Fresh from his warm up at the Hinson Lake 24 hour race, Mike Melton is heading back out on the road in his longest multiday challenge to date – a 191 mile solo run from Clearwater to Daytona Beach as special entrant in the Florida Ragnar Relay race. Mike will be raising money for WPSL Christmas Kids charity. Action commences at 8 am on 18th of November and he hopes to reach the East Coast of Florida in 80 hours.
Melton is running for a better Christmas for Treasure Coast children. He’s asking the community to pledge donations towards the WPSL Christmas Kids charity, a St. Lucie County-based organization that provides toys for local kids at the holidays.
“With the local economy still in distress, this will be a sad Christmas season for lots of families,” Melton said. “If I can help provide just a few kids with a better Christmas, then we’ve all done a good thing. If someone donates a dime a mile, then that’s twenty dollars more towards making some child happy on Christmas morning.”
Mike said “”Taking on the challenge of running across the state is something I’ve done twice before, and I succeeded once. This course will be the longest distance I’ve ever run, and I’m looking forward to having fun and helping out my community at the same time.”
No stranger to ultrarunning, Melton’s also run in many other ultramarathons, races that are longer than a standard 26.2-mile marathon. He’s completed seven 100-mile races, as well as numerous 50K (31 miles), 50-mile, and 100K (62 miles) events. He’s also run in five 24-hour events, two 48-hour races, and three 72-hour events – races where the winner is the person who covers the most miles in the allotted time frame.
“I’ve run more than 100 miles in 24 hours three times, with a personal best of 103.4 miles,” Melton said. “My best 48-hour is 140.6 miles, and I’ve finished 183 miles in 72 hours.
Melton ran the 35-mile Laurel Valley race in August in the Appalachian mountains in South Carolina, then ran in the Hinson Lake 24-Hour race in Rockingham NC in September, followed a week later by a finish in the Great Eastern Endurance Run 100K held in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Waynesboro VA. His most recent race was the John Holmes 50K held in mid-October in the Withlacootchie Forest outside of Brooksville, about an hour north of Tampa.
For more information or to make a donation, please contact Melton or visit the WPSL Christmas Kids website at www.wpsl.com/
Interested in a 6-12 person team challenge? Then mosey on over to the Ragnar Relay website and sign up for some relay fun.
Be the first to comment