JUST back from running 320 kilometres, Kieron Douglass is already warming up to run backwards for 100 kilometres to raise money for charity.
The 33-year-old ultra runner was joined by fellow Redlander and friend Aaron Longmuir, 34, to take on the 200 mile run in the Nerang State Forest.
The route included an elevation of more than 11,600 metres and had to be completed within 96 hours.
Douglass has done fundraising runs for about five years, helping Queensland Children’s Hospital’s Juiced TV program and taking part in the Channel Nine children’s telethon.
For previous telethons he has run 100 kilometres on a treadmill and 208 and 302 kilometre runs around Brisbane.
This year he will do the 100 kilometre backward run around a track on November 17.
Douglass, a baton bearer for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, said he had loved running for as long as he could remember.
The former Thornlands State School and Cleveland State High School student said he had decided to challenge himself in high school by trying his luck at cross country.
“But it wasn't until later in life my love for distance running blossomed,” Douglass said.
“In 2015 I decided to run from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast raising money for sick kids.
Since then and many kilometres later, there's not a moment that goes by where I'm not thinking about how far I can actually push myself.
“It's all about the challenge and the unknown ability of what I can actually do as a human that excites me.”
Douglass’s grandparents owned a strawberry farm on Double Jump Road after moving from England in the 1960s.
”Passed down to relatives I remember being a little kid running up and down the rows eating strawberries,” he said.
“Many years later I now have my own family, Wife Melanie, Sierra 10, Phoenix 6 and one on the way and we still call the Redlands home, living in Victoria Point.”
Douglass said he loved local trails like Bayview Conservation Park for training.
“Its such a fun playground in there,” he said.
