By Jane McGuire
Oct 17, 2020

East Anglia News Service

If you’ve ever run a marathon, you’ll be familiar with that this is
going on forever feeling around the 25-mile mark. That was close to the
truth for one runner in the virtual London Marathon on October 4.

Jodey Hopcroft began her long journey at 4:45 a.m., but because of a
bad GPS connection along the Norfolk coast, she completed 49 miles
rather than the traditional 26.2. She had already run the London
Marathon four times, but chose to walk this time, as she had not
trained for it. She was taking part to raise money for the multiple
sclerosis charity MS-UK.

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Hopcroft, 38, said she realized within minutes of setting off that the
GPS signal on her phone was intermittent, which meant the London
Marathon app that was tracking her progress wasn’t working correctly.
It failed to record the first half mile of her walk, from the Waxham
Sands holiday park, where she works.

However, as she did not have an alternative means of tracking her run,
Hopcroft pressed on, knowing she would not be considered a finisher if
she didn’t get to 26.2 miles on the app. And so she kept going, staying
on the road for 15 hours.

Speaking after her ultramarathon effort, Hopcroft told the U.K.
press, “Once I had started I could not stop. Everything would have been
void and I would not have been registered as finishing. I had to keep
going until the app registered I had done 26.2 miles.

‘I thought it would be fine when I set off, but the GPS is pretty bad
around here, especially when you get mist and rain, so I should have
realised there might be problems.

“The app did recommend people used a secondary device, but I only
downloaded it a few days before and I didn’t have anything else to take
with me, so I was a bit naive.”

Hopcroft said she broke into “hysterical laughter” when she checked on
a map and worked out how far she had gone.

A spokesperson for the London Marathon said, “We warmly congratulate
Jodey for completing the virtual 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon. We
salute Jodey's strength, stamina and good humour and hope she raised
plenty of money for MS-UK.”

In all, she raised more than £2,100 for her charity, which is nearly
$3,000.
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