Most of us couldn’t envisage running 6 miles let alone well over 600 miles, but that's what schoolteacher Philip Young is doing for us.

He's pledged to run 52 half marathons and has completed 36 already. During July he ran seven half marathons in seven days and in April, ran three halves in seven hours.

The total miles he will actually run, once training miles are included, is over 1,000!!!

I needed to know more about why Philip took on this enormous challenge for us, so asked him what on earth was going on?!

You mention a little about why you decided to fundraise for the Lupus Trust could you expand on that?

Yes, I mentioned that a friend of the family, Dave Bodell, was a long term sufferer, who unfortunately passed away earlier this year. In the end he contracted Covid, but this came after many years of bravely fighting Lupus. I wanted to do something positive in his memory. I chose to support the Lupus Trust because of the excellent work they do to support Lupus sufferers and their families and because I hope to bring some awareness of the illness, which sadly, many people are not very familiar with until it affects their family or friends. 

What made you decide to take on such an enormous challenge of 52 half marathons, most people would think one was more than enough?

Ha, yes I suppose it does seem a bit extreme! I wanted to undertake a challenge that I didn’t know if I would be able to complete, frankly. I have run marathons before, and the odd ultra, but something about the discipline required to complete 52 halves in a year (or less) was appealing. A lot of times a running challenge is completed within one session, but this challenge requires commitment over a much longer time frame. 

What’s been the best and worst parts of the challenge?

The best part of this challenge, by far, was when I ran the Brentwood Half Marathon for the first time earlier this year. I always do my halves alone and unsupported, but decided to do one of them in an organised event. I printed and laminated a sign with the Lupus Trust logo and a sentence or two about the 52 half challenge. It attracted attention from the other runners, who ran beside me asking me about it and generally being really nice and supportive. One fellow turned to his running partner and said “look at that - 52 halves in 52 weeks - absolute hero.” That really made me smile. My solo runs are great but you don’t get the camaraderie like that. 

The worst part has definitely been the hot weather! I much prefer the colder months and temperatures ranging between 3 to 5 degrees, as I get hot when I run. Temperatures hovering around 30 degrees have therefore been really tricky for me. I basically run in shorts and t-shirt all year round - rain, snow or shine, and seem to be more suited to cold weather running.

You’re a teacher so you must be kept very busy, how have you managed to fit in all the half marathons?

Yes, I am busy, especially as I moved school in January, but I firmly believe that if you want to do something you’ll find the time from somewhere. My routine is that I run two or three 5ks at 6am on weekdays, in order to keep my fitness levels up for the half marathons on weekends. The half marathons take approximately two hours, as I’m not the fastest runner, but by mid morning on the weekend it’s done. This seems a good use of time, as I expect I’d only be faffing around the house for those couple of hours otherwise!

Do your pupils know what you’re doing? What do they think about it?

The staff are aware, and some of the older age group of students are too, but I didn’t want to make a big fuss of it early on, in case things didn’t work out. As I’m quite a way in now, I’ll probably start to advertise it more from September. The response has been supportive but also some confusion as to how/why I would want to go through the pain of running 52 halves. My three children also go to the same school, so they’ve been telling their friends too!

When do you expect to complete the challenge?

I’m ahead of schedule, so I’m hoping to be done in November, and ideally would like to finish the last run with an event at the Spurs stadium. I’d love to have loads of people there to join in on foot or bikes or whatever, for some of the distance. Dave was a huge Spurs fan, so this would be a lovely chance to mark the end of the event at a place he loved. At this stage, I’m awaiting confirmation from Spurs but please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Again a huge thank you to Philip for doing this for us, I couldn’t sum it up better than his fellow runner - 52 halves in 52 weeks - absolute hero!!

Dec 2022 Update:

Teacher Philip has now completed all of the half marathons and had this to say:

"I decided to set an earlier date so that family and friends could join me, for part/all of the run. It was lovely to have people join me, running or cycling distances from 5k to the full 13.1 miles. We did 4 loops out and back from my house, switching runners/cyclists as we did so. I also had supporters at home providing food and drink for everyone too, so it all felt very special. We took a moment at the start to remember David Bodell, in whose memory I was running, which was a touching moment.

The day went perfectly and we were able to attract a few more donations! I also got a mention by our Headteacher in the whole school assembly, so many hundreds of students were introduced to the illness (staff also had had emails from me!)

Looking forward to further challenges next year and beyond!"

A great big thank you from us to Philip for achieving this amazing feat.

If you’d like to donate to support Philip please click here.

In memory of Dave Bodell