"The 'Ceredigion Coastal Challenge 2007' was The GAIA Initiative's campaign with Depression Alliance Cymru and Asthma UK (Cymru) to highlight the issues related to depression and asthma.

I have suffered from depression since my teenage years, and from mild asthma for four years. As a former national sprinter and international sprint coach, I am very aware of how both these conditions affect ones life and ability to enjoy a quality of life others may take for granted.

So it was on the well-cushioned air-conditioned comfort of a Pendolino train in late September 2006, that, I decided to put my body to good use...

This campaign was about a journey rather than an event. A journey from a sprinter into an endurance runner - a psychological journey as well as a physiological journey.

It was, of course, an attempt to engage and re-address the balance of archaic and hysterical nonsense projected about depression and asthma. But, after months of campaigning and training, I have come to realise that it was more than this too.

The challenge was an indictment on society as a whole and our lack of interest in community and truth. It was a campaign to education people about how to learn, how to collaborate, how to socialize, how to re-humanize themselves, how to become a community again and how to dismantle the barriers of segregation where students don't mix with locals, businesses don't work with N.G.O.'s, young ignore the old.

Our whole society has become a series of ghettos. Whether it be in business, schooling, music, sport or culture. The 'CCC 2007' was working to break through these barriers and into the ghettos to bring everyone together under one cause.

People in the west are driven by the need for a complete entity. The truth is that nothing in life is guaranteed. You are not guaranteed a free path through life without having depression. Depression can afflict anyone, at anytime. It has no barriers. And asthma functions on triggers that one can stumble upon at any time of ones life.

Due to years of plyometric training and sprint drills, I have been left with a pretty messed-up back. The consequence of which is continuous lower-back problems, arthritis and many recurring skeletal and joint problems. Two months before the event, I was plagued by a knee injury which has disrupted my whole training schedule and running ability.

My own need to complete this event has been challenged. My own need to avert failure has been challenged. When in truth, completion and failure are modern western terms which mask insecurities and inadequacies.

The injury and the ability to be able to complete the event in the manner I had planned, was a metaphor for depression and asthma in itself. The reliance I have on others, on a support team, on others to carry the batton when I am unable to do so. It was a Shakespearian drama. Exciting, frustrating, sad, happy, momentous and collectively engaging.

There were members of The GAIA Initiative; the medical support team provided by CRT Medical; a sports injury and massage specialist on-hand to perform a variety of disciplines necessary to aid recovery; several members of Aberystwyth University's Sports and Exercise Science Department monitoring the physiological, nutritional and psychological progress; representatives from both Asthma UK Cymru and Depression Alliance Cymru on-hand to share their work and valuable support they give to the local communities; representatives from Keep Wales Tidy; and local surfers, no doubt, demonstrating their 'art'.

The event began at Go Mango, in Cardigan at 7 a.m. and finished at The Friendship Inn in Borth, later that same day.

Article by Christopher Vrenek