Latest news with #ultramarathon
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
4 ways women are physically stronger than men
In September, Tara Dower became the fastest person ever to complete the Appalachian Trail. Her record - 40 days, 18 hours and 6 minutes - was 13 hours faster than the previous record holder, a man. That same year, 18-year-old Audrey Jimenez made history in Arizona as the first girl to win a Division 1 high school state wrestling title - competing against boys. Across a variety of sports, women are not just catching up after generations of exclusion from athletics - they're setting the pace. In ultramarathons, women regularly outperform men, especially as distances stretch toward the extreme. Jasmin Paris, who in 2024 became one of only 20 people ever to finish the brutal 100-mile Barkley Marathons race in under 60 hours - while pumping breast milk. Advertisement Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. In long-distance swimming, female athletes now so routinely excel that within the community, their records are just part of the sport. In climbing last year, Barbara 'Babsi' Zangerl became the first person, man or woman, ever to 'flash' - climb without prior practice and sans falls - the towering Yosemite rock formation El Capitan in under three days. These aren't just athletic feats. They're cultural resets. Experts say we're finally waking up to what women's bodies are capable of. And it's not just young women blazing new physical trails. Advertisement 'In the Masters 70-plus, they just set a record for the women's deadlift,' says exercise physiologist Stacy Sims, who teaches at Stanford University and the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. 'Older women are demonstrating that 'I am strong and I can do this.'' - - - Built to endure Generally, discussions of 'strength' have meant brute force and speed over short distances - qualities historically associated with male physiology. But stamina, recovery, resilience and adaptability are as essential to athletic performance. And in those areas, female physiology holds real advantages, experts in sports science, human physiology, and biological anthropology have found. Advertisement The myth of female fragility is relatively modern. For most of human history, women were hauling gear, tracking prey, and walking eight to 10 miles a day - often while pregnant, menstruating, nursing or carrying children (one estimate found that hunter-gatherer women covered more than 3,000 miles in a child's first four years of life). That evolutionary foundation undergirds today's feats, experts say. 'Female bodies have superior fatigue resistance,' says Sophia Nimphius, pro-vice-chancellor of sport at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. In test after test, female muscles outlast men's when doing repetitive, if lower-weight, work, according to the pioneering research of Sandra Hunter, an exercise physiologist at the University of Michigan. Hunter's research - and others since - has shown that women's muscles fatigue more slowly than men's, so they can knock out more reps, more consistently. Men might start strong with heavier lifts, but when the workout gets long? Women can keep going, sometimes twice as long, or longer, outlasting even the most jacked guys. That endurance capacity is likely due to female bodies preferentially using slow-burning fat over quickly exhausted carbohydrates, in both athletes and less sporty people, studies have shown. Advertisement In addition to using fat for staying power, fatigue-resistant slow-twitch muscle fibers are generally more common in women's bodies (though all bodies vary in their proportion of muscle fibers according to individual genetics). This muscle type is also more efficient than fast-twitch, which are generally higher in men's muscles. 'Our muscles do more with less,' Nimphius says. - - - Recovery and resilience Beyond endurance, several small studies on sprinting and heavy weightlifting have shown that women also recover from hard workouts more quickly. Slow-twitch muscles inherently have a higher capacity to recover, but the female advantage may also be explained by faster healing: A study shows two times faster muscle repair rates for female mice (though mice studies don't always translate to humans). The reason? There's strong evidence that estrogen reduces inflammation and supports muscle repair (one reason that Sims recommends postmenopausal women get targeted training support and recovery time). Advertisement However, some studies show that women are more prone to other kinds of sports injuries, especially certain kinds of knee and ACL injuries, but it's not yet known whether that's explained by biomechanical differences in bodies, hormones, or poor training. Some researchers say the greater injury rates in women are because existing research is based on men's bodies: 'Female bodies are different - I tell [women] the protocols you're applying aren't meant for your body,' says Sims. Feats of bodily strength - in both ordinary women and trained athletes - are more than just purely physical. Many experts on competitive strength remark on this mental aspect of female endurance: 'I do think that there is a mental grit, a resilience factor that helps women go to a place in their mind - a state that allows them to continue to push to the limit,' says Emily Kraus, director of the Female Athlete Science and Translational Research (FASTR) Program at Stanford University. - - - A changing future Advertisement Men have usually defined strength by what their bodies tend to be good at, but max bench presses or fastest sprint times, both of which men tend to excel at, are just a few ways to test the human body. If we instead focused on endurance, resilience, longevity and recovery, the narrative of who is 'strong' would probably have a female form, many experts say. Currently, young female athletes still don't receive the same level of encouragement, training, and scientific attention as boys, Nimphius says. Research into girl's and women's health, while slowly improving, still lags - just 6 percent of sports and exercise research has looked exclusively at female bodies, according to a 2021 study. Considering all the wins for women already, what would the landscape look like if we designed sports science around female physiology - rather than downsizing routines created for men? The current generation of women athletes is challenging the very architecture of athleticism. Soon, experts say, they will have better information to help female athletes understand and train, and that will be true for weekend warriors and 5k racing types as well. Ongoing and anticipated sports science studies will be 'a game changer for girls and women - not just now, but in five, ten, fifteen years from now,' Kraus says. 'And that's really exciting.' - - - Advertisement Four things women's bodies do exceptionally well - Pain tolerance Human bodies endure all kinds of pain - from menstrual cramps and childbirth to back injuries and broken bones. Pain is subjective, so difficult to measure, but most research agrees with your grandma - women seem to handle pain better. Athletes are pain experts, and numerous studies show that they have higher pain tolerance than non-athletes - and when you break it down by sex, the limited research shows that female athletes don't differ from their male counterparts' pain tolerance despite higher pain sensitivity and that women are more likely to play through injuries. This is probably due to both biology and experience, says Sophia Nimphius, pro-vice-chancellor of sport at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. A 1981 study put it plainly: 'Female athletes had the highest pain tolerance and threshold.' - Immunity Advertisement Among mammals, including humans, it is widely accepted that females have stronger immune systems than males. That's due to the power of estrogen, and also of the XX chromosome carried by women but not men, which provides more variability in immune function. As the University of Minnesota evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk wrote in a 2009 article, 'There is no contest about the identity of the sicker sex - it is males, almost every time. Everyone knows that old age homes have more widows than widowers, but the disparity extends far beyond the elderly.' (There is a downside though; the majority of autoimmune disease patients are female. It's the cost that women bear for an aggressive immune system.) - Resilience Women's bodies seem better built for the long haul - less wear and tear, more staying power, according to the limited research. The data on long-term exercise suggests women may also pay a lower price for physical strain. For instance, the British Heart Foundation studied the vascular condition of 300 Masters' athletes (meaning over age 40), that included a mix of long-distance runners, cyclists, rowers and swimmers. In men, vascular aging increased among the athletes - by some markers up to 10 years, increasing their risk of cardiovascular issues. Among the female athletes, the reverse was true, they had biologically younger vascular systems, lowering their risk of heart problems. - Longevity Advertisement Arguably, the truest test of any body is longevity. And with rare exceptions, no matter the species or culture, women live longer. That's partly behavioral - men tend to take more risks that can kill them - but it's also biological. Women tend to survive disease, starvation and injury at higher rates than men do. Studies have shown that the Y chromosome, which is unique to men, can degrade over time - a phenomenon known as mosaic loss of Y. This degradation has been linked to a range of health issues in men, including increased risks of heart disease and cancer. Related Content Joy, tension collide as WorldPride arrives in Trump's Washington Kari Lake won awards for overseas reporting. Now she has the job of cutting it. Harvard celebrates graduation in the shadow of its fight with Trump
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
4 ways women are physically stronger than men
In September, Tara Dower became the fastest person ever to complete the Appalachian Trail. Her record - 40 days, 18 hours and 6 minutes - was 13 hours faster than the previous record holder, a man. That same year, 18-year-old Audrey Jimenez made history in Arizona as the first girl to win a Division 1 high school state wrestling title - competing against boys. Across a variety of sports, women are not just catching up after generations of exclusion from athletics - they're setting the pace. In ultramarathons, women regularly outperform men, especially as distances stretch toward the extreme. Jasmin Paris, who in 2024 became one of only 20 people ever to finish the brutal 100-mile Barkley Marathons race in under 60 hours - while pumping breast milk. Advertisement Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. In long-distance swimming, female athletes now so routinely excel that within the community, their records are just part of the sport. In climbing last year, Barbara 'Babsi' Zangerl became the first person, man or woman, ever to 'flash' - climb without prior practice and sans falls - the towering Yosemite rock formation El Capitan in under three days. These aren't just athletic feats. They're cultural resets. Experts say we're finally waking up to what women's bodies are capable of. And it's not just young women blazing new physical trails. Advertisement 'In the Masters 70-plus, they just set a record for the women's deadlift,' says exercise physiologist Stacy Sims, who teaches at Stanford University and the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. 'Older women are demonstrating that 'I am strong and I can do this.'' - - - Built to endure Generally, discussions of 'strength' have meant brute force and speed over short distances - qualities historically associated with male physiology. But stamina, recovery, resilience and adaptability are as essential to athletic performance. And in those areas, female physiology holds real advantages, experts in sports science, human physiology, and biological anthropology have found. Advertisement The myth of female fragility is relatively modern. For most of human history, women were hauling gear, tracking prey, and walking eight to 10 miles a day - often while pregnant, menstruating, nursing or carrying children (one estimate found that hunter-gatherer women covered more than 3,000 miles in a child's first four years of life). That evolutionary foundation undergirds today's feats, experts say. 'Female bodies have superior fatigue resistance,' says Sophia Nimphius, pro-vice-chancellor of sport at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. In test after test, female muscles outlast men's when doing repetitive, if lower-weight, work, according to the pioneering research of Sandra Hunter, an exercise physiologist at the University of Michigan. Hunter's research - and others since - has shown that women's muscles fatigue more slowly than men's, so they can knock out more reps, more consistently. Men might start strong with heavier lifts, but when the workout gets long? Women can keep going, sometimes twice as long, or longer, outlasting even the most jacked guys. That endurance capacity is likely due to female bodies preferentially using slow-burning fat over quickly exhausted carbohydrates, in both athletes and less sporty people, studies have shown. Advertisement In addition to using fat for staying power, fatigue-resistant slow-twitch muscle fibers are generally more common in women's bodies (though all bodies vary in their proportion of muscle fibers according to individual genetics). This muscle type is also more efficient than fast-twitch, which are generally higher in men's muscles. 'Our muscles do more with less,' Nimphius says. - - - Recovery and resilience Beyond endurance, several small studies on sprinting and heavy weightlifting have shown that women also recover from hard workouts more quickly. Slow-twitch muscles inherently have a higher capacity to recover, but the female advantage may also be explained by faster healing: A study shows two times faster muscle repair rates for female mice (though mice studies don't always translate to humans). The reason? There's strong evidence that estrogen reduces inflammation and supports muscle repair (one reason that Sims recommends postmenopausal women get targeted training support and recovery time). Advertisement However, some studies show that women are more prone to other kinds of sports injuries, especially certain kinds of knee and ACL injuries, but it's not yet known whether that's explained by biomechanical differences in bodies, hormones, or poor training. Some researchers say the greater injury rates in women are because existing research is based on men's bodies: 'Female bodies are different - I tell [women] the protocols you're applying aren't meant for your body,' says Sims. Feats of bodily strength - in both ordinary women and trained athletes - are more than just purely physical. Many experts on competitive strength remark on this mental aspect of female endurance: 'I do think that there is a mental grit, a resilience factor that helps women go to a place in their mind - a state that allows them to continue to push to the limit,' says Emily Kraus, director of the Female Athlete Science and Translational Research (FASTR) Program at Stanford University. - - - A changing future Advertisement Men have usually defined strength by what their bodies tend to be good at, but max bench presses or fastest sprint times, both of which men tend to excel at, are just a few ways to test the human body. If we instead focused on endurance, resilience, longevity and recovery, the narrative of who is 'strong' would probably have a female form, many experts say. Currently, young female athletes still don't receive the same level of encouragement, training, and scientific attention as boys, Nimphius says. Research into girl's and women's health, while slowly improving, still lags - just 6 percent of sports and exercise research has looked exclusively at female bodies, according to a 2021 study. Considering all the wins for women already, what would the landscape look like if we designed sports science around female physiology - rather than downsizing routines created for men? The current generation of women athletes is challenging the very architecture of athleticism. Soon, experts say, they will have better information to help female athletes understand and train, and that will be true for weekend warriors and 5k racing types as well. Ongoing and anticipated sports science studies will be 'a game changer for girls and women - not just now, but in five, ten, fifteen years from now,' Kraus says. 'And that's really exciting.' - - - Advertisement Four things women's bodies do exceptionally well - Pain tolerance Human bodies endure all kinds of pain - from menstrual cramps and childbirth to back injuries and broken bones. Pain is subjective, so difficult to measure, but most research agrees with your grandma - women seem to handle pain better. Athletes are pain experts, and numerous studies show that they have higher pain tolerance than non-athletes - and when you break it down by sex, the limited research shows that female athletes don't differ from their male counterparts' pain tolerance despite higher pain sensitivity and that women are more likely to play through injuries. This is probably due to both biology and experience, says Sophia Nimphius, pro-vice-chancellor of sport at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. A 1981 study put it plainly: 'Female athletes had the highest pain tolerance and threshold.' - Immunity Advertisement Among mammals, including humans, it is widely accepted that females have stronger immune systems than males. That's due to the power of estrogen, and also of the XX chromosome carried by women but not men, which provides more variability in immune function. As the University of Minnesota evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk wrote in a 2009 article, 'There is no contest about the identity of the sicker sex - it is males, almost every time. Everyone knows that old age homes have more widows than widowers, but the disparity extends far beyond the elderly.' (There is a downside though; the majority of autoimmune disease patients are female. It's the cost that women bear for an aggressive immune system.) - Resilience Women's bodies seem better built for the long haul - less wear and tear, more staying power, according to the limited research. The data on long-term exercise suggests women may also pay a lower price for physical strain. For instance, the British Heart Foundation studied the vascular condition of 300 Masters' athletes (meaning over age 40), that included a mix of long-distance runners, cyclists, rowers and swimmers. In men, vascular aging increased among the athletes - by some markers up to 10 years, increasing their risk of cardiovascular issues. Among the female athletes, the reverse was true, they had biologically younger vascular systems, lowering their risk of heart problems. - Longevity Advertisement Arguably, the truest test of any body is longevity. And with rare exceptions, no matter the species or culture, women live longer. That's partly behavioral - men tend to take more risks that can kill them - but it's also biological. Women tend to survive disease, starvation and injury at higher rates than men do. Studies have shown that the Y chromosome, which is unique to men, can degrade over time - a phenomenon known as mosaic loss of Y. This degradation has been linked to a range of health issues in men, including increased risks of heart disease and cancer. Related Content Joy, tension collide as WorldPride arrives in Trump's Washington Kari Lake won awards for overseas reporting. Now she has the job of cutting it. Harvard celebrates graduation in the shadow of its fight with Trump
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Could Four Trails success bring hope to Hong Kong documentaries in the long run?
Hong Kong filmmaker Robin Lee was advised to keep his expectations 'very low' before the cinematic release of his documentary Four Trails last December. After all, he was told, it was just a sports documentary that had no A-list celebrities to attract audiences. In making the film, Lee could not even secure any sponsorships or funding. Still, the 36-year-old believed deeply in the story's power to resonate with audiences as it captured the physical and emotional journeys of runners taking on a gruelling 298km challenge, while showcasing the natural beauty of Hong Kong's landscapes. 'You can't blame them [distributors] because there is no script ... I couldn't tell them [where] the money that you're investing is going to go because no one really knew what would happen,' said Lee, who was the film's cameraman, director and editor. Against the odds, Four Trails became a surprise box office hit, earning over HK$10 million and becoming the second highest-grossing documentary in Hong Kong history. The film also earned Lee the title of Best New Director at the prestigious Hong Kong Film Awards. The 101-minute documentary film follows a group of ultrarunners in February 2021 as they braved the Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge, one of the world's toughest ultra-marathons. Runners must complete Hong Kong's four major hiking trails within 72 hours. The success of Four Trails has boosted the confidence of Hong Kong's small documentary filmmaking scene – though this outlook stands in contrast with the wider movie industry that is still reeling from cinema closures and competition from streaming platforms. The documentary has sparked a renewed appreciation for Hong Kong's trails – even superstar and avid hiker Chow Yun-fat helped promote the film. It also inspired a group of primary school pupils to hike sections of the Lantau Trail with one of the runners featured in the movie. 'In our film, I made loads of conscious decisions to try and get as many different personalities as possible. As a viewer, hopefully, there was one person in the film which you could relate to on a personal level,' Lee said. His next goal is to take the documentary to cinemas around the world and, eventually, to streaming platforms. He is currently in talks with global distributors. 'It's just me and my brother, Ben, who's the producer. The two of us are trying to get the film out globally ... with almost next to no experience before. So it's still taking a lot of time,' he said. While commercial success and accolades were never Lee's motivation, these achievements have been crucial to his goal of reaching audiences overseas. 'Around the world, people don't look at Hong Kong as a trail running destination, so I was really excited to show people this is what Hong Kong has to offer,' said the director, who was born and raised in the city. 'We've got one of the hardest challenges in the world, and it's here in a city which most people think is just skyscrapers.' How Twilight of the Warriors director spotlighted City of Darkness' spirit Challenges of making Four Trails Before filming began, Lee hiked most of Hong Kong's four main trails – MacLehose, Wilson, Hong Kong and Lantau – to familiarise himself with the terrain, identify key filming spots and connect with the runners before the race. With no script to follow and less than 72 hours to record most of the footage, building rapport was crucial in shaping a human-centred narrative. 'It's like a big jigsaw puzzle, [but] there's no picture that you have to follow. You're creating the picture, so it's really difficult to try to figure that out,' he said. Lee recruited his brother and a few freelancers to help film during the race. Once the ultra-marathon started, one of the biggest challenges, Lee said, was figuring out how to build a coherent storyline that captured the journeys of 18 athletes moving at very different paces. 'Everything is changing,' he recalled. 'The runners gave us a time sheet of when they thought they would be in places, but some of them are going faster [and] some are going slower than what they anticipated. Therefore, you have to be really flexible.' Fly Me to the Moon director discusses universal theme of belonging in her film By the third day of the event, exhaustion set in. 'I only slept two or three hours; my brother had just one,' Lee said, adding that the filming process felt chaotic. 'We had this detailed plan before the race, but by day three, it looked wrong. And your head is playing all these games with you that you don't really know which is the right decision to make.' The film showed how the runners started to buckle under the mental and physical strain, but behind the camera, the filmmakers were struggling, too. 'You see them hallucinating and going crazy as the cameraman and the director were also going through a similar situation, so fatigue is really difficult,' Lee said. Even after the race ended, Lee had to edit the footage while juggling his freelance work. Since Four Trails was entirely self-financed, he would take on short projects – some lasting a day and others a week – before returning to edit the documentary. 'I needed to pay for things like graphics. And at one point, I had to hire a composer to write original pieces for specific scenes,' the director noted. 'It's a bit of a risk, but if I don't do it, it's not going to be as good, and I want to make something which I'm really proud of because this may be my only chance to make a film.' 'Four Trails' videographers run to catch up with a competitor who is on the way to the next trail. Photo: Edko Films Ltd Blazing a trail for the industry The commercial success of Four Trails is rare in Hong Kong – Lee's experience of balancing his passion with freelance work is not. Ryan Lai, who has been a documentary filmmaker for about six years, said funding was the major challenge for him and others in this field. 'It's extremely difficult to make a living from documentaries in Hong Kong,' Lai explained. 'Unlike narrative films, documentaries typically lack commercial appeal and therefore attract little to no investment. Aside from some occasional art-related funding, there's almost no financial support available.' As a result, Lai said most documentary filmmakers would treat their work as a side project, not a viable career. 'That's a major obstacle for anyone who wants to pursue this seriously in the long run,' he said. Thus, Lee hopes the unexpected triumph of Four Trails can spur greater support for documentary filmmaking in Hong Kong. 'If you're investing in film, you don't have to shy away from a documentary as long as the story is good,' he said. 'All the stories in Four Trails are real. They're not made up. That, in many ways, makes it even more exciting than some [fictional] feature films.' Lee believes the way forward for the film industry is to prioritise originality. 'If you can keep making original ... and new content, that's going to get people talking. Then that's the best thing for the industry,' he said. Stop and think: Why was the box office success of Four Trails so unexpected in Hong Kong? Why this story matters: Documentary filmmaking is a key art form that shows real stories. It is hard for many of these creators to make a living in Hong Kong, so the success of Robin Lee's film could bring hope to others in the industry.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
New mother wins 100-kilometre ultra marathon despite breast feeding her six-month-old daughter three times on the way
A new mother won an 100km ultra marathon despite breast feeding her six-month-old daughter along the way. Stephanie Case, 42, is no stranger to long-distance running but this mammoth undertaking along the 62-mile Ultra-Trail in Snowdonia was a little different to her usual challenges. The human rights lawyer had her new baby Pepper with her and rather than gobbling down some pizza and gulping a Coca-Cola in one of the pit stop stations, Ms Case instead focused her attention and energy on feeding her newborn. And the breaks to breast-feed didn't stop Ms Case from achieving victory and indeed Pepper proved to be her lucky charm. Not only did the new mother cross the finish line, but she did so in her fastest time yet - despite starting 30 minutes behind her competitors. After factoring in her longer breaks, the lawyer crossed the line in a final time of 16 hours, 53 minutes and 22 seconds. After crossing the line, her husband John and Pepper were shocked to find out that she had won a few minutes ahead of the runner-up and Ms Case described the race as 'the best time'. She told The Times: 'I was just so relieved that I didn't know that because it would have put a lot of pressure and stress on my race. And I just had the best time. I had the best time out there, just running completely ignorant of where I was and just going by how my body felt.' She added that she hopes one day she can show Pepper what she was part of and take her through the photos from the monumental day. 'I knew it was past Pepper's bedtime, but it was great. I can't wait until she grows up and I can show her the photos of what we did together'.,' she added. Ms Case's run was a cause for celebration not only for her impressive time but also because it was her first run after struggling with multiple miscarriages and three rounds of IVF before the joyful birth of her daughter. The chief of protection for UNRWA in Jerusalem was forced to scale back her running after a miscarriage three years ago. The Canadian lawyer, who now lives in Chamonix, France, revealed that she discovered she was pregnant after coming second in the over southern Colorado's San Juan Range. Despite her joy, the pregnancy sadly resulted in a miscarriage and Ms Case said that while there was no medical evidence to suggest that running had contributed to it, she decided to stop for a short while. After a second miscarriage Ms Chase discovered she was pregnant for a third time with her daughter Pepper who she welcomed in November. Six weeks after welcoming Pepper, the Canadian re-connected with running and started up again with the help of her midwife and her running coach Megan Roche. Ms Case said: 'Being able to just get back outside and reconnect with that running identity part of me was so important for my physical and mental health in this very vulnerable postpartum period.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Man runs from Leeds to London to see Sam Fender
There are a number of methods of travelling to a concert, but the chances are, the average music fan hasn't considered an ultra-marathon. That's how Andy Hobson, 34, is planning to reach the London Stadium next Friday. He is running from his hometown of Leeds to London to see Sam Fender in concert. His journey will start outside the Brudenell Social Club on Saturday, and will end on the 6 June in the Olympic Park in east London, where Fender is performing. The 252 mile (407km) journey will be in support of the Music Venue Trust, a charity which acts to protect UK grassroots music venues, and which Andy believes he "owes his life to" during struggles with his mental health. Andy, who works in the emergency services, was not originally planning the marathon fundraiser when he bought tickets to see Fender play in London, as part of his People Watching tour. He said: "I bought the ticket and instantly I thought, I wonder if I can run from Leeds to London?". Andy is using the challenge to raise money for grassroot music venues "to help make a difference to that sector". "I loved going to music venues, especially small independent ones, when I was struggling with my mental health," he said. "On a particular day, when I wasn't feeling too great, I would book a tickets for the most random gig. "I knew I would go into those places and feel a sense of community, so I wanted to create a fundraiser to help make a difference to that sector - which I felt like, at the time I was struggling, I owe my life to it" he said. In addition, Fender is donating £1 from every ticket sale sold for the UK dates to the charity, something which "reinforced" Andy's decision. During the week-long journey, Andy will start and end each leg at a different music venue, including the Leadmill in Sheffield which recently announced it is leaving its current venue. Friends, music and podcasts will power Andy through the challenge, which he plans to break into 10-hour running shifts. He said the financial outlay he has spent on equipment will be another incentive to complete the challenge. "Once I get stuff like the clothing and branding - being a Yorkshire man - it gets me thinking, I have paid for it now - so I have to do the job now. I have got to see it through. "Even in the difficult bits, I will think, I have paid for this top - I have to do it now!" So which Sam Fender songs will provide Andy with inspiration on his journey? "Seventeen Going Under will feel like such a big song. But recently, off his latest album, Nostalgia's Lie has been quite a good song for me. "It feels very relevant to this journey. I'm sort of looking towards my future self, if that makes sense?" Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. Why Leeds' independent venues are struggling Indie bar announces closure after 16 years 'I like to think that me running is saving someone's life'
