Hi friends,

As you well know, I am partial to a bit of the old running. I've been training hard this year for a bunch of races but then old COVID-19 came along meaning we all have to stay at home - but fear not!

I've decided to use my fitness to run a marathon round my garden on Easter Sunday. This is because a) I like a challenge b) to try and promote the whole staying at home thing c) to raise money for Tower Hill Stables and The Fountain Centre. I knew as soon as I heard about a potential lockdown and seeing what was happening to our friends in China and Europe, that I would end up running a marathon around the garden.

I did a parkrun around the garden last weekend, which was really fun. I think a full marathon will be around 437 laps of my garden with each loop being 0.06 miles. I haven't done any specific marathon training but it should be OK - it's a run not a race! I reckon I should be able to do it in around 4 hours depending on if I get dizzy. The garden doesn't seem to pick up GPS that well so the speed won't be that accurate. The mara will start at 10:30 a.m on Sunday, April 12th. If people want to their own run in support in their gardens at the same time; that would be awesome.

I will be hoping to have the whole thing on my Facebook Live and will be posting stuff on Instagram Stories - you can also follow me on Strava. My lovely girlfriend, Rowena, will be Creative Director / camera-lady / cheer squad / energetic enthusiast for the whole thing.

In regards to the charities: Tower Hill Stables is an animal sanctuary in Essex run by legendary Vegan Runner, Fiona Oakes. They look after over 600 animals and COVID-19 has massively affected their donations and income, so I am happy to try and help them. The Fountain Centre is a new charity to me. Row's dad died recently from cancer, and they were great in helping him and Row's mum in numerous ways - so we're gonna support them too.

If you have any spare money to donate then that would be great. I also appreciate times are hard right now, so if you can't - feel free to share this page across social media. That would be SIK.

Massive thanks to everyone who donates, Row, and Hoka One One. HOKA are very kindly helping promote the event on social media and they've given me lots of great shoe options for it!

#JhonsGardenMara