In a 30-second video featuring Kenyan running legend Wilson Kipsang – who smashed the Marathon World Record at Berlin in 2013 – record-breaking ultra runners Adam Holland and Rob Young urge people everywhere to join them for next month’s nationwide Run4Peace 2016 (http://www.run4peace.co.uk), a torch relay which will cover 1,000km in just ten days (ten 10km runs each day).

Young, aka ‘Marathon Man UK’, has claimed the World record for the most marathons in a year (370) and the longest run without sleep (373.75 miles). “I would like to invite everyone in the UK to sign up for the Run for Peace,” he says in the video.

“Run for peace and save many lives,” adds Wilson Kipsang. He is seen with Rob and Adam holding the relay torch, which he first helped to light and carry 500 miles across Kenya’s conflict-affected North Rift Valley last year during a ‘Walk for Peace’ by some of the World’s top athletes.

Lone torch-bearer

“Sign up now,” says Adam Holland, “for a 10k you’ll never forget.” The only athlete set to complete all 1,000km, he will be joined by Young for the first 100km on Day One and the final 100km on Day Ten.

For 800km around the country – from Northampton to Oxford via Nottingham, Newark (his hometown), Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol (among many other locations) – Adam Holland will run alone with the torch, but for members of the public who sign up to run 10km segments with him at http://run4peace.co.uk/join. Everyone who does so will get a medal and a T-shirt.

A previous holder of the World record for the fastest ten marathons in ten days, Holland aims to reclaim it by 4th December during a record attempt he is also undertaking for the cause.

All sponsorship raised will help UK-based charity the Aegis Trust to establish a school for peace in northern Kenya. It is the birthplace of some of the World’s greatest distance-running stars, yet ethnic violence there has left more than 600 people dead and driven over 435,000 from their homes since 2014. Now, however, this relay is bringing hope for a life-saving difference on the ground through a successful model for peace education developed by the Aegis Trust in Rwanda (see https://youtu.be/QvQgwVKAvu4).

The event is being supported by athletics retailer Up & Running, which has stores nationwide, and by the White Rose, whose recycled fashion boutiques in Nottingham and Newark contribute to the Aegis Trust’s work. For additional sponsorship opportunities, businesses can email torchrelay@aegistrust.org.

To take part, runners can pick a 10km segment and sign up via an interactive map showing the route of the relay on http://run4peace.co.uk/join.