Islander Neil McCall set himself a pretty amazing challenge for 2020. Before he reaches the age of 50 in November, he is hoping to have run 50 marathons – that works out as one a week since the tail end of last year.
Neil started began his challenge with the Isle of Wight marathon in October last year and is currently just over halfway through, having this week completed his 28th.
Raising money for MIND
The challenge was taking Neil all over the country, but of course, since the Coronavirus lockdown, he’s been limited to running his marathon miles (26 each time) on the Island.
When he kicked off the challenge, Neil decided to raise money for MIND, the charity for better mental health, which he says, given these strange times, seems particularly apt.
Will Wonder Woman bring in the money?
A Just Giving page has been set up and has currently raised just short of £1,000.
Neil told OnTheWight,
“Obviously now is harder going as all events have been cancelled, so I’m having to do my own solo marathons on the Island.
“I’m even considering doing one dressed as wonder woman, if I thought it would get some donations in! If nothing else it’ll be good for social distancing.”
It would be great to boost that figure into the £1000s by the end of his challenge in November.
Follow the 50/50 marathon blog
Neil has been keeping a blog of all the marathons that he’s run so far.
It’s great to flick through them and read how he got on during each of them, plus to see all the inventive medals he’s been receiving from friends and family for the lock down marathons he’s been running on the Island this month.
Well done Neil for getting over halfway through – we’ll be keeping an eye on how you get on over the next few months.
