Marcus goes with the flow for his lockdown marathon - The Evesham Observer

Marcus goes with the flow for his lockdown marathon

Evesham Editorial 28th Apr, 2020   0

MORE than 40,000 runners were due to take part in last Sunday’s London Marathon, including several athletes from Evesham, but for obvious reasons the race was postponed.

However, Vale runner Marcus Mumford was still keen to take on the 42.2km distance to help raise funds for the charity WaterAid.

WaterAid works in some of the poorest communities, providing clean drinking water, decent toilets and hygiene education. It is currently working hard across 26 countries to install hand washing stations where they are needed most.

Mumford had planned to run in London dressed as a tap so wanted to use the same theme for his improvised run.




Using a GPS watch, he was able to trace out a route on his farm just outside Evesham that took the form of a tap. Each lap measured 939m, so he would have to run around it nearly 45 times.

“Charities like WaterAid are really struggling at the moment as they are missing out on all the fund-raising activities that are so important to support their work,” said Mumford.


“In fact, WaterAid are needed now more than ever as we all know that hygiene is absolutely key to controlling the spread of Covid-19.

“However, one in eight people in the world don’t have access to a clean water supply and a third of hospitals in the developing world don’t have fresh water on-tap either.”

The Evesham Vale Running Club athlete started his run at 9.30am on Sunday, which is when the race was due to start in London. Friends were able to follow his progress using a streaming video feed and with a giant lap counter being updated by his wife Kirsty. They could also send messages that were written up on the board to help keep Marcus motivated.

“This is the smallest event I’ve ever run in but the online support was absolutely fantastic! Whenever Kirsty told me that we’d received another donation it spurred me on for the next lap,” added Mumford.

As the morning progressed the temperatures rose to over 20 degrees which made the conditions more difficult.

Mumford said: “I underestimated how much harder all the twists and turns to draw out the shape of the tap would make it. It was very bumpy in places too.

“It was a great feeling to finally get to the 45th lap and to cross the finish line though.”

His finishing time was three hours, 24 minutes and so far Mumford has raised more than £2,100 for WaterAid. If you would like to help support this cause, visit his fund-raising page at www.tiny.cc/FastestTap.

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