ILP members in Lincoln this Saturday (6 June) should keep an eye out for street lighting principal engineer Nathan Poundall, who will that day be completing an astonishing eighth marathon over eight consecutive weekends to raise money for charity.
Nathan’s ‘marathon of marathons’ started in April in Manchester, after which he ran an unofficial local marathon around Lincoln and surrounding villages, and then the Newcastle and Leeds marathons.
He then ran two laps of the Market Harborough half marathon in May, the Edinburgh marathon and two laps again of the Newmarket half marathon.
Throughout, he has been running to raise a grand total of £3,000 for the charity Tiny Tickers.
The charity works to improve early detection rates of cardiac conditions within babies and young children, increase awareness, and support families and their children.
It is very much a charity close to Nathan, who is principal engineer, street lighting at Lincolnshire County Council. His daughter Molly was born in 2021 with a bicuspid aortic valve, a form of congenital heart condition where the heart’s aortic valve only has two flaps instead of three.
While Molly has not yet needed surgery, the likelihood is she may in time need to have her aortic valve replaced, either through open-heart or keyhole surgery.
Nathan’s final marathon this Saturday will hopefully, too, have a social, fun element to it, as he tells Lighting Journal.
“It’s not an official marathon; I live in Lincoln and so it’s just going to be me, some friends and family; I hope to take in some of the sights of Hykeham Road by doing a local seven-kilometre loop six times. In a way, I hope it’ll be a bit of a party!” he says.
Nathan is humble about his achievement. “I do a lot of running anyway and so, yes, this has been more serious than just running a marathon for fun but I’d argue that someone running a marathon who has not been a natural runner before is probably more of an achievement,” he says.
He is also keen to emphasise that, in these tough economic times, people should not feel under any obligation to donate.
“The support I’ve had from people from across the industry, largely through my LinkedIn page, has been very heartening. I’ve had a few people sponsoring me too, which is great,” he says.
“But I am very aware times are quite tight for everybody; every time you fill your car up the cost seems to get more ridiculous. But at the same time, I am trying to do this for a good cause, so whatever support people can give is truly appreciated,” he tells Lighting Journal.
Nathan’s Just Giving page can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/page/molly8in8
Image: Nathan running the Market Harborough half marathon (twice) in May
