16-05-2025
From inspired to inspirational
On Sunday night, Queenstowner Cam Marshall, 21, settled in with a pizza to watch Runn, a documentary detailing Nedd Brockmann's journey to run 100km a day, for 46 days, across Australia.
"I just got super-inspired and thought, 'what am I doing?'
"I'm just sitting on the couch eating pizza.
"This guy's out here running 100km a day for 46 days."
Having just returned from a working holiday in Japan, and not due to start back at Queenstown's NZONE until tomorrow, Mr Marshall figured he had nothing else planned on Monday, so on a whim decided to attempt his first 100km run, setting out to raise $100 for I Am Hope.
The farthest he had previously run was 27km, about seven months ago.
Mr Marshall promptly took himself to bed, woke up about 2.30am, made a rough plan for his adventure and set up his Givealittle page, "Running 100km for Mental Health — No Training, Just Purpose".
"Obviously mental health [is] such a big topic in New Zealand, especially among young people," he says.
"I feel like I've had my own sort of battles with mental health growing up, especially like leaving high school.
"It's not easy being a young person in New Zealand, I find.
"There's a lot of bad things that people can focus on, but I wanted to sort of bring some light and ... donate money to mental health and help out."
He set off from his parents' Threepwood home about 4.45am, intending to do the entire distance unsupported.
But as soon as he started posting on Instagram, "people started reaching out and wanting to help".
His jaunt took him into Queenstown, where he stopped at FreshChoice for some food, then to Frankton, where there was another stop at New World, and then on to the Kelvin Heights golf course.
He doubled back and headed towards Arrowtown — his mum's cousin dropped off some more food at Morven Ferry — but around the 75km mark he blew out his right foot.
'It just got worse and worse ... so I just had to walk it out.
"I knew it was going to be a long 25km."
By then, though, he had a growing support crew, who were with him every last step of the way.
Mr Marshall finished about 9pm, "right outside my house" with about 10 people, including his sister who travelled over from Wānaka to keep an eye on him overnight.
By Wednesday, he had obliterated his fundraising target, with over $3100 donated to the cause.
Mr Marshall said he intended to keep the Givealittle page open and was considering another fundraising challenge down the track.
"I love keeping fit, and I think there's potentially some room down the line to be doing a bit more of this."
