This summer, Jason Arday, a 24 year old sports lecturer at Richmond upon Thames College in Clapham, decided to take on a momentous challenge; to run 30 marathons in 35 days in aid of ‘Shelter’ and ‘Shooting Star’ charities.
Jason has been fundraising for a variety of causes for seven years and at the age of 17 decided that he wanted to raise £250, 000 before his fiftieth birthday. Ever since then he has been devoted to his cause. He was inspired to set himself this target after being invited to volunteer at a homeless shelter in December 2002. His most recent challenge, 30 Marathons in 35 Days, has sparked a huge amount of interest and he has already smashed his target of raising £5,000 by doing something that many perceive to be impossible.
When the team at CompressYourself heard about his plans, we knew that he would be an inspiration to sportsmen and women everywhere, and that is what Jason has proven himself to be! Being the leading retailer of Sports Compression and base layer clothing, we wanted to show our undivided support for Jason and, teaming with 2XU, donated two sets of compression clothing to help Jason in any way possible. One specific item Jason used was the 2XU Recovery Tights, which proved extremely useful in aiding his recovery after each marathon and kept him going throughout his gruelling yet inspirational mission. As the days got longer and the summer drew on, Jason continued running, clocking up an impressive 786 miles over the 35 day period.
Towards the end of Jason’s inspiration mission, support levels were huge and Jason decided that to commemorate what he had done he wanted to invite all his supporters to join him for the last 2 miles of his final marathon. To show our respect and support for Jason and his cause, we decided that all of us at CompressYourself would join Jason for those final 2 miles and hand out complimentary orange charity T-shirts to all supporters.
On Sunday 22nd August, Jason Arday completed his 30th marathon in 35 days. We arrived at Sloane Square Tube Station, where we met Jason and his supporters for his final stint. The atmosphere and camaraderie was inspiring and overwhelming as a huge number of people turned up to show their support. It was an absolutely fantastic day and the atmosphere was electric as a wave of orange t-shirts raced through the streets of London in support of Jason, ‘Shelter’ and ‘Shooting Star Childrens Hospice’.
