‘Crazy running lady’ finishes four half marathons in four weeks for charity

A WOMAN from Henley completed four half marathons in four weeks in aid of a friend’s son.

Emma Cutler, 34, who lives off Deanfield Road, completed each run in a different town or city, to raise money for Duchenne UK, a muscular dystrophy charity.

She decided to embark on the fundraiser in support of her friend Alex Clarke, with whom she attends ADVHQ gym in Newtown Road.

Mr Clarke’s 11-year-old son Ben, a pupil at Gillotts School in Henley, was diagnosed with the muscle wasting-condition that causes progressive muscle weakness at age four.

Miss Cutler raised nearly £900 to help fund research into new treatments for the life-limiting disease.

She ran in the Cardiff marathon on Sunday, October 6 and the Oxford half on Sunday 13, before taking on her own route with a friend the following weekend.

Her final race was the Harding Halloween half marathon in New Jersey on Saturday, October 26, which she did while on a trip to visit friends.

Miss Cutler, who works as a nanny, said that her favourite race was her final run in the USA, although she enjoyed the variety of the different routes.

She said: “They were all very different. I enjoyed every one but in a different way. I guess you could say they all had different characteristics.

“Cardiff was great fun because the route was really good. Oxford was tricky, I didn’t love the route and it was a cold morning. The local one I did was very wet and then the one in the US was beautiful.

“I was visiting some friends and there was a race that weekend so I thought I might as well just end it with a bang and it was good fun. It was blue skies, very colourful, the US is great at this time of year. It’s very autumnal and the trees are so pretty.

“It was warm as well so it was nice to see some sunshine and I guess it was the last taste of summer in a way.”

For her third half marathon, Miss Cutler was joined by her friend Amba Jay. They started at her parents’ house in Sonning Common and completed the run in Reading.

She said: “We had a route that takes you down into Reading, just back along the country lanes, down to the river and then into the town. We had to wade through some very large puddles. The water was probably about halfway up our legs.

“We had to run through them as there was no other way of going around. I mean, we could have probably climbed through somebody’s garden, but I didn't think that was appropriate. It was more of an adventure, and a good laugh, my friend and I had good fun.”

To celebrate making it through the puddles after the run the pair enjoyed brunch and a coffee in town.

Miss Cutler, who admits she is known as the “crazy running lady” by her friends, said she didn't find the recovery in the weeks between the races too difficult.

She said: “It was actually fine, I took the weeks in between quite slowly, still running, but nothing major. I guess the one in the US was probably the one I felt most tired because I had jet lag from travelling the day before but it was fine.”

Miss Cutler, who grew up in Sonning Common and attended Peppard Primary School before moving to the US for secondary school, said she first got into running in her early twenties.

She said: “After I came out of university, my friend ran the Amsterdam marathon and I was so inspired by her motivation, I thought, ‘You know what, I would love to do that one day’.

“I started the couch to 5K and I went out every evening after work and just fell in love with it and my running distances grew. It gives me a lot, it gives me time, a bit of headspace, time to think. I just absolutely love it.

“I don’t do it for the congratulations and ‘Oh, wows’ and pats on the back. I don’t see it as being a big thing but other people do and if I can motivate and inspire people, then that’s wonderful.”

Although an experienced runner, Miss Cutler said she still needed to train consistently for the challenge due to the demands of running on consecutive days.

She said: “I’ve run many half marathons in my life, I’ve run many marathons in my life, so yes, I did train because I knew I had four back-to-back. I just followed a training plan that I found online and it was great.

“It was a challenge because you do the first one and then you think ‘Oh gosh, I’ve got to go again the following week’ but I think having the different places to run the different races helped.”

Miss Cutler said that she had participated in events to raise awareness for Duchenne in the past but was keen to set herself a bigger challenge.

She said: “Alex goes to the same gym as I do and we have always been involved and known about Ben’s condition. The beginning of September is Duchenne Awareness Day so we all wear red on that day to support and do what we can for Alex and for Ben. I can’t remember why but I was just thinking, ‘I’d love to set myself a challenge’ and so I thought, well why not raise money for Duchenne and give something back? I don’t know a lot about his condition and I think that was also why I decided to do it.

“As a nanny I work with children and so it just felt a little bit more special that I was able to help a charity that supports young, small people.”

Duchenne primarily affects boys and occurs in one in 3,500 to 5,000 newborns. Those diagnosed with the condition will slowly lose the ability to move independently throughout their lives. It is caused when very little or no dystrophin, a protein, is made by the body due to a genetic mutation.

Mr Clarke said he was very moved that Miss Cutler chose to fundraise for Duchenne. He said: “I think it’s incredible and it’s really touching she considered fundraising for us. I think it says so much about her as a person, she is very caring and very thoughtful.”

To donate, visit

www.gofundme.com/f/emma-s-fund-for-duchenne-uk