Man runs home after first marathon

Published Apr. 20, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

A British runner who completed the London Marathon, then kept going until he reached his hometown 99 miles away, was recovering Wednesday.

Sam Robson, 28, finished the London Marathon on Sunday in three hours and 45 minutes -- but instead of taking a well-deserved rest, he continued running home to St. Ives, in central England.

The second journey took Robson 25 hours and 15 minutes, making his total run 125 miles in an extraordinary 29 hours, the Cambridge News reported.

A crowd gathered in St. Ives to welcome back Robson when he arrived at 2:45pm local time Monday.

"Apart from running through the night, the hardest part was probably stopping at the checkpoints every seven miles or so on the way home. It was difficult to get the rhythm back, but I got through," Robson said. "About two miles from the end, my hip started to give way."

The extreme running effort was Robson's first marathon. "I would do something like this again, and the fact this was my first marathon was something that has really spurred me on," he said.

Robson's fiancee, Jen Sykes, also 28, said that she was "kind of amazed that he made it," adding that "Sam has never wanted to do things by the half."

Robson, who was diagnosed with epilepsy as a teenager, used his run to raise at least £3,246 ($5,315) for the UK Epilepsy Society.