10km a day for Capuchin Day Centre (2023 edition)
In 2021, I decided to run 10km a day every day in January to raise money for the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin 7. You can see how that went here. I did this out of a sense of outrage at the conditions for rough sleepers and an urgency about helping a charity who help to provide some small solace to those affected by homelessness, poverty or other disenfranchising factors.
In 2023, the same issues regarding all of these scenarios have only gotten worse. Homeless figures are at an all-time high, cost-of-living increases continue to squeeze those who can least afford it and there's a real sense of doom and gloom about any solutions to these, short-term or otherwise, appearing out of the aether.
My goal is to run 10km per day, every day, for the month of December 2023 - and to raise money which will be donated to the Capuchin Day Centre. There's a number of factors behind this choice:
- The Capuchin Day Centre does sterling work ensuring that people get fed and making sure that these people feel human, wanted and valued. This is an exceptional service to provide on many levels and one I feel particularly passionate about.
- Running in winter is not the most pleasant experience but this small discomfort I take upon myself is nothing compared to the very real hardships that are being endured by thousands of people across Ireland.
- Running outside through Dublins inner city and suburbs means being confronted with some of the more prominent examples of individuals and families having to live and sleep rough. It should not be possible to ignore this situation so I intend to face it directly.
- Doing this challenge in December instead of January (as I did before) is meant to exacerbate this even more slightly. As a general rule, there's far more of a party atmosphere in December and it's in January that people begin their (ironically) monastic time of solitude, frugality and detox. Being able to commit to a daily routine of exercise then is actually far more in keeping with the general sentiment across certain sections of society. Having to interleave it into this more festive time of year will provide a bigger challenge (and hopefully increase my suffering a little).
- I am feeling incredibly unfit after 2023 and this is providing a motivation for me to pull the finger out and try to get back to a decent level of fitness. I ran a marathon in April 2022 and it's been all downhill from there.
I'll be documenting my progress on Twitter here, so feel free to follow me there for updates!
Organizer
Lorcan O'Neill
Organizer
The Capuchin Day Centre
Beneficiary