By Mikayla van Loon
As someone who has always been quite fit and athletic, Liam Kidd decided to challenge himself even further but this time for a good cause.
On Saturday 30 October he will be running 100km in 24 hours with his brother Jake around Belgrave South Recreation Reserve to raise money for Variety – the Children’s Charity.
“I’ve always wanted to do something with charity, and then once Covid hit, all football stopped, obviously, for the last two years, so I kept running and that,” Liam said.
“I sat down with my partner and I just said ‘this is what I want to do’ and we brainstormed some ideas and I ended up coming up with a 100km run over 24 hours, something that’s physically challenging but also mentally challenging.”
From there Liam asked his brother to join him, who has his own motivations for taking part in the run.
“For me, this weekend’s run isn’t about the running challenge itself… it’s more about the charity and raising much needed funds and awareness for Variety,” Jake said.
“My partner Leanne’s son Kyson was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ODD, ADHD and Motor Tourette’s when he was four years old. He’s now 13 years old and he’s a great kid but it’s been a long hard road for Lee and the family.
“I thought raising money for this great Charity, that would work with beautiful kids such as Kyson would be a great way to give back and support those in need.”
Liam said having become a father himself to a little boy Noah, he has realised how testing parenting can be.
“We’re pretty lucky that Noah was healthy and fit. There are other families out there that are doing it tough, it’s not easy raising a child when they are fit and healthy but if you’ve got something else, that puts a bit of a strain on the work. The stress and the pressure, it would be a lot on parents,” he said.
“So I just thought, well, what can we do? And that’s why I found variety and it’s just to create awareness and try to generate as much funds as we can to help a family or families and to support them in any way we can.”
So far the pair have raised over $5000 for the charity which supports children who are sick, disadvantaged or have additional needs.
The pair plan to run 4.2km every hour, taking small breaks to eat and rest where they can.
Liam said he doesn’t think the running side of things will be the difficult part but rather the mental side of being up for 24 hours.
“I think staying awake for the full 24 hours and running is just going to be the challenging part,” he said.
“It’s been hard training for it just because of the lockdown rules. So we’ve had a curfew so I haven’t been able to do any runs throughout the middle of the night or anything like that.”
Although he has been training and getting advice on what to do on the day, Liam said he is just planning on “winging it on the day.”
The support from the local community and the South Belgrave Football Club Liam said has been overwhelming.
Friends have said they will be there on Saturday to run a few laps around the oval and the football club will be opening up the bar, as well as hosting a barbeque, with all funds raised going directly to Variety.
Liam has been documenting his running process on Instagram via @theathleticdad__ where the link to his donations page can be found or it can be found here, https://fundraise.variety.org.au/fundraisers/theathleticdad/theathleticdad
