Nicky Balbuena and Paul Tinkler take on 500km challenge for Diabetes Gibraltar

The timing of the challenge has been carefully arranged to finish on 21 June, giving them a narrow four-day recovery window before travelling to the UK for a field gun competition in Portsmouth in early July.

Nicky Balbuena and Paul Tinkler are in the middle of a grueling 500 kilometre running challenge to raise funds for Diabetes Gibraltar, the men are balancing demanding shifts, family life and training for a separate UK competition, all while clocking up increasing daily distances on Gibraltar’s roads.

The challenge, adapted from an existing 496km format, sees the runners complete a distance each day corresponding to the date. This means they run 1km on day one, 2km on day two, and so on, however, as they wanted to round the figure up to 500km they added an extra four kilometres over the first four days, building up to a cumulative total of 500km over 31 days.

“It’s not something new or I’ve come up with,” said Mr Tinkler.

“I wanted to do it just as a personal challenge, and I thought of asking friends if they would want to join me. Most of them said no. Nicky was the only one that piped up and said yes.”

Although the challenge began as a personal test of endurance, he decided that he would do it for charity too.

“Then I approached Nick… I said, if there is a charity that you know, so we don’t do it for nothing. As his daughter [Hayden] is diabetic, we did it for Diabetes Gibraltar.”

Mr Balbuena said, “Through my daughter Hayden I have seen firsthand the daily struggles people with diabetes endure every single day and that is the exact reason why I have accepted this challenge to stress myself mentally, physically and emotionally.”

Mr Balbuena has previous fundraising experience, including the Dolomites 55km challenge.

“I decided to do this for Diabetes Gibraltar, because I rather do it for a charity as it keeps me accountable,” he said.

“And doing it for Diabetes Gibraltar because that affects me because of my daughter.”

The duo, who are also heavily supported by Matt Coultard who is taking on as much of the challenge he can given an injury he is suffering, set an initial fundraising target of £1,000, which has already been surpassed.

“We had the goal of £1000 and we’ve reached now over 1000 so I’ve increased the goal to 1600 and see how it goes from there,” said Mr Balbuena.

Both runners admit they are uncomfortable asking people for money but they hope the cause will continue to draw support.

“I don’t like asking for money, that’s why I hardly do anything for charities,” said Mr Tinkler.

“It’s more a self-goal for me, but again I thought it was a waste of time not to link it to a cause.”

The pair are not only taking on the 500km challenge but are also training for a field gun competition in Portsmouth in early July. Both serve as reservists with the Royal Gibraltar Regiment.

The timing of the challenge has been carefully arranged to finish on 21 June, giving them a narrow four-day recovery window before travelling to the UK.

Mr Tinkler is a firefighter and talked about the reality of fitting the runs around shift work and overtime at the fire station:

“I was on shift yesterday, and my plan was to run after shift at 5 o’clock. Then I was asked to stay overtime, so then I had to run at work on the treadmill,” he said.

“And then my next schedule, I thought, you know what, I’m staying overtime, I finish tomorrow morning, 8 o’clock, I’m going to do it then. Then we get a call at 6.30 for that fire in Spa Plaza,” he added meaning he no longer was finishing at 8 but later and still had to do his run before he returned on shift later that day.

Both runners say the physical strain is increasing steadily, but for now, the main difficulty is time management especially as the weather heats up.

“Although I feel tired now I think the last 11 days are going to be the hardest, because you’re effectively doing half marathon plus every day consecutively,” said Mr Tinkler.

Nicky also has to deal with shifts and long days.

“I work 10-and-a-half hour shifts, irregular shifts as well. So it’s the same thing, it’s finding the time to do it. The more it’s going to go up, like in the last 10 days, it’s going to be harder,” he said.

As the distances grow longer towards the final week, both runners said support will become as important as physical preparation.

“When it comes to the 20k plus, I want to have people running alongside,” said Mr Tinkler.

“It’s not so much the physical, it’s more the mental, because it’s just long and it’s boring.”

“If you’ve got someone there talking with you, time flies.”

They are encouraging friends, fellow reservists, firefighters and members of local running groups to join them for sections of the daily runs, even just for 5km.

The pair coordinate their outings via social media and private groups, announcing time and location the day before, subject to their shift patterns.

Mr Balbuena said Diabetes Gibraltar has welcomed and backed the initiative from the outset.

“They’re very proud of it. They’re happy with it, because I approached them before to do my GoFundMe page, and obviously they were up for it… They will support me as much as they can as well,” he said.

To donate go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/diabetes-gibraltar