Running the Marathon - as a Guide Runner

Paul Lewis, ultra runner and Run England group leader, and running coach for over 20 years is always looking for a new challenge.  Having attended an England Athletics Sight Loss Awareness and Guide Running workshop in January, he acted as a Guide Runner to a visually impaired athlete at this year's London Marathon.

Indeed, he finally got to run his first London Marathon, after 32 years as a marathoner, and it was as a Guide!  Paul told us, "It was a special experience to help visually impaired Canadian runner EJ Scott, who is attempting to run a marathon on each of the 7 continents during 2016."

Paul is training to run 50 marathons in 50 days this summer.  "I had already run the 7 miles from home to the Mall and then the Marathon route in reverse during the night as a warm up."

The following Wednesday he planned a route and got to run another marathon with Ben Smith (pictured top) who is attempting to run 401 marathons in as many days. His 240th has been successfully completed.

Paul doesn't ignore his running groups whilst training and competing - a week later he completed another 26.2 miles on the last really long [20 miles] spring marathon training session with one of his his Run England groups - viewtube runners in the Olympic Park, Stratford.  He  currently leads a number of Run England groups which 'specialise' in Half Marathon, and particularly Marathon training.

• Click here to find out more about our Sight Loss Awareness and Guide Running workshops
• Click here to go to our Find A Guide national database
• Click here to find a running group near you
• Click here to find out more about viewtube runners