A bloke 'accidentally' ended up running an entire marathon due to a 'stupid mistake'.
Mat Wheelhouse signed himself up for the Manchester Half Marathon, raising cash for the Christie Hospital in memory of his late father.
Both the half marathon and the full marathon took place last Sunday (10 October).
Mat, 38, told the Manchester Evening News: "There are different guides and I was trying to compare the route of the half marathon to the full as I had a few mates who were running the marathon.
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"When I got my number through the post I must have looked at the wrong guide and noted the start time for the full marathon instead of the half.
"I just assumed they started around the same time so I didn't really think any more of it."
However, this meant the dad-of-wo ended up running double the distance he'd planned after he arrived late, completely missing the half marathon start time and unexpectedly finding himself in a queue full of people gearing up to run the full marathon.
Despite realising his mistake, Mat was determined to keep his commitment to those who sponsored him so he went to the information desk to see if they could help.
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Mat was told he would be able to upgrade his entry for the full marathon, and kindly let him do so for free.
But that was the easy part - with poor Mat now facing a gruelling 26.2 miles without a sufficient training plan.
In the run up to his planned half marathon, Mat had only been running 5km and 10km runs, with his furthest distance being 10.5 miles (17km).
Although he hadn't got proper training behind him, Mat managed to complete the race in an impressive four hours and 47 minutes.
He said: "It was very painful towards the end. I think the last five miles were incredibly hard.
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"The public were amazing though. I have never seen that amount of people out on the streets.
"I remember at one point bending over to catch my breath and I must have been patted on the back about 20 times. The comradery was amazing."
Mat said he's well known amongst his pals for doing 'this kind of thing'.
"Everyone has said this is the most Wheelhouse thing you could do," he said. "I am always doing stupid things.
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"My family was proud of me though. My daughter had made me a well done banner for when I got home which was lovely.
"I think I might try and do a marathon again next year but knowing me I will probably end up signing up to the wrong thing and doing a triathlon or something."
You can chip in to Mat's fundraiser here.
Topics: UK News, Interesting