Kevin Sinfield says Rob Burrow will be in his thoughts throughout his latest gruelling charity challenge, as he prepares to run seven ultramarathons across seven cities in seven successive days.
The England rugby union coach sets off on Sunday for his fifth annual fundraiser for motor neurone disease causes.
And Sinfield admits this year’s challenge will be especially emotional as it is his first since his former Leeds Rhinos team-mate and great friend Burrow died of MND in June.
‘Rob has been a part of the first four and to not have him around this time is pretty tough,’ said the 44-year-old, who will again run in a No7 jersey, the number famously worn by Burrow during his Rhinos career.
‘I won’t be getting his nightly text messages and I will miss his humour. I miss him every day. But clearly, he would want us to continue this fight and it is important we do.
‘We have lost a great man, but he wouldn’t want us to be dwelling on this. He’d want us to rip into this and have a smile on our face and try and do him justice, which is what he intend to do.
Kevin Sinfield is preparing to run seven ultramarathons across seven cities in seven successive days
Sinfield says Rob Burrow (left) will be in his thoughts throughout the challenge as sets off on Sunday for his fifth annual fundraiser for motor neurone disease causes
‘We will share a lot of stories about him, we will laugh about him and I have no doubt he will be with us in spirit. I will certainly think of him most steps of the way along this route.
‘This was only put together right at the start because we were doing a little run for our little mate. Things have changed since then but I will never go away from why it was set up.
‘We will wear that No7 again and it means a lot that we will represent Rob and the Burrow family in the right way.’
Sinfield’s ‘running home for Christmas’ challenge starts in Liverpool and then takes him to Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, before returning to England and finishing in his home town of Saddleworth on December 7.
He will run more than 30 miles each day and will break each ultramarathon into hour-long 7km legs, a further nod to Burrow’s number.
‘My expectation is that it will be the toughest one yet,’ admitted Sinfield, who has been getting as little as two hours sleep a night as he has tried to juggle training along with his England job and a speaking tour.
‘They don’t get any easier. There are some unknown problems with the stop and start and I am not getting any younger.
‘The training has been brutal. I run all year, but the last 11 weeks have been really, really difficult. They have needed to be because I can’t expect to turn up on the start line and just be able to run it.
‘People think at times that you are superhuman but that is far, far from what this is. I have got to work really hard.
Sinfield admits this year’s challenge will be especially emotional as it is his first since his former Leeds Rhinos team-mate and great friend Burrow died of MND in June
Sinfield’s ‘running home for Christmas’ challenge starts in Liverpool and then takes him to Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, before returning to England
‘I hate running. I was not a cross-country runner at school. I played a sport that was based around intervals and I am asthmatic. If you put all that together, it is not a great combination.
‘This is going to be a scrap. I will be nervous and worried about not completing. Something will go wrong at some point and can we be good enough and tough enough to fight through it and ensure we get this done?
‘The team will have to draw on every ounce of support we get and use that in the right way to fuel us – and at the forefront of that will be the Burrow family and Rob.’
Sinfield has already raised almost £10million for MND charities from his four challenges to date.
Sinfield and Burrow previously starred alongside each other in Rugby League for Leeds Rhinos
He previously said his third fundraiser in 2022 would be his last – but he now wants to keep going until 2026.
‘The plan is to do two more after this one, if we get through this unscathed,’ added Sinfield. ‘I would love for us to do seven given this has all been built around the number seven.
‘It feels like a great place to then move on to a different way of fundraising.
‘I will never stop fundraising for MND. We will just try and find a different way of doing it. It will be time to find seven of something else.’
