By the end of this week, if all goes accordingly, Martin Parnell will have completed his 161st marathon since Jan. 1.

After kicking off his running career in Sudbury seven years ago, with the five-kilometre Sun Run, the mining engineer returned to his hometown of 18 years to complete marathon No. 153 on the Laurentian track Aug. 19.

Parnell, who is now a resident of Cochrane, Alta., is not attempting to break any world records by completing the highest number of marathons in a year, nor is he smashing any marathon time records. His unrelenting determination is part of a quest he’s set out on — the Marathon Quest 250 — which will see Parnell log 250 marathons by Dec. 31, and attempt to raise $250,000 for Right to Play while he’s at it.

Right to Play is a children’s charity that uses sport and physical activity to develop programs for kids in 23 countries around the world. The program has also recently been introduced in about 4,500 Canadian schools.

Parnell’s desire to help kids stemmed form a cycling trip across Africa, which he completed five years ago. “It was a four-month trip, 10 countries, 10,000 kilometres. I went to a number of countries, and the kids were playing soccer and table tennis.”

With a lifelong passion for sport, Parnell joined in.“These kids don’t have much — basically the clothes on their back. It’s a pretty tough existence. But when they play sport, you can just see the spark in their eyes, and I realized that we can use sport to motivate kids and help them learn.”

Running is not something Parnell has always had a passion for, but after being challenged by his brother to complete a marathon, the man found he had a fondness of endurance sport. “I did a five-km, 10-km and a half (marathon), and then I did a marathon, and I seemed to take to it.”

From there, he stemmed off into triathlons and ultra races. He has completed a couple of Ironmans, and last year, ran a 100-mile race in Lethbridge. “It took me 35 hours,” he said. “But I really found I quite enjoyed the endurance side of it.

While I was training for these Ultras, I was doing two or three marathons in a row, and I found I could do it.

“It’s a bit weird,” he admitted, with a laugh.

When he started making plans for Marathon Quest 250, Parnell’s goal was to do a marathon a day for a year, but his doctor advised him against it.

“He said it sounded like a bit much,” Parnell said. “So we picked 250, five a week, two recovery days, and 12 spare days for the year.”

However, a shin injury in February put the runner out for two weeks, and quickly burned up his spare days. And that wasn’t the only obstacle he’s had to overcome. About three weeks ago, he took a tumble, and pulled a muscle at the top of his thigh.

“Fortunately, I can still walk and endure it,” he said. In fact, his Sudbury marathon was his first test with running again. “Luckily the walking is fine. So I do complete the marathon walking. It takes about eight hours. It’s a long day, but it gets done, which is the main thing.

“If I had to walk them all, I would, but I don’t want to.”

While he said he gets pumped up doing races, Parnell isn’t looking to break any kind of records with his speed. The only time that matters to Parnell is that he completes the 250 marathons by Dec. 31. “When you do 250, time becomes a secondary,” he said. “The key thing is to do a time such that I can do the one the next day.”

And how does he get himself out there day after

day? “Quite frankly, if it was just for me, I wouldn’t bother, I’d just stay in bed,” he said. “But it’s for the kids and that’s the driver, which for me, makes me get up every day and do the best I can and get out and do the marathon.”

To date, Parnell has raised close to $67,000 for Right to Play. “Every $50 raised gives a child a Right to Play program for a year,” he said.

He’s set up his schedule to do the majority of his runs close to home in Cochrane, Alta., with the odd marathon set for alternate locations. He also runs marathons at various schools, where kids are out with him for the majority of the 42.2 kilometres, which are typically done around the perimeter of a soccer field. “There’s always kids with me, and that makes the time go by pretty fast,” he said.

For more information, or to make a donation, visit www.marathonquest250.com.