MARATHON man Nathan Blunden is in serious training for the world’s biggest annual fundraising event.
The runner, who lives in Old Town, will be running one mile for every year of his age, when he takes part in the event on April 25.
Nathan, a business systems analyst at RWE npower in Swindon, completed four half marathons last year, and his current training regime involves running five times a week with at least one of the training sessions covering up to 13 miles.
He will be using the Gloucester 20-mile race and the Reading Half Marathon, both of which take place this month, as warm-ups for the big challenge.
He said: “This is not going to be a walk in the park.
“I’m aiming to complete the course in around three hours 15 minutes – it’ll mean maintaining an average seven to eight minutes per mile for the entire race.”
Nathan is running in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
He estimates he will raise £2,000 through sponsorship by family, friends and work colleagues and npower has offered to donate a further £500, bringing the total for Macmillan to £2,500.
Runners from Swindon Harriers have helped with motivation and companionship on the regular training runs and Nathan hopes that he will have the energy to keep going, even after exhaustion hits him.
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