A fitness enthusiast is planning to run 250 miles to raise £5,000 for The Royal British Legion.
Richard Smith, who is 31 and from Bolton, will run over 200 miles from Chorley to London, before finishing his challenge by running in the London Marathon as part of The Royal British Legion team.
Together with his 250 mile run which begins on Monday April 18th, Richard is also training for the Ironman UK challenge in July.
Richard will be posting the routes of his run on his Facebook page to encourage local people to join in and run with him.
At the moment I’m doing around 15 hours of training every week, including runs with my running club. It’s not just about raising lots of money, I also want to raise awareness. I want people to know that you don’t have to be the fittest person to go out for a run, you can just put your running shoes on and get out there – anyone can do it.
I’ve taken part in lots of different fitness challenges over the years. By the time I reach the marathon, it’ll be the shortest leg of the run and will be more like my cool-down, so I’ll probably be the only person there looking forward to those 26 miles
“The Royal British Legion is my chosen charity because I have friends in the military and it was my childhood dream to join the Royal Marines, I went on to join when I was 23 and I completed 10 months of my officer training.
Richard Smith from Bolton I’m not the fittest man in the world by any means, I just like to push myself to the limits and I haven’t found out what those limits are yet. My friends and family are really supportive, they’re used to me doing this sort of thing and they think it’s brilliant – although they do think I might’ve been dropped on the head as a kid!”
We are delighted that Richard is taking on this mammoth challenge for the Legion. We know how hard it is to get out early for those long cold training runs and we wish him the very best of luck with all his preparation and for the race itself. The fundraising he will undertake on behalf of the charity will make a real difference to the lives of those we support within the Armed Forces community, such as helping elderly veterans to live more independently in their own homes and offering holidays to Forces families at our seaside break centres.”
Charles Byrne, director of fundraising at The Royal British Legion