IT MAY be hilly all the time. It may be cold, wet and windy a lot of the time, but Saddleworth’s warmth has given Kevin Sinfield a healthy glow.
The Grasscroft native starts his latest physical challenge to raise funds for and awareness of motor neurone disease charities on Monday, December 1.
7 in 7: Together will add to the most than £10 million that has been contributed in the name of former Leeds Rhinos team-mate and friend Rob Burrow.
After starting way back in 2020 from the car park opposite the Farrars Arms pub, with the initial target of £77,777, challenge number five ended at the same place last year.
Now he and his team is heading out on the road again for number six of seven – seven ultra marathons, including an Extra Mile event, that will see them complete 230 miles by the finish.
And the area he calls home has already played its part.
Sinfield said: “I love running around Saddleworth.
“It’s my home and I think people are used to seeing me out running now and beeping their horn or giving me a wave.
“There’s always plenty of support there so yeah, it’s a great place for me to run.
“And it’s hilly, plus for most days of the year it’s wet and windy, so it’s good preparation.”
Rugby league legend Sinfield, who is now skills and kicking coach of England’s rugby union team, insists he is fully fit ahead of the start in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Work commitments mean he has been largely in London for the last month, but pounding the Saddleworth streets beforehand served him well – for the weather as much as the miles ahead.
“I’ve not been out locally not very much in the last month because I’ve been in London for the vast majority of it,” he added on Monday, November 24. “But up until that point probably five or six days a week I’ve been out on the roads.
“It’s a big commitment and it takes a lot of discipline to keep at it and still try and juggle a job and a family.
“I’m not a professional athlete and haven’t been for some time and I think sometimes that’s lost because it’s almost 10 years now since I finished playing, so I’m juggling like most other people are and trying to make the best of it.
“Like most people, when you look outside and it’s chucking it down, it’s freezing and it’s windy, the last thing most people want to do is go out and run.
“But clearly, at the time of year we do it we expect poor weather conditions.
“Part of the reason we do it this time of year is because it is poor weather conditions and we like to think people will feel a bit sorry for us and donate a little bit more, plus there’s a little bit of that Christmas feel.
“But certainly training can be pretty brutal throughout the autumn and winter months as it’s got considerably colder and certainly the last couple of days have been very wet.”
Burrow may no longer here to support Sinfield after he passed away in June 2024 after living with MND for four-and-a-half years.
But the ethos is the same as when he started in 2020 – doing it for a mate.
Sinfield continued as he also heads to Ireland, Wales, South Yorkshire, Cumbria and Scotland before finishing at the stadium he and Burrow are icons, Leeds Rhinos’ AMT Headingley: “It’s been our strapline from when we started and Rob is still front and centre.
“Like all of us when we lose people, you hold on to your fond memories. It’s not unusual for me to be out running, to look at my watch and it have all the sevens on it, or to see a registration plate that’s got three sevens on it.
“There’s stuff like that that happens to me all the time and they are nice memories to have.
“As tough as it is him not being here, it’s also really, really powerful what he’s left behind.
“I can’t think about him the whole week because I’d just be blubbing wreck, but certainly in the tough moments, I’ll think of him and he’ll drive us on.
“Rob just laughed, he thought we were crazy. He’d be sat at home drinking a nice hot cup of coffee, laughing at us.
“I love the fact he found it hilarious that we were out running in the cold, wet and wind and he was sat at home.
“But I do know this. If it had been any one of our team-mates, he’d have been out there running with us too.
“Although he’s not with us anymore, he certainly is in spirit and we represent the full MND community, especially those we’ve lost along the way.
“Families come out and support us and play a part – the best part has always been around pulling MND families together and making them feel loved, important and supported.”
*YOU Can donate to Kevin Sinfield’s 7 in 7: Together challenge by clicking https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/kevin-sinfield-7-in-7-together-challenge.
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