If you are someone who enjoys walks in the countryside surrounding Wiveliscombe, you may at some point, have bumped into either Chris Perry, Dave Lonsdale-Eccles or both out running. Regular runners, they had both previously run up to the Marathon distance of 26.2 miles on a few occasions.
On Saturday 13th October, they set themselves the much bigger target of 40+ miles, in order to raise awareness and sponsorship for Wiveliscombe Town Hall. They gave themselves a really tough challenge to show their determination to help with this worthy cause. They chose Glastonbury to start their quest as it has a grand and functioning town hall of its own. They planned a route nearly all on footpaths, across the Levels, over the M5, under Bridgwater, on to the Quantocks to Triscombe, down to Brompton Ralph and finishing at the Town Hall in Wivey.
On the day the weather forecast was for heavy rain and strong winds. They set off from Glastonbury Town Hall at just after 6am and sure enough they were running in the dark, into wind and driving rain! Fortunately as the skys lightened, the rain eased and despite the continuing winds, the rest of the day stayed dry and the sun even came out at times! With the help of a support crew who provided extra food, drinks and dry socks at four scheduled stops, the run went well. Chris did admit to getting a little light-headed around mile 34, but an extra handful of jelly babies saw him through!
Finally at just before 5pm they were spotted running down from the Quarry above Langley Marsh where family and friends ran with them towards Wiveliscombe. They ran along North Street where they were encouraged with cheers from the Bear, finally finishing outside the Town Hall to a rapturous welcome from local people who had turned out to meet them, just over 41 miles and under 11 hours from the start!
£2500 was raised for the Town Hall. The money will go with other funds recently raised by the WTHT to get the planning stage of the refurbishment underway. It’s a very exciting time for the Town Hall after many years of hard work. Chris and Dave would like to thank everyone for their kind donations and support and would like to encourage people to continue to support the WTHT.