Peterborough dad limps over the line to complete marathon challenge and raise hundreds of pounds for NHS heroes

Grandfather Del Singh set himself the challenge of running the marathon distance over the four Sundays in April, after the London event was postponed due to the Coronavirus crisis.

The major event was due to take place on Sunday, and Del finished his challenge at the weekend.

His run has now raised hundreds of pounds for the NHS.

Del said: “It wasn’t quite the plain sailing I thought it would be as I had some fun and a bit of pain in completing the task on Sunday on what was day of the actual London Marathon.

“On the fun side of things during my 3rd Sunday run I was stopped by the Police, on Bourges Boulevard outside the old Peterborough Telegraph offices.

“A Police car pulled up ahead of me flashing blue lights so I stopped running and looked into the open window of the Police car. “Am I in trouble for being outside?” I asked, and the officer in the passenger seat said, “Not at all, we just saw your Run 4 Our NHS shirt and wondered what you’re doing”.

Just a little relieved I wasn’t being written up I told them of my idea to complete a marathon across four weekends while raising money for the NHS.

“They both applauded and then to my surprise asked if they could get a selfie with me?

“I nodded, so one of the officers jumped out of the car and observed a bit of social distancing while her colleague took a photo.

“They thanked me and drove off letting me finish my run. However when I got home I started receiving messages from friends telling me the Peterborough Police had put me on their social media feed. Thankfully not as one of their most wanted but praising me for my running.

“The only downside of my third run was that I injured my right ankle and spent the week putting ice packs on it to fix it ahead of Sunday’s fourth run. “Whilst the rest, ice and massage helped a bit, it didn’t fix the problem and I was both scared and in pain yesterday morning as I started getting ready to run.

“My wife was against me running and even suggested of my kids follow in the car in case I broke down - I said no to the idea.

“With my ankle taped and heavily strapped up I started the last of my 10.5km runs in the morning.

It was a beautifully sunny day and the ankle supports seemed to be working as I was on pace with my previous 3 runs. But then as I got to around the 6km mark around Fengate industry area I had a huge jolt of pain across and up my ankle, making me pull up sharply.

“I gave it a minute and then started running again trying to take pressure off my ankle and rear of my right foot by landing on my toes. It wasn’t a particularly elegant way of running but it allowed me to move in the right direction slowly.

“As I ran gingerly, grimacing because my right knee was now beginning to ache from taking more of the strain my spirits were lifted by a lady in a car with her kids who pulled up on the opposite side of the road and through open car windows they shouted, “Go on Del, you’re brilliant”.

“Whilst I wanted to stop to acknowledge them I was just too focused on maintaining my forward motion. I did raise my hand to wave to them and shout a thank you back.

“I continued on the route I had set myself which in fairness was more like 11km as opposed to 10.5km, as I didn’t want to end up doing less than 42km (26.2 miles). As I rounded the corner onto Eastfield Road, I could see my house in sight, just another 800 metres to go.

“I was in quite some distress now and both my right ankle and knee felt like they were on fire.

“As I edged closer I couldn’t believe it as unbeknownst to me my family had set up a finish line outside the house across our gates.

“My daughter Neelam was filming and shouting encouragement to me, and she had put together a finish line ribbon with the words “Thank You NHS” on it. Seeing these words strung across the front of my house gave me that final boost and also why I had done what I had done for all those amazing NHS teams who’d rather be outdoors running or walking than risking their lives on hospital wards.

“I crossed the finish line just in time collapsing on the lawn in front of the house, overcome with a sense of relief, accomplishment and gratitude to my family for supporting me. Clearly I had made my ankle injury worse so I had to be helped indoors and it looks like I won’t be doing any running for a few weeks until my ankle and knee heal more fully this time.

“Thank you to all the people who have donated thus far, I’ve raised around £568 for two local NHS charities.

“I have decided to keep my Justgiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/team/delsrun4ournhs open as I intend to keep running and fundraising for our NHS until we’ve beaten COVID-19.”