See all the outfits from Rebecca’s fancy dress marathon

Rebecca dressed as a Señorita Picture: Rebecca Fish (Image: Archant)

Lockdown has caused most of us to try weird and wonderful things that we may not have thought of doing in our usual, everyday lives. Whether that’s taking a virtual tour of a museum, brushing up on our baking skills or stretching out and trying yoga, we’ve all been given the perfect opportunity to try something we’ve just never got round to doing – and for Rebecca Fish, it was running a marathon in fancy dress.

“I’ve always taken my races too seriously to run in fancy dress, but when I heard that the London Marathon had been postponed, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity.

“I’ve been running on and off for around 15 years, but in 2006 my nephew, Oliver, was born with Cystic Fibrosis, which motivated me to raise money and apply for a charity place in the 2007 London Marathon.

“Since then, I have completed two more London Marathons – the last was in 2011 – and one marathon in Chelmsford, which was in 2018 and a ‘come back’ run after having my daughter. I’ve also competed in lots of other local half marathons and shorter races over the years.

Rebecca dressed as Winnei the Pooh Picture: Rebecca Fish (Image: Archant)

“I was thrilled to achieve a time of 3 hours and 34 minutes during my 2018 marathon as it meant that I qualified as Good for Age. I was hoping to complete in Chelmsford 2019 but I injured my knee, so I began trained for the London Marathon 2020. I was disappointed when it was postponed and although it has been rescheduled for October, I really wanted to complete it as soon as possible – especially as I had raised lots of money for the Cystic Fibrosis charity.

“That’s when I had the idea of running in fancy dress in my garden - it was a fun way to complete the challenge!”

Rebecca’s seven costumes were:

Rebecca dressed as a hot dog Picture: Rebecca Fish (Image: Archant)

Bumblebee: start – mile 5

Hotdog: 5 – 8

Senorita: 8 – 12

Winnie the Pooh: 12 – 13.1

Rebecca finished the race as a superhero Picture: Rebecca Fish (Image: Archant)

Hawaiian: 13.1 – 19

London Guard: 19 – 22

Superhero: 22 – finish

Rebecca dressed as a London guard Picture: Rebecca Fish (Image: Archant)

“I mapped a route from my back garden, down the side of the house and around our front lawn, which was 0.04 of a mile. It worked out at 655 laps but I didn’t count these, I just trusted the GPS on my Garmin watch.

“I didn’t advertise what I was doing before as wanted to make sure I could ‘pull it off’ however my husband had more faith in me and had messaged relatives the night before to let them know and documented the progress on social media throughout the day.

“This led to a number of supporters popping by (all following social distancing rules) as well as a number of people walking through the close keen to know what I was doing running around my garden!

“Running around the garden is completely different to the roads; the pace is a lot slower as you can’t build up speed on the short sections and the constant turns took a toll on my knees and ankles. I eventually competed the distance in a running time of 5 hrs 30 mins but had been out for nearly 7 hours - I had paused on occasions to change costumes and to have a word with supporters and passers-by.

Rebecca dressed as a hawaiian Picture: Rebecca Fish (Image: Archant)

“Dressing up was such a fun! It actually made the whole experience a far greater one and helped me cope with what otherwise what would have been a boring lapped event. I’m thrilled that I completed it and was able to still raise money for charity.”

To donate and support Rebecca, please click here.

Rebecca completed the marathin in just under 5 hours 30 minutes Picture: Rebecca Fish (Image: Archant)

Rebecca ran to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust Picture: Rebecca Fish (Image: Archant)