Offaly born journalist embarks on gruelling challenge for London charity

Kevin O'Neill

Well-known Offaly sports journalist Barry Glendenning is getting ever closer to fulfilling a daunting challenge sent his way, on-air, by a fellow broadcaster.

For Barry, originally from Birr and living in London for many years, will soon take part in the 2026 London Landmarks Half-Marathon, after the 53 year-old admitted he had not run properly in around 15 years.

Barry's challenge is to raise funds, through justgiving, for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, and to date he has more than surpassed an original target of £13,100, raising over £36,000 since publicly accepting the challenge from The Guardian Football Weekly presenter, Max Rushden.

On his justgiving page, Barry explained: “I was goaded into it. More specifically, I was emotionally blackmailed into taking part by my friend, the Guardian Football Weekly podcast presenter, Max Rushden. He pounced during an episode of the show when I stupidly observed that running a half-marathon "can't be all that difficult". At the time I was belittling the efforts of Gavin, a good friend of mine who had just completed his first half-marathon.”

Since accepting the task, last October, Barry, a self-confessed heavy smoker for years with a penchant for binge-drinking, has set about the task with gusto, with the cigarettes having already been binned shortly beforehand.

“I had originally set what I thought was a rather ambitious target of £13,100, which is a thousand pounds per mile, but thanks to the generosity of the audiences of the Guardian Football Weekly podcast and TalkSport, I only went and reached it in a fortnight. I am genuinely humbled by the generosity and only slightly annoyed that the people left me in a position where I can't drop out of the race! With that in mind, I decided to double my original target to £26,200,” Barry said.

He added; “At the start-line I will be 53 years old. I am overweight. I drink too much. I am completely unfit and I have not run further than a mile without stopping to cough and/or cry in over 15 years. Generally speaking, I only run if I am being pursued. While I am loathe to describe what I am doing as anything so grand as "a personal journey", there is quite literally a destination and reaching it will will involve a lot of running – an activity I despise. With that in mind, please give anything you can, safe in the knowledge that I'll be enduring a world of pain to try to alleviate some of that suffered by so many wonderful and brave kids. Donating through JustGiving is easy so please donate if you can, as every donation makes a massive difference.”

In an article on The Guardian website, in January, Barry said that before October, his most recent recollection of running more than 20 metres was for a departing bus dated back to 1992.

“Before October, I had not competed in any sport more physically taxing than pool or darts since leaving school and could scarcely have been more unfit due to an almost totally sedentary lifestyle largely fuelled by booze and the fags. I would love to be able to say I took up running for health reasons but that would be a lie. But I hope to plod from Whitehall, past Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament across Westminster Bridge, along Victoria Embankment and on to Trafalgar Square in the company of more than 20,000 fellow runners, most of whom should finish in front of me if they have so much as a modicum of shame,” he said.

“I have also taken to posting occasional post-run videos on nstagram in an effort to raise more money for charity. People seem to like them because they invariably feature me sitting on the same park bench, looking sad while explaining why I really hate running. Ironically, the more people like them, the more the money rolls in and any chance there is of me getting to quit running diminishes,” he added.

The 2026 London Landmarks Half-Marathon will take place on Sunday, April 12, and anyone looking to add to Barry's fundraising efforts should visit https://www.justgiving.com/page/barry-glendenning-2