People and Personalities

At 10:55am on Wednesday 2nd September 2009, Andrew Dobie completed his 350 mile run from his home town to Edinburgh.

The epic journey had taken just 24 days and meant that he had run nearly a marathon a day since setting off from Hertfordshire in August!

Andrew, 26, who ran with his friends Chris Vernon-Smith, 26, and Dave Oswin 24, set himself this challenge as a way of raising money for the Stroke Association and Action for Children, two charities close to his heart.

“My granddad died in 2006 and he’d had lots of strokes in his last few years” explained Andrew.

“When I was younger he told me to play loads of different sports which is why I still play them all now, so when he died I wanted to do something that’s personal to both of us and I though a sporting event would mark that properly.

“He was from Scotland originally and I’ve lived in Harpenden all my life so I decided to run between the two places.”

Andrew reaches Birmingham

Target

The hard work has now paid off because it is believed that Andrew has now passed his initial £5000 target. 

His achievement is even more remarkable when you take into account that Andrew has not always been this fit!

“That’s right, I had Glandular Fever and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which lasted for about six years” he revealed.

“I went up to about 18 stone, I couldn’t play any sports and was quite depressed. When my granddad died, that was when the change happened. I wanted to do something and I knew I had to get myself fit to do it, so I’ve worked really hard over the past two or three years to get my self back to my previous fitness and to do this thing.”

Emotional

Needless to say, his arrival in Edinburgh was an emotional moment for him.

“It wasn’t at first” explained Andrew, “then my friend Chris, who was videoing everything, asked me if it was the greatest moment of my life and when I was describing that I got a bit tearful!

“It’s definitely the greatest moment and the greatest achievement of my life! It’s hard to put into words, it’s been such a battle mentally and physically. But constantly having the thought about my granddad in the background spurring me on, and raising all the money has been fantastic.”

Inspired

It hasn’t been easy though, but just as things were getting really tough, he encountered a famous face which inspired him to the finish!

“It got really hard in the last three days” continued Andrew, “and then bizarrely we drove past Eddie Izzard, who’s running a marathon a day for about 30 days all over the UK!

“We decided to go back and speak to him and spoke to him for about two or three minutes. Then I cheekily asked him if he wanted to come into our camper van for a cup of tea and there we chatted for about a quarter of an hour about our various experiences up and down the country. It was amazing – we could have been any place at that time but we happened to meet up. We managed to film it all so it’s all on our Website!

“He looked a lot less fit than me - which he probably won’t mind me saying! - but he’s running a bit further than me and he’s a little bit older so he’s doing really, really well! And it’s for a great cause – Sport Relief!”

The run has been hard work but Andrew is certain that there will be more mad ideas in the pipeline!

“Definitely” he said, “this won’t be the last, it will be the first of many.

“I really, really enjoy doing this sort of thing and helping people. Charity work is something that I could see myself doing in the future.

“But it’s also something that I couldn’t have done without the help of my family and friends” he added, “my mum and dad and brother James, my friends Chris, Dave and Ian who helped me on the trip and Marie at home who made my Website. If it wasn’t for all those guys I wouldn’t have made it here!”