Marathon of Marathons: €1.2m and picking up speed

With €220,000 having been raised in the last two weeks alone, the Marathon of Marathons fundraising effort is now proud to boast pledges of more than €1.2 million on its way to a €2.5 million target. This makes it the largest ever fundraising initiative by the private equity and infrastructure investment communities and will help in the fight to secure a better future for children around the world.  

Last week saw the launch of the Marathon of Marathons Supporters Club, backed by industry associations the EVCA and BVCA. Joining the Supporters Club requires a minimum contribution of €2,500. The names of each and every Supporters Club member will be published in various print and online publications, including those of PEI, from 8 October (though supporters will still be gratefully accepted after this date). The members will be listed in order of donation size to encourage some healthy competition! Although we will not specify the amount as we are grateful of all donations.

The Supporters Club is already proving a great success. In just the past week alone, new joiners have included: GPs Barings Asia, Bowmark Capital, HgCapital, Milestone Capital and Permira; service providers Factset and The Laurus Group; and private investor network Pi Capital. Details of how to join the Supporters Club can be found at www.marathonofmarathons.org.

The Marathon of Marathons is continuing to recruit new runners to ensure that a full complement of 250 is on the starting line ahead of the historic run/walk from Marathon to Athens. In the last two weeks, 14 extra participants have boldly volunteered themselves for the challenge – in the process aiming to raise up to €10,000 each.

Half the money raised will go to UNICEF’s efforts to assist children devastated by tragedies such as the flooding in Pakistan and earthquake in Haiti. The other half will go to children’s charities focusing on specific individual initiatives.    

For those involved, preparations have now reached a critical stage. A team of London-based runners were recently put through their paces by comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, who, freshly returned from Broadway, led a training session and passed on valuable tips. Anyone who has completed 43 marathons in 51 days, as Izzard notably did in a recent fundraising effort for Sport Relief, has to be worth paying close attention to.

The Marathon of Marathons – organised by Campbell Lutyens, PEI Media and UNICEF – commemorates the 2,500-year anniversary of the Battle of Marathon and Pheidippides’ epic run in 490 BC with news of victory. It will be an unforgettable day as the runners trace Pheidippides’ footsteps all the way to the finishing line at the Panathinaiko stadium, home of the modern Olympic Games.  

In the weeks ahead, we will be conducting interviews with some of the Marathon of Marathon participants as they reveal their training secrets and targeted finish times (and maybe who they’d most like to beat).