Ryan Sandeman admits it probably would have been easier to do the ice bucket challenge like everyone to raise money for motor neurone disease.
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Instead, the 37-year-old Canberra father ran the equivalent of an ultramarathon every day for two weeks as he ground his way from Canberra to Melbourne - and ended up immersing himself in a paddling pool of ice anyway.
But it wasn't an internet fad which inspired him into action.
Mr Sandeman watched his grandfather succumb to motor neurone disease disease last year and also has a cousin battling it.
"It's an awful thing to watch someone suffer. I can't even describe it to you. A few years ago I didn't even know anything about it," he said.
"My grandfather was an exception to the rule but it usually strikes someone in the prime of their lives, in their late 30s or early 40s with young families. It robs them of any ability to move. Simple things in your life are taken away from you."
Genetic testing revealed both his grandfather and cousin carried the SOD1 gene, which causes one in five cases of familial MND - a gene Mr Sandeman may have inadvertently passed on to his three children.
"I'm not so worried about myself as my children's future," Mr Sandeman said.
The first three days were the hardest as he hot-footed it towards Cooma in the baking March sun.
After that, his strength and confidence grew as members of his family joined him for stretches of the huge run.
But just one day out from his final destination, his body began to fail him.
"The second last day of running I stopped at one point and my legs didn't want to work much after that, it was a bit hard to get going and I sort of felt that was an early warning symptom of something else to come, I think I was right at the end of my limit," he said.
Despite this, he was able to sprint into Melbourne's Federation Square in what he calls his "Forrest Gump moment".
Although unlike Forrest Gump, after that came a dip in a children's paddling pool of ice to recover.
"I actually don't like the ice much, I preferred the running over the icy water," he laughed.
His temporary discomfort appears to have been worth it.
Mr Sandeman raised more than $26,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Research Institute of Australia.
And while this works out to only $36 for each of the 720 kilometres he ran, Mr Sandeman said it was a worthwhile investment in his children's future.
"The distance itself is a long way and it's quite a difficult achievement. It was painful and it did hurt a lot doing it but I could always look at that and say at the end of today, at the end of this five hours of running today I'll be able to rest and at the end of the two weeks I'll be able to finish whereas the people suffering this disease can't do that, they just have to deal with it and move forward," Mr Sandeman said.
You can support the Run for SOD1 at: run.gofundraise.com.au/page/SandemanR
