On 4^th October 2020, braving terrible weather, a four runner team supported by their amazing crew ran a marathon around Rutland Water to replicate the Virgin Money London Marathon, which was cancelled due to Covid-19 to support us.

After completing the marathon, Lucy said “The Rutland marathon route was quite brutal (one of the runners had sustained a hip injury) especially as it was quite hilly and along with the awful weather, it was challenging, to say the least! We only had 4-5 weeks of training after deciding to do this and three of us had never run beyond a half marathon, so it was quite tough both physically and mentally during the last half of the marathon but we all soldiered on together, spurring each other on to complete it. We were lucky to have our amazing support crew, Katie, who ran parts of the route with us and supplied us with refreshments, painkillers and encouragement! Overall, it was an experience that we will never, ever forget.”

The team chose to run for two main reasons. Lucy explains, “We chose CPSL Mind charity as everyone in Team Hakka Moy have experienced some kind of mental health issues in one form or another and running (and food) was always our go-to therapy so we thought we’d run the Virtual London Marathon together and support the charity to help raise mental health awareness and funds to get the help people need.”

Catherine Keating our Community Fundraiser said, “The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting people’s mental wellbeing in many different ways and, in response to increased levels of anxiety, isolation and loneliness, we have adapted our existing services – and developed new ones.

With demand for our services remaining high we are extremely grateful to Team Hakka Moy for highlighting the importance of exercise and mental health. The runners helped to raise awareness and funding for our services – a huge thank to everyone involved.”

If you are interested in fundraising for us contact Catherine Keating on catherine.keating@cpslmind.org.uk or call us on 0300 303 4363.