Running vicar raises £900 for spire appeal

A VICAR raised more than £900 for a campaign to save a deteriorating church in Whitchurch.

Rev James Leach, of St Mary the Virgin Church, took part in the Oxford half-marathon on Sunday.

He ran the 13.1-mile flat course race in a time of two hours and 18 minutes — 12 minutes faster than his estimated time.

He raised £935 for the Save Our Spire appeal, which was launched in May to raise £200,000 in for the Grade II listed church.

The tower and spire of the church were built in 1858 and the 6,500 cedar shingles, which have not been replaced in 167 years, have started to deteriorate.

Rev Leach, who last ran a half marathon at Dorney Lake eight years ago, said he needed some time to recover after the race.

He said: “They’re feeling a little sore but they’re not bad. Coming down the stairs on Monday was a little hard but they weren’t as bad as they have been before.”

As he was in the last group of people to leave the start line, he left his home at 7am for his start time of around 10am.

Rev Leach said: “I did want to challenge myself and run faster than my estimated time.

“I had been training using my Garmin watch, its training plan and pacer, which helped me on the day because I followed it pretty rigorously.”

Rev Leach used a run, walk, run strategy, which he also used during training.

He said: “I got about halfway through and I was feeling really good until I got to the last mile.

“I thought I had got to
12 miles, so I started going a bit faster and realised I had to take a couple of walking breaks, but I was happy with the result.”

Rev Leach said it felt good to raise that amount of money for the campaign.

He added: “I’m chuffed at how many people wanted to help out because we didn’t start publishing about it until two weeks before the race.”

For more information about the campaign and to donate, visit, www.give
alittle.co/c/run-for-the-spire