MEET LINDEN TOLHURST

August 2023

He’s planning to run the 121km Great Victorian Rail Trail – the longest rail trail in Victoria – to raise funds and awareness for people living with multiple sclerosis.

Linden will be running from Tallarook to Mansfield on Saturday 28 October and aims to complete the epic journey in 17 hours.

For Linden, the run is personal – his partner, Prue, was diagnosed with MS in 2018. Linden says, “This year, my partner had some quite significant treatment for MS and part of that was wondering ‘What can I do?’

“The reason I chose this was – it’s kind of corny – but with running you get tired and really fatigued, you might get leg pain and feel disoriented – it’s a way of me to experience what it’s like for her. For her it’s every day, for me it’s one day, but it’s my way of saying ‘I’m in this with you’. This is me trying to understand what it’s like for you.”

This will be Linden’s first time taking on a 121km distance and Prue is his biggest supporter.

“I’ve run some formal marathons, flat and hilly. From a training side of things, you can’t train up to that distance because you’ll just get injured so I’m upping the weekly time on feet.”

“Prue is very appreciative and very supportive which is great.”

“Her initial diagnosis was due to optic neuritis – she had ongoing blurriness in her eye and when she was initially checked for that it was misdiagnosed, and it got worse again in 2018 [when she was diagnosed with MS]. The optic neuritis is something that comes and goes. The main thing for her is the fatigue. She gets extremely tired. She gets other symptoms too, such as pain in her legs and heat intolerance, and when she gets really tired her balance can get shaky.”

“Her diagnosis was devastating of course but wasn’t entirely surprising. It meant that we could start treatment.”

Linden wants to give a massive shoutout to friends, family and his employer who have all been incredibly generous, and his supporters helping him on the day.

“I have a crew of about 5 people that will help out on the day with logistics – a big thanks to them for taking their weekend to run about with a bag of supplies to me. Them donating not just their money but their time and energy – I’m very grateful for that. I wouldn’t be able to do it without them.”

“My target is $3,500 which I’m confident I will exceed but anything extra will go so far.”

Linden is most looking forward to starting his run on the day.

“To be honest, it’s one of these things, I've had this idea since the end of last year, and now it’s a lot of training and planning, hundreds of hours. I’m anxious to get to the start line. I'm looking forward to the end of it, the last section is 21km from Bonnie Doon to Mansfield where I’ll have three of my good friends who are going to run that last bit with me and there’ll be a couple representatives from MS Plus alongside me.”

Follow Linden's training on his Instagram page.

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