By the end of seven marathons in seven days, Chris Fordham had one thing on his mind, a bucket of cold water.
“The chemistry and the electricity from the crowds in London was just insane and it’s just such an incredible event,” he told the BBC, after finishing his challenge at the London Marathon.
The airline pilot, from Blakeney, has raised more than £12,000 for Samaritans after a friend’s death last year. He covered more than 200 miles, running through Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire on his way to London.
Chris had run the London Marathon once before, in 2017. He decided on this challenge last June, but his training was stalled for two months late last year after he suffered a slipped disc.
He took a week’s leave from work to complete the consecutive marathons. On Monday he ran from Lydney to Gloucester. Over the next two days he went on to Swindon and Oxford.
On Thursday he ran from Oxford to Reading, where he grew up and attended Reading School. On Friday he went from Reading to Windsor, then ran from Windsor to Greenwich on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s marathon.
Chris said completing the challenge was “a really nice feeling… it was fantastic”.
He said the first day was the hardest because he was not joined by a friend or pacer for stretches of the run.
“I overran a little bit at points of that,” he said.
“It was amazing how much easier it was when there’s someone by your side.
“I guess we always use bad metaphors for running and challenges in life, but it did make me reflect how much easier it is to deal with any challenge when you’ve got someone literally by your side willing you on and there to help you.”
He said things “got progressively better”, although road closures in London on Saturday were “tricky and frustrating”.
Finishing with the London Marathon, which had a record-breaking 59,000 participants, gave him a “massive boost”, he said.
“In the last three or four miles of the runs most days, I was picturing those buckets of cold water,” he said.
“That was my dream, getting my feet in those.”
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