Adventurer Rosie Swale Pope takes a look at her new-look Icebird ahead of her 26 marathons in 26 days challenge, together with Matthew and Sophie Evans, of Activity Wales and Coastal Cottages Pembrokeshire, who are organising the new Tenby marathon. Observer pic.
Would you like the opportunity of running a marathon with round-the-world adventurer Rosie Swale Pope MBE?
Well if so, you will have the chance to do so in just over a week’s time.
Twenty-five volunteers are being sought to each run a mile with the Tenby grandmother as she embarks on her 26 marathons in 26 days challenge.
Rosie is stepping out on her latest epic task to raise money for two children’s hospices.
The first marathon on her 681.2-mile journey will be in her very own home town as she launches Tenby’s new Wales Marathon.
Rosie is teaming up with Matthew Evans, chief executive of Activity Wales, and company director Scott Powell to promote the exciting three-day gruelling event which is being hosted by Tenby in September.
Rosie, 63, will run the 26.2-mile course on Easter Monday, April 5, pulling her famous cart Icebird, which accompanied her for a large part of her 21,000-mile global trek.
But the organisers are looking for people to join her to run ‘Rosie pace’ a mile each in a relay.
The willing volunteers will be welcome to raise their own sponsorship for Ty Hafan, the family hospice in Cardiff, and Helen House in Oxford, the world’s first children’s hospice, and Douglas House, also in Oxford, the first for young people.
“To be able to say you have run a marathon with Rosie Swale Pope MBE is quite something,” Matthew told the Observer.
“And we are giving people that opportunity right on their doorstep,” he continued.
“If every person who volunteers helps Rosie by raising £40 each that’s an extra £1,000 for the fund which will be a great boost.”
All the 25 runners will then be asked to join Rosie for the last mile and follow her into Tudor Square.
Mayor of Tenby, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane, will be giving the event a civic salute, but at the time of going to press, she had not revealed whether or not she would actually be accompanying Rosie for one of the one-mile legs!
The Wales Marathon itself will be Pembrokeshire’s first ever measured marathon and will be held on Sunday, September 26, as part of the Long Course Weekend. The whole event will include the 1,500 and 3,000-metre Wales Swim on Friday, September 24, 40, 80 or 120-mile Wales Sportif bike rides on the Saturday, followed by the full marathon and a half marathon which will start and finish in Tenby on the Sunday.
The event is being organised by Matthew, Scott and Activity Wales. Both are well-known athletes, with Matthew having completed 10 marathons in 10 days and the Ironman Austria last year, while this year, he will be racing Ironman Lanzarote in May, before he attempts Ironman UK in August in fancy dress! The latter he will be raising money for Rotary.
The marathon course will see runners complete loops heading out from Tenby towards Manorbier and back along The Ridgeway to Penally and Tenby.
Rosie plans to start her journey a week on Monday at around 8 am, starting from the top of Tudor Square, finishing in the centre of Tenby’s Tudor Square mid-afternoon.
To sign up to be one of the 25 volunteers, visit www.thewalesmarathon.com and follow the links on the home page. Helpers are also needed in Tudor Square for the finish.
“If you are available on Monday and don’t fancy running, please come out in Tenby, Penally, Lydstep, Lydstep Beach or along The Ridgeway and support Rosie,” said Scott.
Participants at the September event will be able to raise funds for their own charities, but there will be an overall charity that the event will support.
Participants can enter as many of the races as they want, with finishers receiving medals which will, if all three are completed, form a jigsaw to create the unique Long Course Weekend medal. Rosie’s other 25 marathons will all be in Wales and England.
Said Rosie: “I am very proud to be running the new Tenby marathon first and I will be telling people about how wonderful Tenby and Pembrokeshire is everywhere I go.
“I was inspired by Matthew doing his 10 marathons in 10 days and also comedian Eddie Izzard who did 43 marathons in 51 days,” she continued.
“I have been in training, but I will get fitter as the marathons go on. The main thing is I complete all 26 of them, even if I end up crawling on my knees to finish. It is a huge challenge which I am looking forward to.”
Rosie has just had her new-look Icebird back, complete with a new cover which she had fitted in Surrey and all the logos of her supporters which have been put on by Rob Thomas.
“I am so lucky to have supporters like Coastal Cottages Pembrokeshire who have had faith in me right from the start when I left home on my round-the-world challenge, and also support from Jeff, Ann Rowell and Rotary, and all my friends, family and neighbours,” added Rosie.
Some of the marathons Rosie will be undertaking are half marathon routes, so she will run them twice, while when she reaches Brighton, she will be running the route on the actual marathon day.
Rosie’s schedule
April 5 - Tenby; April 6 - Cardiff; April 7 - Bristol; April 8 - Bath; April 9 - Sturminster Newton; April 10 - Isle of Wight; April 11 - Portsmouth; April 12 - Hastings; April 13 - Barns Green; April 14 - Tunbridge Wells; April 15 - Roding Valley; April 16 - London; April 17 - Southend; April 18 - Brighton; April 19 - Wokingham; April 20 - Bury St. Edmunds; April 21 - Halstead; April 22 - Brentwood; April 23 - Milton Keynes; April 24 - Luton; April 25 - Bungay; April 26 - Bracknell; April 27 - Reading; April 28 - Windsor; April 29 - Stratford; April 30 - Llanelli.
• If you would like to sponsor Rosie for her 26-marathon challenge, you can do so by logging onto www.justgiving.com/rosie_swale_pope
Sponsor forms can also be found at Coastal Cottages’ Tenby office, Kate Blair Hairdressers, Webb Computers and Weybourne Guest House.
Details about the Long Course Weekend can be found at www.longcourseweekend.com and www.thewalesmarathon.com where entries are being accepted.
