Oldham teacher to run 14 'extreme' marathons in August

Steve Hill MBE is a deputy headteacher at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Shaw.

The deputy head has travelled all over the world, completing expeditions, as well as marathons and ultramarathons.

He even met the late Queen Elizabeth II and "made her laugh" in a heart-warming moment captured on video when he received his MBE at Buckingham Palace.

Now, Steve has announced his ’14 Marathons Challenge,’ set to take place later this year.

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Over the course of seven days, Steve will run seven marathons coast to coast through the jungles of Costa Rica in central America.

The poster for the event (Image: Steve Hill MBE)

Then, he will fly to Tajikistan via Manchester and do another seven marathons along the Silk Road.

The challenge is to raise money for the Team Hill Charitable Trust, which works to help Oldhamers and Ugandans.

The charity is currently helping to build a school in Uganda.

Steve is set to fly out to Costa Rica on July 31, giving himself a few days to acclimate before the challenge begins on August 5.

The deputy head expects to return from Tajikistan on August 31, giving himself just a few days to recover before school returns on September 4.

While Steve has never visited Costa Rica or Tajikistan before, he does have experience of the jungle environment.

Steve said: “I’ve been in jungles before, I ran through the Amazon jungle in 2017, so I’m pretty familiar with the jungle environment, as tough as it is.

“It is a very brutal environment, very hot and humid. When I did in 2017 the parting message from the race director was ‘be careful out there, jungles are designed to kill,’ so it’s going to be spectacular for sure, but it’s going to be a tough environment.

“Wild river crossings, sleeping in hammocks at night, etc., pretty tough, and I know how I felt at the end of the six marathons at the end of the Amazon jungle, so to get through Costa Rica and then a long flight back to Manchester and then on to Tajikistan, which will be a totally different environment – a very hot, dry environment and at 3,000 metres of altitude, it’ll be tough.

“That’s what I’m looking for, a tough challenge.”

Steve said his interest in the sport comes more from crossing extreme environments, rather than the act of running itself.

Steve has run marathons around the world, including at the North Pole (Image: Steve Hill MBE)

He continued: “In my younger days, I played rugby to a reasonable level. When I stopped playing rugby I wanted to set myself challenges.

“I found as a teacher I was often preaching to the children to get out and follow their dreams, but I wasn’t always practising what I preached.

“So back in 2009 I started on my challenges which have just gone bigger and bigger each year.

“It was initially climbing mountains. I’ve still got a big dream of climbing Everest one day, but it was mountains, trekking through jungles and deserts, and then it led to running.

“Not just running the streets, but some extreme environments. The Mount Everest marathon was my first marathon ever, which led to the North Pole marathon, which then led to ultramarathons in jungles and the Arctic.

“I think once you do start running, you keep pushing the distance and the extreme environments.

“It’s not so much running for me, it’s being in an extreme environment, and crossing that environment independently, self-sufficiently, and the achievement at the end of it to show what’s possible, and I enjoy the journey, I enjoy the mind games.

“You can imagine, when you’ve been out for maybe 18, 19 hours and you’re extremely tired and often hallucinating, the little voices say, ‘come on, enough’s enough,’ and that little voice that keeps saying ‘come on, there’s a reason we started, let’s keep moving forward.’

“It puts a smile on my face, the little mind games. I’ve got every belief in myself that I can do this, it’s about me pushing my boundaries, me having great adventures around the world, but using this to inspire the children I have the great privilege of teaching at St Joseph’s Primary School in Shaw.

“Alongside that, we’ll raise some money for charity too, which is great. So it’s win win win.”