Exmoor Coastal Trail Marathon 2009

Simon Richards, elexa consultant and active member of the Barnt Green Chuggers running club, has entered the Exmoor Coastal Trail Marathon of 2009. Diverse, exaggerated and extreme, the super sized topology of this course makes it arguably one of the most challenging of marathons and definitely a gruelling test of endurance even for the very hardest of trail runners. The event takes place on Saturday 9th May 2009 and the course encompasses wild uplands, thickly wooded combes (valleys), sheltered villages, ancient woodlands, dizzying cliffs and a stretch of coastline that is unsurpassed. There is no course in Britain that offers such a variety of terrain within such a compact area. This truly is trail running territory at its best. The course is very challenging - the record is 4 hours 40 minutes!

Simon does between between 10 and 20 races a year and usually doesn’t do any for charity. This time it's different. He’s raising money for The Geoff Thomas Foundation. You may have have heard of Geoff Thomas, a former professional footballer, Setanta Sports pundit and leukaemia survivor. His foundation deals with providing the funding for clinical trials of drugs to treat blood cancers. Billions of pounds have been spent on medical research and scientists have invented a host of potentially life-saving therapies. But getting them to the patients who need them is a slow process. The Foundation wants to help speed up the delivery of these new drugs to the patients who need them.