Two years after the tragic death of Sebastian English, a 15-year-old boy at Lord Wandsworth College, 15 teachers and pupils ran the Bath Half-marathon in support of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).
Seb died of a rare genetic disorder that had also claimed his father’s life 12 years previously and CRY seeks to raise awareness of the syndrome which every week claims the lives of eight “apparently” fit and healthy young people in the UK from undiagnosed heart conditions.
The bonus for the eight upper sixth boys from Hazelveare House, Seb’s old house, and the seven male and one female member of staff was they were running with some of the most famous names from world rugby of the past 20 years.
Simon Halliday, the ex-England and Bath captain is a patron of CRY as he was a close friend of Seb’s father and he invited the college to join his team.
So after a 7.15am start from Hampshire, two hours later the staff and pupils were breakfasting in the Bath RFC clubhouse with Will Carling, Jason Leonard, Michael Lynagh, Mike Teague, and many others as well as BBC presenter John Inverdale.
Ten of the 15 school team members had never run a half marathon before, but all survived the experience and, of course, all recorded a personal best, which for some was around 90 minutes.
Perhaps special mention should be made of the only female member of the team, geography teacher Sam Ludlow, who in seven weeks went from complete beginner to a two-hour half marathoner. The team had trained together for only 10 weeks, but with warm sunshine and enthusiastic support from parents and friends, it was a relatively painless, and even enjoyable occasion.
The school has supported the runners and more importantly CRY by a mufti day and a sizeable sum has been passed on to the charity.
