One Welshman is running a mile for every point Wales lose by this Six Nations.
Rhodri Williams, who lives in Bristol, revealed his fitness challenge on social media before the first game. There's no cap either, so if Wales lose by more than 26 points, which is a marathon distance, he simply has to match it with mileage.
Of course, it all got off to a nightmare start for Warren Gatland and Rhodri as Wales were beaten 43-0 by France in the opening match, their first ever non-scoring game in Six Nations history. It meant Rhodri's entire Sunday was spent running an ultra marathon of 43 miles.
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In total, it took him 10 hours and 15 minutes to complete the run. He was fuelled by pasta and jacket potatoes prior to the 43-miler, and ate plenty of cereal bars on the run itself. The route took Williams from Bristol, where he lives, all the way to Bath and back. His wife joined him at mile 35, where he walked for 20 minutes to regain some energy.
He revealed he came up with the idea of the challenge after finding watching Wales games was becoming a miserable experience.
"I thought this would be a fun challenge to put online, mainly to have a bit of fun between me and my mates, and then everyone just grabbed onto it," he said.
The challenge has taken off on social media and even got a mention on the BBC's Rugby Special programme, hosted by Ugo Monye.
The 33-year-old says that as the tournament goes on, he is planning to make the challenge more fun, and it won't just be flat out running. He says, for example, if Italy were to beat Wales by 26 points, then instead of running a marathon, he could run one mile per hour for 26 hours, with the challenge then being more about staying awake.
"As much as it was a decent day, I don't know if I've got the mental fortitude to do just another 10-hour run," said Williams, on the topic of spicing up the challenge. "I'll try and find different things to do. If it gets up to 60 or so, I don't quite know what I could do there. When the score was 33-0 at 55 minutes, I turned to my wife and I went - 'This could be 60!' - I started looking up on Komoot where I might end up.
"From my front door to the Principality Stadium, to touch Gatland's Gate, is almost dead on 60 miles. There's a little bit of me that's like - 'that would be a good story, it would be a fun thing' - all the options are open, I'm going to see what happens. Last year it was a -52 points difference, there were some games where Wales would get back into it.
"In the Six Nations weird things happen. I don't expect that weird thing to include a win, but I don't think we will see a 42-0, 52-0 again. I can't imagine people would allow that!"
In the event that Wales win during his challenge, Williams explained that he will record himself walking out his front door, starting the run on his watch, then ending it immediately and walking back inside!
Although he isn't a big football fan, while working as a video lead for FIFA in Qatar for the World Cup in 2023, Williams ran a kilometre for every goal scored in the tournament the day before. He says he was shocked, when for a few days there were a series of games with more than five goals scored in each, forcing him to do laps of the airport near the FIFA HQ.
Williams' entire family is Welsh, with his parents hailing from Cardiff, and his wife is from Llanidloes.
The Welshman isn't able to plan many marathons or races being a freelance creator, so this challenge presents an opportunity for him to do something in his own time, whilst still covering big distance.
Since starting the challenge and releasing his video, which has almost hit one million views on Instagram, Williams says he's gained a fair few followers, one of them being rugby superstar Cheslin Kolbe. "He's one of my favourite players," explained Williams. "It was just before I went running actually, so I sent it to a mate - good motivation to get on with this."
Williams says he was a bit nervous about starting the challenge because he didn't want to cause offence to the Wales players, it's just a way for him to enjoy his running. "I don't think I'm going to get any messages from Liam Williams post-game being like - 'Sorry I missed that tackle, mate'," joked Williams.
"I don't think I'd be happy if someone was running a mile for every edit mistake I made. But it's a completely different thing. When you're a player on the top stage this is the sort of attention you get. I don't think they are at all caring what I'm doing. It might be the sort of thing that gets passed around in the changing room, but that's literally the extent of it.
"Fingers crossed that Wales do well and I don't have to run as far. That's the real win here. As long as Wales win games I ain't running anywhere!"
If you would like to check out Williams' Instagram page, the click here.
