the most Strava group members, clocked up the most mileage in January and raised £12,700.
Team Scotland logged the most distance per group member and raised £7,461, and Team England raised the most money at just over £18,300.
“The most improved runner was Peter Hynes, and we had some real stars who were consistently running over 120 km [75 miles] a week,” Sheena added.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with the success of #Run1000 which has exceeded everyone’s expectations and I’d like to thank both Jason and Charles for their hard work during the event.
"We’re absolutely delighted to announce that #Run1000 is now not a one off, and that I’m going to continue to work with Emma and Peter to set up next year’s event and hope you will be ready to do it all over again in January 2022.”
The #Run1000 Just Giving pages will remain open to donations until the end of February 2021.
