Ultra runner Jonathan Nabbs has just completed 305 days running nearly 8000km across Canada raising money for Child Cancer research. Now he’s bringing his charity run home to New Zealand.
"I've come back here to Aotearoa to run from Bluff all the way up to Cape Reinga," Nabbs told 1News.
"The whole plan is to take the Superman suit just like I had in Canada and stopping in to visit kids fighting cancer along the way... raising money for the Child Cancer Foundation.
Nabbs has been directly affected by cancer and undertook the cross-Canada run as a way to deal with the heartache.
"I lost both my folks to cancer," he said "In 2020, I lost my Dad to skin cancer and about,16 months later, lost mum to bowel cancer.
"I was running across Canada to, you know, do something constructive with that grief and the idea of doing it for kids I know that Child Cancer Foundation is just screaming out for funding."
While the 2100km run is primarily to raise funds for the Child Cancer Foundation in New Zealand, Nabbs also plans to set an official Guinness World Record while he’s at it.
Although, the 32-year-old freely admits that — even if successful — it won’t actually be the fastest time.
Picking up the pace
Ultra running pioneer Siegfried Bauer set what Nabbs called "an astonishingly fast time" in 1975 and no one since has been able to touch it.
In 2019, Curly Jacobs abandoned his attempt to break Bauer’s record of 18 days and nine hours after falling behind schedule, telling the Otago Daily Times: "I had a good three-to-four-hour mental and physical meltdown on the side of the road... there is a reason the record is 44 years old."
Also in 2019, 64-year-old Perry Newman supposedly broke Bauer’s record — only to admit to hitching a few car rides to keep to pace and lost his bragging rights, along with the respect of the ultra-running community.
Bauer, now 84, lives in Eltham in South Taranaki and told 1News he hoped to one day see someone break his record.
"I wish somebody will break my record, honestly, not like that fella who done car rides and all sorts of thing … I like some good runner breaking my record."
There’s no doubt Nabbs was a good runner with his heart firmly in the right place, and while he wouldn’t be breaking Bauer’s record this time, he wouldn’t rule it out.
"At some point I'd like to see if I can have a crack at Ziggy's benchmark — I think that'd be great fun.
"The whole ethos here is just giving kids with cancer something they can get behind, something to get excited about and something they can believe in."
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