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Jamie’s not backwards in coming forward! Superfit dad set for 100-mile running challenge

Superfit Jamie Alderton isn’t backwards in coming forward. In the nicest possible way. And it’s a good job really. For the gym owner and fitness expert is stepping up his training to run a staggering 100 miles in 24 hours. But observers are saying he is going the around way about things…because he is doing backwards!

Jamie, who from is from Bognor Regis and runs Grenade Fit gym in Chichester, is putting his best foot backwards to raise funds for Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice.

Former military serviceman Jamie is no stranger to helping raise cash for deserving causes. The muscle-bound dad-of-one did a gruelling 24-hour sled push for Chichester’s St Wilfrid’s Hospice last November and helped boost their coffers to the tune of some £12,000.

Now he is ready to push his body once more all in a good cause, and the target this time is £15,000 once he has taken on the 100-mile challenge at Loughborough University on August 24. And while some people may think Jamie is in for a tough test to run backwards for any distance and any length of time, let alone for the duration he is attempting, he already has experience of the demand.

He said: “I want to do something nobody else has done and do it to help a deserving cause. I have done a 5k race backwards before and actually beat six people. I can run backwards better than some people can run forwards so why not?”

If Jamie succeeds he will set a new world record and will gain entry to the Guinness Book of World Records.

And in the meantime, Jamie has told visitors to a Felpham park who see him running not to be too concerned, adding with a smile: “If you see a man running backwards around King George V playing fields that will be me!”

*Chestnut Tree House is the children’s hospice for East and West Sussex, Brighton and Hove and South East Hampshire and cares for 300 children and young adults from 0-19 years of age with progressive life-shortening conditions.

Pictured: Jamie with daughter Elyza, three

Carl Eldridge
Carl Eldridge
Carl Eldridge is a hugely experienced journalist who has worked on local and national newspapers, magazines and written for websites over the past 30 years. He lives in Bognor Regis with his wife and son.