Kevin has already raised more than £16m for Motor Neurone Disease charities(Image: PA)

Rugby hero Kevin Sinfield admits he 'hates running' ahead of latest 230-mile challenge

Kevin will complete seven 50km ultra marathons in seven days, in memory of his friend and teammate Rob Burrow, who died from Motor Neurone Disease in June

by · The Mirror

Rugby hero Kevin Sinfield admits his latest 230-mile fundraising challenge will be his toughest yet because he 'hates running'.

Kevin, 44, will complete seven 50km (32 mile) ultra marathons in seven days across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The 'Running Home for Christmas ' charity event begins this Sunday (Dec 1) in Liverpool with 8,200 runners dressed as Santa.

The entire challenge is again in memory of his friend Rob Burrow, who died from Motor Neurone Disease in June.

Kevin told how he would be thinking of Rob, his widow Lindsey and their family, as well as his own wife and kids, as he faces his toughest moments.

Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrow were very close friends( Image: Getty Images)

The last leg will see the inspirational England coach going home to Saddleworth.....with another 3,000 Santas joining him for the grand finale. It is his fifth annual challenge, having already raised more than £16m for MND families alongside Rob.

In 2023, he famously carried his former Leeds Rhinos team mate over the finishing line of the Rob Burrow marathon event. For his 5th epic fundraising challenge, Kevin has combined a speaking tour with his duties as England coach, and a punishing training regime.

And this year has the added dimension of long coach journeys between venues, and two flights, one from the UK to Belfast, then from Belfast to Scotland.

"This has the potential to be the most emotional," Kevin said today. "We will be thinking of so many people along the way, of Rob, Doddie Weir up in Scotland, Anto Finnegan in Belfast, Syd Lawrence in Bristol, and Stephen Darby in Liverpool.

England coach Kevin Sinfield( Image: The RFU Collection via Getty Ima)

"I miss Rob very day. I know Rob would want us to continue this fight, we want to represent him and his family, he will be forever in our thoughts, we want to do him justice, with a smile on our faces.

"He would absolutely want us to rip into it and that is what we will do. I know he would want us to smash it. Wherever we had been this year, I know Rob would have been there. I will miss his texts every evening along the way."

Talking about getting ready for the physical demands of next week, Kevin added: "They don't get any easier, the training has been brutal, that's the bit people don't see, I run all year but the last 11 and a half weeks have been really really difficult.

"I have to work really hard, people think you are superhuman, but I am far from that. I hate running, I don't even like running, I was not a cross country runner at school, I played a sport based around intervals and I am asthmatic so it is not a great combination.

"This is going to be a scrap.

"You always face something along the way that you are not expecting, where something goes wrong and you have to be ready, can you be good enough or tough enough to fight through it?

"You have to make sure you can get this done."

Each leg is broken down into 7km (4.3 mile) blocks which Kevin has to complete inside an hour before the next block starts on the hour.

The breaks will give him the chance to talk to members of families whose lives have been touched by MND. On each day, he will host an Extra Mile event when invited supporters will join him for four laps of an athletics track

The aim this year is to raise £777,777 but it is also about 'giving a voice to the MND community'.

Rob Burrow died at the age of 41, four and a half years after being diagnosed with the degenerative disease. His 17-year career in his now famous No 7 shirt included winning eight Super League Grand Finals, three World Club Challenges and two Challenge Cups.

Kevin and his team will be wearing the No 7 on their backs and he said: "I think we will do seven of these events so I have two more to go. Seven has always been associated with Rob, so it feels right somehow.

"I don't think that I will ever stop fundraising, and I don't think that the team will stop either. But it may be that we find a different way after we have done the seventh challenge."

Rob's MND diagnosis came two years after he retired from the sport, when he threw himself into a campaign to raise awareness of the condition and help raise funds to find a cure.

Kevin played 521 times for the Rhinos, and won 14 caps for Great Britain before he became a coach with England's rugby union team.

The full list of destinations and dates for the routes, with details of sports people past and present from the MND community who will be celebrated along the way:

1 st December – Liverpool to Wrexham (Stephen Darby – Liverpool player who played under Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson at Bradford and Bolton)

2 nd December – Gloucester to Bristol (Ed Slater – Gloucester rugby player, Marcus Stewart – Bristol Rovers footballer, Syd Lawrence – Gloucestershire and England cricketer)

3 rd December – Belfast – (Anto Finnegan – Antrim GAA footballer)

4 th December – Glasgow (Fernando Ricksen – Rangers, Jimmy Johnstone – Celtic, Don McVicar – Partick Thistle, Doddie Weir and Joost van der Westhuizen – Rugby Union, Joost played with Glasgow Warriors Head Coach Franco Smith)

5 th December – Beverley to Hull – (Rob Burrow and Adam Maher – ex-Hull FC)

6 th December – Northampton to Leicester – (Ed Slater – Leicester Tigers player, Don Revie – Leicester City footballer)

7 th December – Salford to Saddleworth (via Manchester and Oldham) – Len Johnrose – footballer, Mike Gregory and Paul Darbyshire – Rugby League)