Marathon Man Comes to Portsmouth for 392nd Challenge

Published: 26th September 2016 14:13

Ben Smith starts his 392nd marathon with a selfies with fellow runnersA man who is raising funds for two charities is running his 392nd marathon in Portsmouth today.

Ben Smith who is taking part in the 401 Challenge was joined by crowds at Lakeside to raise funds for Kidscape and Stonewall.

He started the challenge to run 401 marathons in 401 days in September 2015 and wants to raise £250k.

Ben who is from Bristol, explained, "I chose the two charities because I was quite badly bullied at school for eight years. It affected my self esteem and confidence and now I'm trying to raise a quarter of a million pounds for those charities to make sure what happened to me doesn't happen to others.

"I'm here in Portsmouth today which is the third time I've been here in this challenge. The last two times were the back end of last year so it's nice to be back."

With just nine days to go, Ben said he is counting down the days. He said, "I'm finally on countdown. I've got a little calendar in my van that I'm crossing the days off now."

"I've had ups and down. I have had a number of injuries. The most serious was in Scotland. I had to take ten days off because I fractured the bottom of my back. It took me a little bit of time to recover from that with good physiotherapy treatment but then I was back on the road. I've been making the miles up ever since which I did two days ago so now I'm back on track which is brilliant."

The route today was organised by the Pompey Joggers which took him to Fareham then back to Farlington. Tony Conway who has liased with Ben for the Portsmouth event, said, "It's fantastic. He was here last year and we showed him the seafront, the dockyard and the top of the hill, so today we thought we'd keep him on the flat.

"It's outstanding. It's awesome. How can you get up every morning for a whole year and a half and run a marathon?"

A number of school children also came along to support Ben and his cause. Mellissa Channon, Home School Link Worker from Grange Junior School in Gosport said, "We do a really lovely job of making sure our children feel safe and not bullied so we want wanted to come and support Ben today."

So far Ben has raised over £160k through the challenge. He added, "It's going in the right direction but we need people to donate. Bullying touches everyone's lives throughout this whole country and it's something the people are passionate about but we don't talk about it much so if you can spare a fiver or tenner please donate it to us.

For more information and to donate, visit www.the401challenge.co.uk.

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