‘It’s a long month’: Doncaster’s Grant McCann on running 192 miles to tackle prostate cancer
Manager reflects on the unexpected joys of running 10km a day for the annual Prostate United challenge
“I tell you what’s really nice when you’re running around Doncaster in the mornings,” says Grant McCann, “when you hear people beeping car horns at you, waving out the window.” Those snippets of encouragement are priceless pick-me-ups on the month-long annual Prostate United challenge, which entails running, walking or cycling every day to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK. McCann, his Doncaster Rovers coaching staff, club staff and supporters will finish at the club’s stadium on Thursday afternoon. “We’ve managed to get more than 60 people involved in the Doncaster page this year – everyone is doing something,” the manager says. “It has brought the whole club together with the camaraderie around the place.”
McCann, his assistant Cliff Byrne, and Rovers’s record appearance maker and now head of recruitment, James Coppinger, have been running 10km every day this month. “Copps could probably still play given how he is at the minute, doing all these runs,” McCann says. Some of McCann’s staff have been taking it more seriously than others. “Some of them are trying to break all sorts of records with their times but I’m too long in the tooth for that,” he says, smiling. “It’s not about breaking records on day 15 … it’s a long, long month.” By the end, McCann will have clocked 192 miles in October. “The legs are tired, the body’s sore, your mind plays tricks on me every morning when I’m heading out. But we’re almost there, there are only three days to go.”
