{"id":415776,"date":"2026-01-16T00:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/415776\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T00:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:56:16","slug":"twenty-four-parkruns-in-24-hours-no-sweat-for-albany-runner-ben-castlehow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/415776\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-four parkruns in 24 hours no sweat for Albany runner Ben Castlehow"},"content":{"rendered":"

A West Australian parkrunner has run the equivalent of three marathons, completing 24 parkruns in 24 hours and raising thousands for charity in the process.<\/p>\n

Parkrun events are held every Saturday morning in communities around the world, with participants walking or running 5 kilometres.<\/p>\n

While generally focused on community building and fitness, Albany’s course is known as a challenge, covering a hilly run up the city’s landmark Mount Clarence.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The Mount Clarence parkrun contains some steep stretches. (Supplied: Brad Harkup Photography)<\/p>\n

Ben Castlehow said before taking on the 120km challenge last weekend, running the course 24 times, the furthest he had run was 85km.<\/p>\n

“We went out on the hour every hour \u2014 [we] started at 8am in the morning [on Saturday] with the Mount Clarence parkrun,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And then continued on each hour and then finished up at 8am on Sunday.”<\/p>\n

Dozens of runners completed various distances during the event, but only one other person completed the full 24 alongside Mr Castlehow.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Runners continued to slog their way around the route each hour through the night. (Supplied: Ben Castlehow)<\/p>\n

Running for a purpose<\/p>\n

Mr Castlehow used the challenge as an opportunity to raise funds for the charity On My Feet, which helps people experiencing homelessness achieve long-term self-sufficiency.<\/p>\n

“About eight years ago I left Albany due to poor decisions of mine, addiction being the main one, and that made me homeless,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I was introduced to On My Feet while I was in Perth, and they helped me to regain my life back.”\"A<\/p>\n

Runners travelled to Albany to be part of the event. (Supplied: Ben Castlehow)<\/p>\n

Running has been a part of his life since then.<\/p>\n

“Committing that time to myself, it clears my head,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It just gives those good endorphins that your body needs to sort of calm yourself down.”<\/p>\n

Marathon effort<\/p>\n

Among the runners was 12-year-old Jackson Beeck, who does the Mount Clarence parkrun most Saturdays.<\/p>\n

During the weekend, he completed the parkrun course enough times to equal the marathon distance of 42.2km.<\/p>\n

“The first half was pretty easy and then it just got worse from there,” Jackson said.<\/p>\n

“My hips and legs were hurting a bit.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jackson Beeck (back right) ran the equivalent of a marathon over the event. (Supplied: Ben Castlehow\u00a0)<\/p>\n

It was more than four times his previous longest run.<\/p>\n

“I just really wanted to complete a marathon, so I thought I would just keep going and try my best,” he said.<\/p>\n

Jackson usually plays the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana while running, but after leaving his headphones at home on Saturday that was not an option.<\/p>\n

Running around the place<\/p>\n

Runners around Australia have challenged themselves to run 24 parkruns in 24 hours<\/a> in the past.<\/p>\n

And last weekend, a similar event was taking place about 300km away in the state’s South West.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Keeton Hardwick\u00a0completed the 24 parkruns in 24 hours in Bunbury. (Supplied: Keeton Hardwick)<\/p>\n

Keeton Hardwick ran a gruelling 24 laps around Big Swamp in Bunbury.<\/p>\n

Mr Hardwick said it was a huge challenge that tested him both physically and mentally.<\/p>\n

“It’s a long way and it’s never easy; staying on top of hydration and getting enough calories into you is challenging,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Physically it gets to a point where everything hurts more and you have to push though.<\/p>\n

“[In] the middle of the night I started to get a little impatient \u2014 my hardest was lap 23.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mr Hardwick took on the challenge to raise money for the Type 1 Diabetes Family Centre in Perth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A West Australian parkrunner has run the equivalent of three marathons, completing 24 parkruns in 24 hours and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[29947,219426,64,63,219427,7694,219428,219425,219429,2434,85,22410,45],"class_list":["post-415776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-albany-news","tag-albany-parkrun","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-castlehow","tag-homelessness","tag-on-my-feet-charity","tag-park-run","tag-parkrun","tag-running","tag-sports","tag-support","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}