Runner's seven marathons in seven days challenge

An intrepid runner will join about 50,000 people lining up to complete the London Marathon on Sunday – for his seventh marathon of the week.

Chris Fordham started his challenge, which will see him covering more than 200 miles, from Blakeney in Gloucestershire earlier.

The pilot has already raised about £8,000 for Samaritans after a friend's death last year and plans to run through Wiltshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire on his way to the capital.

"Because I have done one marathon before you can't really ask people to sponsor you for something they know you can do so I thought I'd do something a bit different," he said.

Fordham, from Blakeney, said his first - and to date only - London Marathon eight years ago taught him "how important mindset is" to get through challenges like his long run.

He decided on his current challenge in June but his progress was stalled for two months late last year after he suffered a slipped disc.

As part of this week's adventure, he plans to run to Reading, where he attended Reading School, from Oxford on Thursday.

He will then run from Reading to Windsor on Friday and then from Windsor to Greenwich a day later in preparation for Sunday's marathon.

"It's really difficult to know [what will happen] because I haven't done anything like this before," he said.

"I know I can run for a decent amount of time, for at least three or four days.

"I think the real test is going to be getting to day four or five. Those are the days where I'm going to be finding it the hardest – the days into Reading from Oxford and then out of Reading again."