Breathe Unity supports Martin Yelling Challenge

In July 2016, Martin Yelling will be taking a slightly longer route home to his family in Poole, Dorset. The lifelong runner, coach and industry expert will be taking on a gruelling 21-day and 630-mile adventure along the South West Coast Path in what has appropriately been named The Long Run Home.

Breathe Unity is proud to be supporting Martin on this epic journey that will see him run along, up and down England’s longest and toughest single National trail. It is a significant endurance challenge that will include over 30,000 steps and 115,000 feet of ascent – the equivalent of scaling Mount Everest four times.

Although the challenge will be extremely tough, Martin’s reasons for undertaking The Long Run Home are not limited to testing his own physical and mental stamina (although this will be stretched to the maximum). Martin also wants to tell the story of the path through the theme of ‘endurance’ and showcase the places and people along the iconic South West Coast Path, so his journey will also explore the history, culture, traditions and lives of this beautiful part of the world and how the concept of endurance can connect conversation en route. In doing so, he hopes to inspire people to visit the area and walk sections of the path too.

Martin will also be raising much-needed funds for three charities close to his heart: Julia’s House, Southmead (whose Frenchay Hospital saved his mum from a life-threatening brain injury) and Macmillan.

He is looking for support firstly through charitable donations, which can take the form of an overall Challenge Sponsor or a Stage (day) Sponsor. Breathe Unity is delighted to be sponsoring Stage 18 of the run – one of the most demanding days of the three weeks – and helping Martin in his fundraising mission.

Martin is also looking to create media content around his journey and key stories about the path, places and people en route. His aim is to have an adventure film or documentary made to showcase the adventure, as well as have people sign up to run all or parts of individual stages with him. He is also looking for support through kit and supplies to ensure the challenge can be completed.

Watching closely will be Martin’s family, namely his wife – two-time Olympian, Commonwealth Games medallist and marathon runner Liz Yelling – three small children and his father, who will be helping en route from a motorhome. For Martin, he says that being away from them will be just as hard as the daily physical slog.

At Breathe Unity we are used to seeing people achieve great things in the sporting world. It is why we love what we do. In The Long Run Home, Martin will be pushing himself to the limit of his own ability in a bid to raise as many funds as possible for charity and to showcase the magnificent coastline of the South West. It is an exceptional challenge that combines sport with giving something back, whilst promoting one of our country’s environmental treasures.

We think this is a cause truly worth supporting and we can’t wait to cheer on Martin on his Long Run Home.

Sponsorship and Key Information

If you are interested in being a Challenge Sponsor for The Long Run Home, please contact Rebecca Richardson at Breathe Unity: rebecca@breatheunity.com.

If you are interested in being a Stage Sponsor (100% going to charities of choice), please contact Martin directly: martin@yellingperformance.com.

A stage sponsor will receive stage branding/naming rights on the website and in runner stage information, acknowledgement on challenge social media output, thanks on the website and general brand love and positivity!

For full information on The Long Run Home, including how to sign up to run a stage or join the beach party at the end, please visit the website www.longrunhome.co.uk.

To find out more about why, read Martin’s latest blog or follow him on Twitter @myelling.

Breathe Unity will be keeping you posted on Martin’s adventure through our website and social media channels.

Dates: July 11th – July 31st 2016

Route: Minehead (Somerset) – South Haven Point, Poole (Dorset)

Map: See below

About Martin

Martin Yelling is a lifelong runner and regular writer and coach for fitness, health and running media. He is the current coaching advisor to Men’s Running magazine and has written for many other national titles and newspapers. He can regularly be seen presenting at running and endurance events including the Virgin Money London Marathon expo. Through his coaching of runners and triathletes of all levels, he is most proud of helping people achieve more than they had previously thought possible.

Martin is the founder of the UK’s no. 1 running podcast Marathon Talk and the New Year digital running challenge Jantastic. He is also co-founder of the Bournemouth Marathon Festival.

If anyone can run The Long Way Home, Martin can! However he will need all the support he can get. There are many different ways to get involved, whether you want to run a stage, sponsor him, sponsor a stage or join him for the final 2-mile stint (yes, the Breathe Unity team will be there with running shoes on!).

We’ll see you there – we can’t wait.