Fancy running a marathon in the middle of the night, followed by a day’s work?
That is exactly the prospect facing Doncaster teacher Steve Lowe, who is aiming to hit the bullseye for charity this winter.
The Kingfisher Primary School teacher is busy embarking upon a series of sporting challenges dubbed Mr Lowe vs The World.
The aim of the project is to raise money for Sport Relief and also raise attainment levels at the Wheatley school by using the power of sport.
However, for every challenge the 38-year-old loses, he must add another mile to the total he will run on the morning of Sport Relief – and still be ready to teach his class at 9am.
And, having lost more than half of his 20 challenges so far, his predicament was not helped in the slightest by a darts defeat to Doncaster Star journalist Paul Goodwin.
Mr Lowe said: “I’ve run a half marathon before and I think after about 10 miles you start going numb anyway.
“I’ll probably draw the line at about 30 challenges.
“I’ll be all right. I’m sure the children will be sympathetic when I turn up that morning.
“A lot of the children are stopping me and saying ‘I want to take you on at this’, and it’s helped to build a rapport with some of the harder-to-reach kids.
“We came up with the idea after our recent Ofsted inspection. They told us we needed to be a flagship in something to move from good to outstanding.
“We thought sport was the best way to achieve that.
“I’m a sportsman myself and I know about the knock-on effect sport can have on confidence and your school work.”
Mr Lowe, a former Yorkshire 800m and 1,500m and British taekwondo champion, currently trails ‘The World’ 14-7 – meaning he faces a minimum 14-mile run on Friday, March 21.
As well as losing a drawn out leg of darts to Paul, he has been challenged to a range of wild and wacky activities – including BMX and Subbuteo – with varying levels of success.
He also lost a penalty shoot-out with former Doncaster Rovers goalkeeper Jan Budtz, lost to friend and Educating Yorkshire star Michael Steer at petanque and also lost a kicking for goal challenge against players from Championship rugby side London Scottish.
Mr Lowe said: “It’s been great fun, but I think I’ve had a few dodgy decisions along the way.
“However, it’s all for a good cause and hopefully sport can begin to make a real difference at Kingfisher.”
n You can follow @Mrlovevworld on twitter and watch his challenges on YouTube by searching for ‘Mr Lowe vs The World’.
Donate at {http://www.justgiving.com/mrlowevstheworld|Mr Lowe v The World|click here}