Despite multiple injuries, tough training regimes and terrible traffic, a pair of dedicated vets have run 10 marathons in 10 days to help equines in desperate need.
Carolyne Crowe and Brian Faulkner successfully completed their Ten2London challenge at the London Marathon on 23 April.
They exceeded their £10,000 target, having so far raised nearly £15,000 for Brooke, with money still coming in.
“We did it, 10 marathons in 10 days and we’re still in great spirits!” said Carolyne after completing the final run in the capital.
“It’s amazing what you can achieve when you dare to dream.”
Speaking about their gruelling training schedule Brian said: “Carolyne did twice as much training as I did.
“Carolyne spoke to Greg Whyte, who coached Eddie Izzard for his runs [27 marathons in 27 days for Sport Relief], and Carolyne would feed back what he’d said.
“I remember she told me we had to do a week of half marathons in March, and then we had to get comfortable doing back-to-back marathons every weekend, and I thought ‘yeah, right!’ But do you know what? That is what had to happen.”
Carolyne, from Gloucestershire and Brian, from Suffolk, started their gruelling 260-mile journey in Wahilgoe, Northern Scotland, on 14 April.
Travelling across the country, they faced punishing terrains from Land’s End to Orkney, and from Galway in Ireland to Wales.
They both suffered from injuries over the ten days. Carolyne’s knees became increasingly painful and Brian was struggling with his shins and legs.
Brian said one of the biggest challenges was running along the roads in Galway during their sixth marathon.
“In Galway the traffic, the lorries, the buses, the cars, was incessant,” he said.
“I got a little bit irritated with that but then you think about those working donkeys and horses in India and Egypt and other countries and what they have to endure day in day out must be unbelievable.
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“Would I do another marathon? I wouldn’t say no, but I have no itch to scratch right now. But that’s what I said last year!”
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