Buxton-born man on virtual run from Budapest to Chesterfield in aid of hospice

Scott Allsop, a history teacher in Romania, hopes to compete the challenge by his 40th birthday in September.

His dad Kevin, who lived in Buxton, had cancer when he was cared for by Chesterfield’s Ashgate Hospice during the last months of his life.

Scott said: “Dad would have turned 70 year on September 22 last year and, to distract myself on the day, I went for a run around the roads near my home. I thought about how different it was to the previous year when I would fly to see dad while he was being cared for by Ashgate. That evening I decided to try to run the equivalent distance from Bucharest to Ashgate.”

A full-time job and a young family made running the route in person impossible but by using Google Maps and a spreadsheet Scott knew he could keep track of the distance he had covered.

However, the online map showed just how big a challenge he had set himself. Scott said: “I needed to cover an average of 6.5km a day, but I gave myself the benefit of including my daily walk to school in the total. This 2.5km trip lowered the weekday running to 4km, but going from no running to 33km every week still seemed to be an idea bordering on madness!”

Scott reached the halfway stage of his run a week ahead of schedule, but then coronavirus hit. The closure of his school to on-site teaching, combined with the Romanian government’s new law that placed restrictions on all trips outside the home, added a new challenge.

“I’m lucky to have had access to a treadmill, so managed to keep running,” he said. “I fell behind on my distance because home life was turned upside down as we began teaching remotely from home while also looking after two young kids.”

Scott was able to get outside again in June when Romania relaxed its measures. He said: “My map shows that the ‘virtual me’ has barely 100km remaining, so I’m on target to finish by the time I turn 40 at the start of September – even if Covid-19 quarantine restrictions mean I can’t return to the UK and do the final leg in Chesterfield itself as I had hoped.”

To sponsor Scott, go to https://bit.ly/ashgaterun