A BETWS-y-Coed husband and wife team have completed a Snowdonia virtual marathon and raised hundreds of pounds for charity.

Ben Hudson and Sarah Ferguson Hudson completed the challenge just over a week ago on the same day as Ben celebrated his birthday.

The pair, who are members of North Wales Road Runners, decided to run the full 26.2 miles virtual route after hearing the original race was being postponed due to current coronavirus restrictions. Entrants were given the option of running the marathon in one attempt, or spread over several days.

Although the couple ran their own challenges separately, they both used some of the magnificent scenery and rural routes close to their Betws-y-Coed home.

Ben said: “Covid 19 has affected so many charities this year so we were hoping to make a very small difference by raising money from our love of running.

“Our initial plans of running both Windermere and Snowdonia marathons this year didn’t quite go to plan, with both cancelled, so we decided to do a virtual Snowdonia run, and planned our routes around the beautiful place where we live.

“We both ran a full marathon although on different routes, and the weather wasn’t too bad with only a couple of showers, but it was quite gusty.”

He added he was pleased to just sneak under four hours, recording three hours 58 minutes 27 seconds over a hilly course that included 615 metres of elevation, and when he finally returned home the rest of the day was spent moving as little as possible.

Sarah said: “I have never run a marathon outside a race before, but I ran 26.2 miles all on my tod to complete the Snowdonia Virtual Marathon. My run included 887 metres of climbing, but I definitely did the race justice.”

Sarah finished her challenge in a highly credible four hours 31 minutes 32 seconds.Ben and Sarah have included a JustGiving page to help with their fundraising efforts for the Motor Neurone Disease charity: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sarah-ferguson2020?