Couple smash target after 600km challenge

A former Belchford resident and her partner have completed a mammoth running challenge to raise over £1,500 for charity.
Beth and Wes in their running gear.Beth and Wes in their running gear.
Beth and Wes in their running gear.

Beth Searby, who moved to Woking, Surrey, at the end of 2017, undertook the challenge with her partner, Wes, throughout June.

It saw them run 10km every day for 30 days, with a total of 600km run between them.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The pair set themselves the colossal task in aid of Changing Faces - a charity that supports people with visible differences, defined as a mark, scar or condition that makes someone look different.

Wes Stone and Beth Searby.Wes Stone and Beth Searby.
Wes Stone and Beth Searby.

The charity is particularly close to the couple’s hearts, as an accident while on holiday in August 2017 left Beth with facial scarring.

A go-karting adventure in the Swiss mountains turned into a nightmare when Beth’s kart flipped, leaving her with a fractured jaw, missing teeth and deep and extensive lacerations to her face.

It left her needing emergency reconstructive surgery and 9 days in Bern’s University Hospital.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She says that completing the challenge has made her ‘immensely proud’.

Beth said: “I still can’t really believe I managed to do it.

“I’ve never been a serious runner by any stretch of the imagination, so I knew it was going to be tough.

“We spent a couple of months practising but I hadn’t run 10km on the trot since 2015, when I did the Lincoln 10k. That feels like a long time ago now!”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Beth said she’s now certain her scars can never hold her back - but her ankles might.

She said: “By the time we were halfway through the challenge they started to be bothersome and by the final week I was in agony.

“Wes and I had been running 10km in 67 minutes pretty consistently, but the times increased significantly during that final week.”

Beth and Wes managed the pain with daily ice baths.

The pair’s original target had been £1000, which they have smashed to raise £1,540.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Beth said: “I was pretty sure we’d have to do more than just the running to reach the target.

“We’d been trying to think up more challenges to set ourselves, but we’ve just been overwhelmed by how generous everyone has been.

“It made such a difference to our motivation to know how many people were backing us, so we can’t thank our donors enough.”

Related topics: