Man Runs 26.2 Mile Marathon In His Garden To Raise Money For The NHS

On a brisk Wednesday morning in the United Kingdom, one man completed a marathon in his six-metre back garden.

The 32-year-old found himself "losing the plot" while in isolation, so he challenged himself.

"There's not much positive news around at the moment and I've been at home, just me and the dog, for a week." Campbell told SPORTbible.

"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."

James, who admits the furthest he's ever run is 'around' 15k, has never been a fan of running but his decision to attempt a full marathon has helped him raise a huge amount of money.

So how did he complete such a huge task?

According to his calculations, the former Cheltenhem Town youth player traversed his garden 7000 times in total.

To help him out, he marked out a 2.6 metre line and threw in a few cones to try and avoid injury.

"I didn't want my knees and ankles to go to dust early," he tells us. "I prepared by doing some weights and circuits in my garden but since the football season finished early, I haven't run a lot.

"I gave myself less than two days notice so the actual answer is; I didn't prepare at all - it was a completely spontaneous decision!"

Two days ago, Campbell conducted an experiment to see how social media would respond to a marathon attempt in his back garden.

In the build up to his attempt, James felt it would be a great idea to donate all the money raised to the NHS.

"With everything going on at the moment and the strain on the NHS, I hope they can benefit in some way from whatever is raised through their charities." James told us.

"Once it started to gain unexpected momentum there was only one charity I was going to do it for.

"What they do is amazing and I hope my stupidity will further emphasise the stay home message so we can save as many people as possible get life back to normal as soon as possible."