Athletes run 26 miles on treadmills in pub garden for disabled kids charity

TWO athletes headed straight for the pub on Sunday claiming they were running a marathon for charity.

Road runners Simon Brotherson, 45, and Dave McLaughlin, 39, who both run for Queens Park Harriers, at Willesden Sports Centre, in Donnington Road, Willesden, swapped the track for the Mason’s Arms, in Harrow Road, Kensal Green, so sponsors could keep an eye on their progress as they raised more than �3,000 for kids’ disabled charity Whizz-Kidz.

The pair ran the 26 mile distance on four treadmills in the pub’s back garden swapping machines every hour to prevent them burning out (the machines that is).

As the race went on a 100 people packed-out the pub egging the duo on with motivational tracks such as Eye of the Tiger and drunken banter.

Never-the-less the fitness fanatics ran the race in less than four hours with enough energy to hold a party above the pub where an impressive selection of prizes were raffled off including; a guitar signed by pop band Kasabian, a cricket test shirt signed by the English Cricket Team and an Argentinean football shirt signed by Carlos Tevez.

Mr McLaughlin said: “It was fun but I don’t know if I will be doing it on a treadmill again. It’s quite tough on the legs but I felt pretty good the next day.”

However the sucker for punishment is already back in training for a 20 mile jaunt on Sunday.