Backyard marathon: British runner brings sports, social distancing together

A British runner set a unique example by bringing together sports and social distancing as he ran marathon in his backyard amid lockdown to raise funds for National Health Service to fight coronavirus pandemic.

The video of 32-year-old James Campbell on Twitter went viral which showed him running about 7,000 laps in his 20-foot garden and took two days to complete his task.

Campbell’s backyard marathon has also received special attention from professional athletes and celebrities.

He said that he was feeling stir crazy at his Cheltenham, England, home after about a week of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. The man added that he took to Twitter to see if there would be interest in his running a marathon in his small garden.

“I was tidying some stuff and thought ‘what’s the most stupid idea I can come up with in isolation?’ I took one look at my garden and thought that I’ll run a marathon in that,” Campbell told SportBible.

The runner completed his task Wednesday, two days after his initial tweet. He estimated it took him about 7,000 laps in his garden to reach the 26.2-mile distance of a full marathon.

Campbell raised money for UK’s National Health Service to fight COVID-19 pandemic by live-streaming his entire run. He said Wednesday that his fundraising total had topped $25,000.

Everyone who retweeted, everyone who’s been so supportive & donated, I’m blown away by the response & can’t thank you enough. Can’t believe the amount of money raised! Over £20k so far. Please keep donating for our NHS! 👏@NHSuk @JustGiving @VincoSport https://t.co/NxEDEi34pA pic.twitter.com/y7RYJCXfSN

— James Campbell (@jcampbell0104) April 1, 2020