Running across Iceland for Eli & Bristol Children's Hospital

Hello everyone,

I will be running over 300 miles / 500 kilometers across the whole of Iceland from the most Southern point to the most Northern point between the 18th - 25th of June 2025. I will be crossing over mountains, running past volcanoes, crossing ice cold rivers and enduring as best I can in one of Europe's biggest and most remote deserts. I will be attempting to break the world record for the fastest ever time of this run aiming for 6 days or less to break the record.

I would love to raise money for two causes which are split 50:50 - one chosen by myself as the runner, and another from my trainer / support member Ed who always volunteers his time without hesitation to help and will be supporting me over in Iceland when needed.

These two causes are:

1) A memorial bench for my friend Eli Sweeting who went missing in the mountains of New Zealand

2) The Bristol Children's hospital charity, the grand appeal

More information about these causes:

1) Eli was a good friend of mine for a number of years, if you know me you have likely heard of the extreme challenges I have undertaken over the years, whether this is traversing through the Arctic circle in the middle of winter, breaking the sound barrier with a rocket, building a 17 foot canoe and driving it to Italy or as an ultrarunner. I have rarely talked about why I do these things. I wanted to let you know one of the main contributions is from positive inspirations I have had from people when I was younger. Eli was most definitely a key one of these, he just seemed so full of life and willing to give his all to whatever he set his mind too.

One of my favourite memories was watching a thunderstorm from out the window from within my nice warm cozy house. All of a sudden I get a phone call from him, thinking something was wrong I picked it up straight away to the always cheerful voice. I can't remember exactly what was said but it ended up with me during the storm, lighting and all being invited to go swimming in a local Marina to test out Eli's self recovery techniques - meaning he was going to be intentionally flipping his Kayak while inside. With no experience in this at all he trusted me to flip him over if he couldn't self right himself. It wasn't long and before I knew it he was upside down somewhere in the water and I was trying my best to count seconds accurately to know when to flip him if he couldn't self right so he wouldn't drown. I remember all the other people walking past under their umbrellas looking on wondering what on earth we were doing. The part that inspired me the most was just how happy and free he was when he surfaced. That was the type of person Eli was.

Lots of other great memories include him throwing up exactly at the strike of midnight on New year's eve after a night of partying a bit too much! When he climbed a load of scaffolding on a night out just to see the view at the top. And all the lovely memories from a holiday in Croatia with friends.

He unfortunately went missing a month ago after attempting to solo climb up a mountain in the South Island of new Zealand. Having lived in New Zealand myself I know exactly why he attempted this. It is a beautiful and free location filled with many fun challenges that would have put another one of those smiles on his face.

I hope that one day he'll be able to read all this. I hope that this may help people to remember a good friend.

I would love to raise funds to purchase a lovely bench in his name and his family are in the process of choosing the location for this to go

2) Raising money for: The Grand Appeal (the official Bristol Children’s Hospital charity)

From Ed:

"What they do: From helping staff, patients or their families, they put Bristol Children’s Hospital at the heart of everything they do (Medical research, Equipment, Music, play and art therapy, Art enhancements, The Grand Appeal’s Patient Hotel, Family accommodation)

Why: the Bristol Children’s Hospital saved our daughter's life a couple of times in 2024, and supported her on the ward for a month. The care was exceptional, and it was the extra effort from everybody that made the difference. Maybe we can make the difference for somebody else's kid."

Transparency behind this fundraising:

All (100%) of the funds raised will be split 50:50 between these two causes.

The part for the memorial bench will go towards purchasing the bench and installation costs, if there is any extra over these costs it will go towards a nicer bench or extra memorial items. I will update this with all the receipts. I will add whatever else is required if we do not raise enough. If we do raise enough I will add £200 on top of the total fundraised for this part.

The part for the Bristol Children's hospital charity will be donated in full to them. A donation receipt will be added too.

The Iceland run has already been fully funded by myself and my trainer and as some people have asked I request no contributions towards this, I wish for all the funds to go towards these causes.

How to follow me:

You can follow along on the run live depending on satellite coverage here (between June 18th and 25th)

https://share.garmin.com/Icelandrun

There will also be updates posted from mine and Eds families back home on the shared dedicated Instagram page here:

https://www.instagram.com/running.with.elliot?igsh=NHpnN3lmZ2RsbnBt

And on the Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577235688733

I will be making a YouTube video afterwards covering my past, my training for this event, the event itself and a few interviews from people that know me best and I will update when this is posted.

I wanted to take the time to thank you all very very much for any value donation it means a lot, I am available on Facebook if you had any questions. Due to the remote nature of Iceland updates may be delayed or impossible to post however we will try our best to keep you all in the loop!

Best wishes and I hope to inspire you to stop reading this and get out there and live!

Elliot