Former couch potato runs a marathon a day in December

Sunderland fitness fan Tony Allen has set himself the challenge of running a marathon every day throughout December – including Christmas Day.

The 52-year-old from Roker is undertaking the tough assignment – the equivalent of running to Milan – to raise funds for St Benedict’s Hospice at Ryhope, which gave palliative care to his late mum.

Tony’s 26 miles will be mostly run at night, so that he can fit the fundraiser around his day job as a sales executive at SG Petch, in Darlington, County Durham.

Tony’s passion for running began when he turned 40 and his ‘corporate beer belly’ meant he could barely bend over to reach his toes.

So Tony started running. And running. He began with the Great North Run and progressed to ultra marathons, such as the Lakeland 100, which entails running 105 miles in 38 hours. Along the way, he lost two stone and has found a hobby for life.

He has also started the RED club (Run Everyday in December) which has gathered more than 500 members on Facebook. It has captured the imagination of people worldwide with runners as far as New Zealand taking up the challenge and sharing their efforts with the group.

For Tony’s own December challenge, he doesn’t have set routes and some of his Sunderland Stroller pals will be joining him for parts. He estimates it will take between 4 and 5.5hours per day to run each day’s 26 miles - a total of 832 miles - and expects to burn off around 104,000 calories along the way.

He plans to get the Christmas Day run out of the way first thing, then he can enjoy his turkey with wife Janet and children Charlotte, 20, and James, 24.

“They do think I’m mad, but they’re very supportive,” he laughed.