Wellington College master completes the Marathon des Sables
Posted on 24th May 2017 in School News
Wellington College's Master, Julian Thomas, completed the Marathon des Sables to raise money for St Michael’s Girls’ Primary School in Uganda...
As the rest of the Wellington Community put their feet up for a well-deserved rest over Easter, the Master, Julian Thomas, had something quite different planned – a six-day, 251 kilometre ultra-marathon across the Sahara Desert to raise money for the construction of teachers’ houses at St Michael’s Girls’ Primary School in Uganda.
The Marathon des Sables was first run in 1986 and, as well as running the equivalent of six marathons in six days in desert conditions with temperatures expected to get as high as 50C, participants must also carry all their food and equipment for the duration of the event in back-packs.
Julian ran with old friend and colleague Mark Mortimer, who is currently Headmaster of Warminster School in Wiltshire, and neither man is a stranger to such challenges: in recent years Mark has rowed the Atlantic and Julian has trekked to the South Pole.
All funds raised will be used to construct additional teachers’ houses at St Michael’s, a school which has been supported in different ways by both Warminster and Wellington in recent years. As a small charity, Friends of St Michael’s struggles to commit money to large capital projects, with their main priorities being to feed the children at lunch time, to fund malaria testing and treatment, and to buy various essentials for the orphans. Building much-needed housing for the school’s teachers has always been a high priority but, with so many other demands on funds, the teachers’ village has often slipped down the list. For the building of the teachers’ village to begin, the running duo need to raise at least £10,000 for the main accommodation blocks. As and when funds allow, solar panels, a borehole, a biodigester and a bike store will be added.
This is not the first time that a member of the current Wellington College staff has run the Marathon des Sables. In 2009, David Edwards, Housemaster of the Picton, and his wife, Pippa, completed the endurance event, a feat made even more remarkable by the fact that Pippa ran the entire race with a broken toe! Works and Estates Bursar, Malcolm Callender, and teacher Grace Elliott also completed the gruelling challenge in 2015. Can there be another school in the UK in which five members of the school community have run the Marathon des Sables?
Wellington congratulates Mark and Julian for their success on this most demanding of challenges run in aid of this most deserving of causes.
Wellington College is a coeducational day and boarding school for pupils aged 13-18.