Teachers run marathon in Shrewsbury back garden to raise money for SaTH and inspire students to stay active
Two Shropshire teachers wanting to inspire their students to keep raising money and stay motivated during lockdown completed a marathon each in their garden using only a six-metre track.
Liam Deery, 28, and Dan Pritchard, 31, who live in Shrewsbury managed to raise more than £3,000 for Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust and the heroic feat took the pair just shy of 10 hours on Sunday.
The pair were initially planning to complete a marathon between them, but as they were coming up to raising £1,000, they decided to do one each.
Liam, who is head of PE at the Priory School in Shrewsbury, and Dan, who is assistant associated head at the Marches School in Oswestry, also pledged to complete their last mile in dresses – in a bid to raise even more money.
Liam said for the first 16 miles, the pair had motion sickness due to the small circular track they set up in their garden in Shrewsbury.
"It started off as a way to get involved in the 2.6 challenge and motivate students to join in as well," he said.
"It is an initiative to bridge the gap for charities because obviously a lot of fundraising, like marathons, have been stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak.
"So I set pupils the challenge to raise as much money as possible and we did the marathon to inspire them."
Their garden is six metres long, and Liam said running round it again and again was especially tiring for their hips and ankles.
"We wanted to make the children pro-active during lockdown and show that you can overcome barriers.
"We did our 26th mile in a dress and that really bumped up the fundraising. We received £1,000 from that immediately.
"Our housemate Lucy was reading out all the messages people had sent, and without that, it would have been even harder to carry on."
