Florida man who lives in Hemel to run 85km on treadmill for charity

Andrew Fulford, 29, moved here in 2012 when he married his British wife Emma, who's an Emergency Medical Technician for the NHS East of England Ambulance service and has lived in Hemel Hempstead her whole life.

He originally took up running as part of a mindfulness practice and to explore the Chiltern Hills, but the running side of things didn't start too well, as Andrew confessed: “I went out for my first run in spring 2018 and couldn’t complete 5km in these Hemel hills. Being a Floridian, the highest peak we have is an interstate bridge!”

Fortunately he improved fast and found that his forte was not speed but endurance, so much so that he had signed up for an 85 km trail race across the Island of Madeira before it was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

It was this that gave Andrew the idea to run 85km on his treadmill instead to raise money for charity.

His goal is to raise £850 for The Running Charity who deliver running & fitness programmes to homeless young people in the UK.

Andrew explained why he wanted to raise money for The Running Charity: “Running for me has been incredibly powerful to help me build resilience in life and I've always been passionate about the impact that can be made on young adults and this charity is working directly with young adults aged 16 to 25 which is probably the most influential stage of life."

The American will begin his challenge at 7am on Saturday morning and is aiming to complete the 85km in under 10 hours.

As part of the event Andrew will be having 'virtual aid stations' every 45 minutes where he and others, such as Alex Eagle, CEO of The Running Charity, will be raising awareness of the charity's work. You can log in to those here: www.instagram.com/andrewfulf/You can sponsor Andrew here: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/85k