An 11-year-old Scottish boy determined to break the record for most consecutive days in a row is preparing to complete his very first year… but won't be able to achieve his goal until he's 62.
“We never pressured him into it and I wish he had taken a day off, but he is really committed. When we went skiing in the Alps I thought the challenge was over, but no, he managed to ski on roads free of snow and ice,” his mother Claire Jellema, 40, told the BBC on Wednesday.
Since January last year, Seb Jellema has been putting on his shoes no matter the weather to run at least three kilometers every day to ensure that he doesn't miss his appointment even if he is sick.
Because the determined boy took on the challenge of breaking the record for consecutive days of racing, currently held by runner Ron Hill, who died in 2021, who, according to British media, would have run for 52 years and 59 days without missing a day.
The man who began running at least a mile a day on December 20, 1964, decided to close the chapter on January 31, 2017, at the age of 78.
“I started 16 years before Ron and I hope it will be possible to break his record. I have a dream. The hardest part so far was when I got sick in November and had to get up to run,” said the young athlete, who is named after Olympian Baron Sebastian Coe.
Even on vacation or school trips, the boy never missed a day and on a few occasions even took his scout leader and one of his teachers with him, like the one who currently holds the record for allegedly defying doctors' orders after he retired in 1993 suffered serious injuries in a head-on collision.
“When my mother and wife went out to do the weekly shopping, I quickly ran to a nearby flat stretch of road, ran 800 meters there and 800 meters back and sat back in the chair before they returned,” he said. according to BBC.
So far, young Seb has already covered 13,000 km – including 24 km for his birthday – and plans to keep up the pace until at least 2075, when he turns 62.