A MAN who won a TV travel challenge is in training for his biggest test yet - running a marathon during Ramadan - to help raise £100,000 to build a school for disadvantaged children in Nepal.
Emon Choudhury and his nephew Jamiul were crowned winners of BBC Two's Race Across the World that gripped the nation at the start of the first lockdown last year.
Emon, of Saltaire, has been taking part in a series of running challenges over the last year.
His latest test will see him take on the Manchester Marathon on Sunday, April 3, which is on the second day of Ramadan, which this year will be held from the evening of April 2 to May 1.
He will be running the 26.2-mile route while fasting and without taking on any food or water during the event too.
Emon started training for this challenge last week including running between 10 and 15-mile routes each Sunday, adhering to Ramadan requirements by not taking on food or water in the run-up to each of these runs.
He said: "It is a heck of a challenge. I'm taking on probably the greatest challenge of my life.
"A few months ago I got the running bug. The marathon is on the first fast of Ramadan.
"I'm trying not to eat during the day for the training runs I'm doing on Sundays.
I'm just trying to push the boundaries and seeing what I'm capable of and what the human mind is capable of
"I will be increasing my mileage of runs closer to the time.
"My family think I'm mad for doing this."
Last year Emon completed a 200k challenge during Ramadan by doing separate runs of between 5km and 10km each day, initially going along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal towpath between Saltaire and Bingley.
He kept to Ramadan requirements of fasting during the day for these events and completed each of his runs from around 6pm.
He also completed three running events in the space of five weeks last autumn. He participated in the London Marathon and 10k courses of the Bradford City Runs and Great Manchester Run.
Emon and Jamiul shot to fame on the BBC Two show after they travelled 15,000 miles from Mexico City to Ushuaia in Argentina, the world's most southerly city, without flights, phones, the internet or bank cards.
They defeated four other pairs and took the crown by just 20 seconds.
Go to justgiving.com/fundraising/runemonrun to make a donation.
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