Four Burnham-On-Sea runners are taking part in today’s London Marathon, including 76 year-old Sue Nicholls, who will be taking part for a ninth time!
Burnham’s Sue Nicholls, pictured, and Jon Jacobs will be travelling to London to take part in Sunday’s 26.2 mile event, while Hannah Jackson and Tony Gore are running the ‘virtual race’ here in Somerset.
Sue will be running for Cancer Research UK while Hannah will be raising funds for Burnham’s Somewhere House Somerset and Mind in Somerset.
Sue told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “This will be my 9th London marathon – training this year has had its ups and downs because of injuries but I’m fine now and confident about completing the marathon.”
“Five of my family are travelling with me to London to cheer me on and I’m looking forward to taking part again.” Her fundraising page is here.
Hannah, pictured below, will be running her first marathon and says: “I received a charity place through Mind in Somerset and they agreed to allow me to split the donations with Somewhere House Somerset who I have been receiving counselling through.”
“I have not prepared physically as much as is expected, but mentally I feel in a very good place. It is amazing how, even though I am running it virtually, I really feel as though I am part of a bigger collective and it is very powerful.”
She adds: “It has always been a dream of mine to one day run the London Marathon and I hope that this year will be the next best thing! I will be running between Uphill and Glastonbury on a pretty flat route and have enlisted friends, family and fellow members of Burnham Harriers to spur me on along the way.” Her fundraising page is at https://gofund.me/d8dbc405
And Tony, pictured below, will be running a virtual London Marathon with three laps of a local course around Brent Knoll, Lympsham, along Red Road, and up to the Berrow Triangle.
This year, a record 100,000 runners are expected to take part in the 26.2 mile London Marathon – with some racing around some of the city’s most iconic landmarks and others in a virtual race around the UK.
The elite race with professional athletes managed to take place in 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic forced the public charity race to take place virtually last year.
