{"id":7549,"date":"2015-11-17T17:47:18","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T17:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=7549"},"modified":"2015-11-17T17:47:18","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T17:47:18","slug":"runner-visits-cardiff-76th-consecutive-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/11\/17\/runner-visits-cardiff-76th-consecutive-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Runner visits Cardiff for 76th consecutive marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7576\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7576\" style=\"width: 740px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/401-team-2-.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-7576 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/401-team-2-.jpg\" alt=\"401 team (2)\" width=\"740\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7576\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7576 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/401-team-2-.jpg\" alt=\"401 team (2)\" width=\"740\" height=\"300\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> <strong>Ben Smith (far right) with Cardiff runners ahead of his 76th consecutive marathon.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nRUNNER Ben Smith stopped off in Cardiff at the weekend to take on his 76th consecutive marathon, as part of a\u00a0challenge to run 401 in 401 days.<br \/>\nThe 33-year-old Bristol-based running fanatic set himself the unenviable task to raise \u00a3250,000 for charity.<br \/>\nBen has run a marathon every day since he started on September 1 and is now nearly a fifth of the way to his target.<br \/>\nWith\u00a0his final 26.2 miles not until October 5 next year in his home city of Bristol this is clearly not a challenge that Ben undertook lightly.<br \/>\n\u201cI\u2019ve given up everything for this. I\u2019ve sold my house, quit my job and sold all my belongings. Everything I own is in my camper van now. But when you are running for a cause you believe in so deeply, it\u2019s easy to get up in the morning feeling energised.\u201d<br \/>\nThis was Ben\u2019s second run in Cardiff after pounding the streets on Friday. Ahead of Sunday\u2019s marathon he was full of praise and admiration for the locals who have supported him throughout.<br \/>\n\u201cThe reception in Cardiff has been massively positive. One of the ladies from the Les Croupiers running club was kind enough to put me up in her home both tonight and Friday. We\u2019re hoping for a huge turnout today and more people than ever to join me on the run. I\u2019m always humbled when people offer their support, but Cardiff has been particularly great.\u201d<br \/>\nThe people of Cardiff did not let Ben down as he had his biggest following of his challenge so far, with 56 runners joining him on the day.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7562\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7562\" style=\"width: 282px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-17-at-14.35.51.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7562\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-17-at-14.35.51.png\" alt=\"Ben Smith\" width=\"282\" height=\"346\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7562\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7562\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-17-at-14.35.51.png\" alt=\"Ben Smith\" width=\"282\" height=\"346\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> <strong>Ben Smith has already completed 75 marathons around the UK this year<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThe monumental challenge is in aid of two charities close to Ben\u2019s heart.<br \/>\n\u201cI\u2019m running for Stonewall and Kidscape. Stonewall is an LGBT charity and they helped me a lot as I was bullied at school because of my sexuality. I was living the life others wanted me to live but thanks to Stonewall I was able to live how I want and love the man I love. Kidscape are also great and they look at ways of practically helping to stop bullying in schools.\u201d<br \/>\nBefore he took on the challenge, Ben had run a few marathons but was far from an accomplished runner.<br \/>\n\u201cI only really took up running two and a half years ago; I was overweight and not very healthy. I found that running helped with my depression too. I know it\u2019s a clich\u00e9 but running has saved my life.\u201d<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7561\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7561\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/410-wristbands.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7561\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/410-wristbands-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"Wristbands \" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7561\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7561\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/410-wristbands-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"Wristbands \" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> <strong>Support for Ben&#8217;s challenge has been growing by the day.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThe wind picked up and the rain continued to pour as we chatted. I told Ben that I couldn\u2019t think of anything worse than running in this weather.<br \/>\nBen was more optimistic: \u201cActually this is pretty nice weather. We were in Swansea yesterday and we were battling 40mph winds. This is a beautiful day in comparison.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cThe route around Cardiff is a great one through the parks in the city. It\u2019s the same as the one I ran on Friday and it\u2019s been devised by local runners.\u201d<br \/>\nBen will be running around the UK every day for the next year and is hoping to raise as much money and awareness as possible.<br \/>\n\u201cIf people want to get involved then just get in touch via our Facebook page or on Twitter. Any ability, any age, I\u2019d love as many people as possible to run alongside me.\u201d<br \/>\nIf you\u2019re interested in donating to the 401 challenge or meeting Ben on one of his runs then visit his website at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.the401challenge.co.uk\">www.the401challenge.co.uk<\/a>.<br \/>\nOr look out for him on 5 September, 2016 as he runs marathon number 371 in Cardiff.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; RUNNER Ben Smith stopped off in Cardiff at the weekend to take on his 76th consecutive marathon, as part of a\u00a0challenge to run 401 in 401 days. The 33-year-old Bristol-based running fanatic set himself the unenviable task to raise \u00a3250,000 for charity. Ben has run a marathon every day since he started on September 1 and is now nearly a fifth of the way to his target. With\u00a0his final 26.2 miles not until October 5 next year in his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":7560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[292],"tags":[3267,634,382,74],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-401-challenge","tag-marathon","tag-running","tag-sport-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Runner visits Cardiff for 76th consecutive marathon - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/11\/17\/runner-visits-cardiff-76th-consecutive-marathon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Runner visits Cardiff for 76th consecutive marathon - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; RUNNER Ben Smith stopped off in Cardiff at the weekend to take on his 76th consecutive marathon, as part of a\u00a0challenge to run 401 in 401 days. 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