HOOK was the pitstop for a runner looking to go one step further than Eddie Izzard’s marathon challenge this autumn.

Ed Wethered recently completed his Raise Your Hands 1000 challenge, a 1,000km run around the UK in support of small charities that work with children.

The Londoner co-founded Raise Your Hands in September 2014 having quit his career in hedge funds, setting the charity up to raise awareness and money for the smaller children’s charities.

The 1,000km run started on August 30 and the mammoth challenge was completed by September 24, when he visited the head offices of 12 charities supported by Raise Your Hands.

The distance covered in that space of time equated to 27 marathons in 26 days, a whole marathon more than comedian Izzard’s Sport Relief challenge.

The 33 year old, who only took up running in the last four years, believes passionately that small charities doing amazing work with children deserve support. 

He believes that while small charities don’t have big marketing budgets, nor a wide support network it doesn’t mean the work that they do is any less important than the big charities.

He arrived in Hook after running 25 miles, a route which started in Woking and took him to Fleet and then saw him follow the roads and hills through the countryside into Hook.

With just one rest day in between for media duties, Ed needed all the support and inspiration possible to carry him through.

Support from within Hook arrived in the form of nearby hotel’s offering him complimentary accommodation for the night, as he had found with the majority of the places he came to rest on the challenge.

He also invited people of all ages and abilities to join him on his runs, and his leg on the first weekend during the challenge, where he ended up in Salisbury, was participated in by over 30 people along the way.

Upon arrival in Wiltshire, The London Beer Factory provided runners with free craft beer from their converted London Beer Taxi, while food and music completed the mini celebrations.

While a 1,000km is the idea of hell to most people, it does also come with some perks, one of which is the chance to use innovative new technology.

Developed in Denmark, and with currently just four in the world, Ed was sent a BeatBringer, a 6kg speaker rucksack which enables the runner and those that join in, the chance to run to music through some of the country’s most beautiful locations.

On his fundraising page, it has been dubbed “like a travelling radio request show hosted by DJ Forest Gump.”

RYH1000 is giving “people around the country the chance to get active and become a part of a national challenge and show their support for small charities working with children in the UK.”

Ed’s fundraising target is set at £30,000 and he is currently at around £26,407.

To donate or find out more about the challenge and its cause, visit raiseyourhands.org.uk/appeal/ryh1000.