Former Brighton and Crawley Town defender teams up with Great Britain and England rugby league legend to tackle gruelling charity challenge

Sam Rents, 34, will run a 100-mile ultra marathon around London on Saturday, April 16, alongside Great Britain and England rugby league legend Jamie Peacock MBE, in aid of leading sports and mentoring charity Greenhouse Sports.

The ambitious challenge is called ‘Run for the Roof’ and will raise funds for Greenhouse’s urgent work, including their sports coaching with young people in deprived UK schools and the crucial roof repair of the Greenhouse Centre - a hub for young people.

The route, which will start and finish at the Greenhouse Centre, will take in a number of the 39 schools in the capital that the charity supports.

Sam, following his retirement from professional football, became a qualified teacher specialising in BTEC and A-LEVEL sport, teaching in further education settings.

And the ex-Albion and Reds player, who now works in sports therapy, said the nine years he spent teaching motivated him to take on this titanic test.

He said: “I got put in touch with Simon Dent [founder of HERO talent agency and sports marketing agency Dark Horses] through a mutual friend. He became a client, and we found out we had a common interest in ultra running.

“He mentioned that he was doing something like that, and if I wanted to get involved, and I stupidly accepted!

“Since I’ve stopped playing full-time football I’ve been involved in a lot of teaching in football academies and working with disadvantaged young people.

“It’s been part of my life since football. It’s just such a good cause.

“Sport really is a level playing field. Whether you come from a good or poor background, it puts people on a level playing ground and it gives them the same opportunity as anyone else.”

Sam said training with Jamie, who accumulated 47 caps for Great Britain and England, was going well. But the former left back admitted preparations had been a ‘step up’ in difficulty compared to his usual training regimen.

He said: “We’ve been putting in a lot of hours and a lot of miles. You can’t really ‘under-prepare’ for this type of event, otherwise you’re just never going to come close to completing it.

“I’ve done a few ultras before and a few marathons on consecutive days. This is a bit of a step up.

“There’s been some weeks where if you’re doing a lot more miles you pick up a few aches and niggles that you’re not really used to.

“But it’s quite hard to train for something like that through the winter. I’ve been doing a lot of night runs to get used to running in the dark and running overnight.”

The former defender also said rugby league hero Jamie was the perfect person to train with for an event of this magnitude.

Sam continued: “I’ve only known him for a very short time, through Simon, as part of the run. He’s played at such an elite level throughout the majority of his career, you can tell that he’s just so mentally tough and focussed.

“That rubs off every time we speak in the training program. Having someone like him for someone like myself is inspiring. He’s cut from a different cloth.

“I think he had a reputation of being a bit of a hard man in rugby league anyway, and that has definitely shown through. Especially compared to a footballer anyway!”

To donate to Greenhouse Sports’ ‘Run for the Roof’ challenge, please visit https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/runfortheroof.

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