A PRIMARY school teacher from Royston has raised more than £1,000 for a local Scouts group by completing a 72-mile run around Barnsley - just a few years after recovering from seizures.
Elly Roberts, 37, says she finds running around the town ‘relaxing’ - and it’s a good job after she ran the Barnsley Boundary on Saturday.
The 72-mile trek, which most people usually walk, spans the entirety of the borough.
The route takes in a mixture of footpaths, parkland, tracks and roads.
Usually run or walked in 12 shorter sections, Elly actually ran the trek in one continuos loop - taking her 18 hours, 55 minutes and 18 seconds to complete.
It’s all the more impressive as after recovering from Covid in 2022, Elly began to suffer with severe fatigue which resulted in her suffering seizures.
She told the Chronicle: “I’ve been running since 2012.
“I started doing Couch to 5K then and for the last ten years I’ve been running different distances.
“The longest run before this was a 50-mile run from Leeds Railway Station but the Barnsley Boundary was 72 miles.
“I began to suffer with severe fatigue for a long period following Covid which ultimately resulted in seizures.
“It has been a long road back to a place where I can manage my medical conditions and run again.
“It wasn’t the best for me - it took at least a year to get back to running shorter distances again.”
Elly started running at 5.45am on Saturday morning, and didn’t finish until the early hours of Sunday morning.
But she was supported by a number of people who took part in sections of the run.
She added: “Running is what I do to relax.
“Some people like to go to a spa but I’d much rather be on a muddy track.
“Saturday was really food.
“It went a lot better than I expected it to.
“I had posted on some local running groups about what I was doing so I had a few runners join me for different legs.
“The hardest part of it was the weather but I expected it to be a lot worse.”
Impressively, Elly says she’s hoping to use Saturday’s trek as a ‘warm up’ for another event later this year.
“I’m going to be doing the Lake District 50 in July,” she added.
“It’s not as long as the Barnsley Boundary but the assent is much higher.
“This was part of the training for that event I guess.”
But she didn’t just complete the run at the weekend for her own good, she’s done it to support the Royston Scouts group that her daughter Chloe attends.
She said: “Royston Scout group are currently raising money to purchase their own building.
“As a fully inclusive group, they bring so much joy and opportunity to the young people of Barnsley.
“They’ve been raising money for probably two years now.
“We’ve managed to raise just over £1,000 which is great.
“I’m really pleased.”
If you’d like to donate to the fundraiser, follow the link on the Barnsley Chronicle website.
