Gareth's incredible 100,000 step challenge

Gareth Mason works for Brooks Macdonald who are celebrating 30 years in the business this year by supporting the Trust through a series of fundraising activities over the next twelve months. For many people, walking 10,000 steps in one day is enough of a target, but in order to support the Trust, Gareth set himself the amazing challenge of completing 100,000 steps in one day. 46 miles, 17 hours and lots of flapjacks later, we caught up with Gareth to hear more about his challenge. 

I wanted to do something to really push myself on top of the Survival Island challenge I’d signed up for with the Trust and someone I follow on YouTube had done this challenge. I thought it was something I could do, but also something that would push me well outside of my comfort zone! 

I started my day at 4.30 in the morning and didn’t finish til nearly 10pm in the evening. Highs were definitely starting in the morning when everything was very peaceful in the dark and as I started I could hear the birds chirping in the trees. Seeing lamas and alpacas on the way was awesome but as expected the lows came towards the end when every step was extremely painful. The additional motivation I needed to get me through was the knowledge of how important my fund raising was to such a good cause and being able to let everyone know I had done it, failure wasn’t an option. 

At about 70,000 steps I had to walk up a flight of eight stairs to take a toilet break which was incredibly difficult, but luckily, I could still see the funny side at that point! 

Fuelling was a challenge as I burnt over 5,500 calories during my day. I had 5 bananas, 10 flapjacks, 3 trek bars, 2 MacDonald’s trips and a doughnut visit, I also had some overnight oats for breakfast before starting in the morning. On top of that I had energy tablets in my water bottles as well as energy gels and tablets. When I finally pressed stop after completing my 100,000th step I’d walked 46.1 miles. 

The overriding feeling at the end was massive satisfaction that I didn’t need to walk another step. This was by far the most challenging thing I’ve ever done and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to challenge themselves both mentally and physically, you can be the strongest person in the world physically and fail this challenge, which makes this so unique. 

Everyone at the Trust sends a huge thank you to Gareth for completing his amazing challenge, his current total stands at time of writing at over £900 and if you wish to support him you can sponsor Gareth here. We'll also be catching up with Gareth as he tackles Survival Island for the Trust later in the year. If Gareth's story has inspired you, we'd love for you to sign up to the Starting Blocks Challenge and #gobacktogiveback.