Cumbria Veteran fundraiser to finish 100-day long-distance challenge at London Marathon
A veteran fundraiser is running 26.2 miles a day for 100 days, finishing the challenge at the London Marathon alongside his 18-year-old son who was recently diagnosed with a heart condition.
Gary McKee, 56, who has run more than 650 marathons since 2017, currently has more than 33,000 miles clocked on his Strava profile – more than the circumference of the Earth, which is 24,900 miles.
He told the Press Association:
“On my Strava, I’ve run over 33,000 miles and I haven’t been using it that many years. You could probably double that for the things I’ve done, so it’s a long way.
“I’m on my second lap of running around the Earth.”
The nuclear plant worker from Cleator Moor, near Whitehaven, Cumbria, is in the final stages of his 100toLDN challenge, which began on January 17 and will finish on April 26 in London.
Mr McKee’s son, Beau, will be among the youngest runners in this year’s London Marathon and is defying the odds to take part, having been diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic valve heart defect around six weeks ago.
After his diagnosis, Mr McKee said Beau told his father: “‘I’m doing London. It’s been a dream. I’m not letting anybody take that dream away from me’.”
He added his son has wanted to run the London Marathon with his father ever since he ran more than three miles a day for 501 days starting in 2018, raising £40,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support as a schoolboy.
Mr McKee, who was made an MBE in the King’s 2026 New Year Honours list for his fundraising, ran from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 2011, covering 874 miles. He has also completed the Coast to Coast challenge of 116 miles in under 24 hours.
After running a marathon every day in 2022, he raised £1.4 million for charity. In 2017, he ran 100 marathons in 100 days for Macmillan Cancer Support and then in 2021, he completed 110 marathons in aid of the charity Hospice at Home.
Mr McKee and Beau are also fundraising for Hospice at Home this year. With Gift Aid, their page is at £54,000, meaning they are around £45,000 away from raising £1 million in the last five years for the charity.
“My children have seen me fundraising all their lives and as a family, we always sit down and see what we could do to help people,” he said.
As thousands prepare for this year’s London Marathon, Mr McKee said he is completing the challenge on toast, coffee and a mug of tea at the halfway mark.
Rather than energy drinks or gels, he said he has coffee and toast for breakfast, hot Vimto and some electrolytes in his water on the way round. His treat is a cup of tea and some cake at the 13-mile point from his friend Janet.
“I’ve always trained on an empty stomach, so I generally only have a couple of slices of toast and a couple of cups of coffee before a run,” he said.
He also said he has “been driven by the community”, with locals leaving out flasks of hot Vimto, water and chocolate on his marathon route.
“People are so lovely and they want you to succeed and get behind you and support you and it’s just a community-driven challenge,” he said.
“When you finish a big challenge and your body might be a little bit battered and bruised. You know, your mind’s still thinking, I want to help more people.”
Mr McKee has battled all weather conditions on his runs. He said: “Even though the weather conditions aren’t the best, it doesn’t really matter, because when you get in a hot shower and have a cup of tea, everything feels good, doesn’t it?”
He added that when the weather gets bad, he tells himself that he is “running in somebody else’s rain”.
He said: “Today, somebody’s going to walk out of a cancer ward and they’re going to ring the bell as a sign the treatment’s over and when they go outside, if this rain hits them on the face, they’re going to say it’s the nicest rain they’ve ever had.
“It just puts a different perspective on it. It makes you feel better.”
He added: “Your body isn’t designed to do a marathon a day for a year and then have… a year off and then do another 100.
“But, just because it isn’t designed to do it, doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
“Impossible actually says ‘I’m possible’ if you look at it through positive eyes.”