Daniel Bartlett is getting ready to run five kilometres every five hours for five days, which amounts to more than a half marathon a day on average.
The Cooks Hill resident, who will begin the series of runs on Wednesday at 6am, said it would be the biggest challenge of his life.
The idea emerged from his regular three-kilometre run along the Bar Beach to Merewether stretch.
"I was listening to an audiobook, Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins," Daniel, 31, said.
"One day, I ran 22 kilometres on the sand in under two hours."
He began to think he wanted to "do something that will inspire people and challenge myself".
"I looked up running challenges. David Goggins did four miles every four hours in 48 hours. I'm into spirituality and I kept seeing the numbers 555, so I thought every five hours I'll run five kilometres for five days."
He expects the challenge to be a massive physical and mental test.
"I've struggled with mental health all my adult life. Only in the last year or two, I've really dug deep and worked on myself."
He regularly practices meditation, breathwork and cold therapy [cold showers and ice baths], which he plans to use to help him get through the challenge.
He practices the Wim Hof method, which involves deep, rhythmic breathing and breath holds, combined with cold therapy.
Getting up to run in the wee hours won't be easy, but he plans to manage his body and mind carefully.
"After my runs, I'll listen to my body, do some breathwork to recover and probably have an ice bath every now and then.
"I'll do a lot of meditation. I'll do sleep meditation, so I can sleep and my body can repair itself. I'll stick to a nice diet and keep my fluids up."
He expects inner demons to emerge during the runs, but will use the experience as another chance to work on controlling his emotions.
"I got smashed with a huge wave of doubt the other night. I go to a body conscious practitioner at Adamstown. He said that's my ego. Whenever you're trying to grow or do something that scares you, your ego comes into play and says: 'Whoa whoa, what are you doing? Let's go back to being safe'."
Daniel believes his commitment to the cause will get him over the line.
He's no stranger to commitment, having lived in England for a year at age 16 while playing high-level soccer with Aldershot Town's youth team, following stints with representative teams on the Central Coast and Newcastle.
"It was very hard. I was a foreigner to them and taking someone's spot, even though I was born in England. I moved here when I was two," he said.
As well as challenging himself, he's doing the run to raise awareness of the need to manage mental health.
"I've struggled with anxiety, depression and anger all through my late teens and my 20s as well," he said.
"I hadn't dealt with my anger issues through my teenage years. I went through school, always getting suspended for fighting. Every relationship I had would blow up."
He was bottling up his emotions and not dealing with them.
"I turned 30 and a lightbulb went off in my head. I felt I was meant to do and be more. I started digging into self development. Now I'm the fittest and strongest, mentally and physically, that I've been in my whole life."
He plans to document his challenge on his Instagram and Facebook pages.
To back his journey, check out his Gofundme page.
