Ealing student runs 18 marathons in 18 days during lockdown

Fin Hampton, a 23-year-old studying public health at West London University, has completed a variety of running challenges throughout the year.

Fin said: “I’ve always ran but I’ve not always done the crazy distances that’s come around the past year.

“I played football but as soon as I stopped, running took over.”

So far this year, Fin has run over 50 marathons despite Covid-19 and of those, he knows which ones were the most challenging. 

Fin said: “When I ran a marathon on my balcony, it was the hardest one yet.

It was only one marathon, but I had to do 2500 laps of my balcony.

“The next jump was to run a back to back marathon, 52 miles, at the time when we could only exercise once a day.

“I had to run at 8pm all the way through till 4/5am the next day.”

Fin's most recent achievement was running 18 marathons in 18 days.

As well as feeling the positive effects running has had on his mental health, he hoped to get people’s attention and see that anyone can run a marathon if they put their mind to it.

Fin completed all the marathons without any training, and once he completed his first marathon, he couldn’t wait to do another.

He said: “It got me hooked.

“It was really hard, but I realised if I could do that, so many more people could.

“This is what made me keep pushing the boundaries and make it a little bit harder each time.”

Throughout his 18 day challenge, Fin's favourite places to run through were south Ealing to Battersea and back, and along the River Thames.

He said: “It was a lonely challenge, hours and hours by myself running. My brother and friend ran with me once but apart from that it was just me.

“I would like to do something away from running in the New Year, change it up a little.

“I haven’t thought of an idea for that yet but my current big goal would be to eventually run around the whole of England.

“I’m not too sure when but at the moment, I’m just going to enjoy chilling for a few months.”