Josh’s 2.6 Challenge

On Sunday 26th April, our Events Manager, Josh Watson, should have been cheering on our amazing London Marathon team as they tackled the world-famous 26.2 mile race.

However, as the race has been postponed until October 4th, he instead decided to do something else for the charity and took part in the 2.6 Challenge, an initiative set up to help UK charities in this tough time.

Below, in his own words, you can read about his experience and how you can still get involved in the 2.6 Challenge.

The Marathon Postponement


When the news broke that the London Marathon was being postponed until October, I was heartbroken. Our amazing team of runners had put so much effort into training for the race and fundraising for the charity, I felt so bad that they were having to wait to realise their dream of running the famous race and that they would need to re-start their training programs later in the year.

The decision to postpone was, of course, the correct decision, one which we fully support, but that doesn’t dampen the disappointment for myself or Team PCR. I spent weeks trying to figure out what I could do on the 26th April, with the runners, to boost morale and to highlight the fact that, even though the marathon was not taking place that day, we were still a team.

Enter the 2.6 Challenge!

The 2.6 Challenge


The organisers of the London Marathon, along with other mass participation sports events organisers, created the 2.6 Challenge to help the UK’s charities. From 26th April, the public would be asked to do an activity involving the numbers 2.6 or 26 and raise money for a chosen charity. I thought this would be a great thing for our team to do together and I started brainstorming about what challenge I could do to take part and finally decided to run 26 laps of my flat block’s car park.

I reached out to Team PCR and asked them to come up with their own challenge and take part with me. The event was set and now all I needed to do was wake up on the 26th and actually run the 26 laps!

Ready, Go!


I woke up Sunday morning, kind of regretting agreeing to run 26 laps of the car park – why couldn’t I have said I would do 2.6 minutes of walking or something like that?! But I was running for a good cause and for a great team so I got ready and headed down to the car park to start my laps. My fiance captured the whole thing on video and took some snaps, like the one to the right, and once it was all done I sent the videos to Team PCR, thanking them for their support and that I was looking forward to supporting them towards the October marathon.

Members of the team then started sharing what they had done for the 2.6 Challenge and told me that they were looking forward to smashing the marathon in October. It made me so happy and I am so grateful for their support of the charity. They all had their own little twist on the challenge and it was amazing, some examples of what happened:

  • Joel ran up a hill 26 times which ended up being a half marathon.
  • Emie walked 26,200 steps
  • Sarah ran 2.6 miles and rallied her friends and family to get involved and they did everything from swimming 26 lengths to taking the dog for a 26 minute walk.
  • Sergio and Chris ran 26km each.
  • Claire ran up a hill 26 times whilst her kids did 26 jumps.

You Can Still Take Part!


If you wanted to take part to help raise money for PCR, you still have time! Decide what you want to do and then join the 2.6 Challenge.

Go to this page to register and set up your page for the 2.6 Challenge. Donate to your own page to kick start things, I suggest £26 to keep on theme but you can do as little or as much as you would like, and then share the page with your friends and family. Every donation helps, one of my friends even sponsored me for £2.60 because he thought it was funny, I really appreciated it.

Once you have the page up and running, decide when you are going to do the challenge and then have fun with it!

Not Sure What To Do?


Here is some inspiration for you:

  • Plank for 2.6 minutes.
  • Bake 26 cakes and doorstop deliver to your neighbours, ask them to donate.
  • Throw a ball without dropping it for 26 minutes.
  • Star jump 26 times.
  • Complete a large puzzle in 26 minutes.
  • Walk for 2.6 miles.
  • Jog up and down the stairs 26 times.
  • Do some gardening for 26 minutes.
  • Knit a complete set of scarf, hat and gloves in 2.6 hours.
  • Flip a pancake 26 times.

Still stuck? Check out the challenge website for some more inspiration.

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